N. N. Strakhov was born 16 October, 1828, and died 24 January, 1896. He
studied at the ecclesiastical seminary of Kostroma and completed his
course in 1845. He then passed to the Faculty of Mathematics in the
Petersburg University and took his degree in 1848. He then entered the
Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics in the Teachers' Training
Institute and completed his course in 1851, after which he became a
teacher of physics and mathematics. In 1857 he received the degree of
Master of Zoology. In 1861 he gave up teaching and became the principal
collaborator with the brothers Dostoevskii on the monthly magazine,
_Vremya_. His chief writings were polemical. Under the nom-de-plume of
"N. Kossize," he wrote a series or articles which had a great success
and were chiefly directed against the "westerners," radicals, and
socialists, e. g. Chernishersikii, Pisarev. _Vremya_, which had a large
circulation, was suppressed by the authorities because of an article by
Strakhov, called "The Fatal Problem," which dealt with Russian-Polish
relations in a spirit of opposition to the Government. Being without
work, Strakhov began translating books into Russian, chiefly on
Philosophical, scientific, and literary subjects.
Tolstoy's friendship with Strakhov began in 1871. When someone asked him
about the friendship, Strakhov sent him the following autobiographical
note: "The origin of my acquaintance with L. N. Tolstoy in 1871 was as
follows. After my articles on _War and Peace_, I decided to write him a
letter asking him to let the _Sarya_ have some of his work. He replied
that he had nothing at present, but added a pressing invitation to come
and see him at Yasnaya Polyana whenever an opportunity should present
itself. In 1871 I received four hundred roubles from the _Sarya_, and in
June I went to stay with my people in Poltava. On my way back to
Petersburg I stopped at Tula for the night, and in the morning took a
cab and drove out to Yasnaya Polyana. After that we used to see each
other every year, that is, I used to stay a month or six weeks with him
every summer. At times we quarrelled and grew cool to each other, but
good feeling always won the day; his family got to like me, and now they
see in me an old, faithful friend, which indeed I am."
With Strakhov Tolstoy was on very friendly terms, which allowed complete
frankness between them. Tolstoy himself wrote of his correspondence
with Strakhov (in a letter of 6 February, 1906, to P. A. Sergeenko): "In
addition to Alexandra Andreevna Tolstoy, I had two persons to whom I
have written many letters which, as far as I can remember, might
interest people interested in my personality. They are Strakhov and
Prince Serge S. Urusov." (_Letters_, Vol. II, page 227.)
The friendship of Tolstoy and Strakhov lasted for twenty-five years, and
on Strakhov's part there was thirty years adoration of Tolstoy's genius
and of his great spiritual and intellectual qualities. V. V. Rosanov
wrote the following after Strakhov's death: "Strakhov's attachment to
Tolstoy was most deep and mystical: he loved him as the incarnation of
the best and most profound aspirations of the human soul, as a special
nerve in the huge body of mankind in which we others form parts less
understanding and significant; he loved him for what was indefinite and
incomplete in him. He loved in him the dark abyss, the bottom of which
no one could see, from the depths of which still rise numbers of
treasures; and there is no doubt that Tolstoy never lost a better
friend."
Strakhov's works included: _From the History of Russian Nihilism_, 1890;
_Essays on Pushkin and Other Poets_, 1888; _Biography of Dostoevskii;
The Struggle of the West with our Literature_, three volumes, 1882-1886;
and some scientific works.