Tolstoy's first will was contained in the form of a letter in his diary
of 27 March, 1895 and repeated in his diary of 1907, see Notes 62 and 63
above. The following is the text of the entry in the diary:--
My will is approximately as follows.
(Until I have written another this holds good.)
(1). To bury me where I die, in the cheapest cemetery, if I die in
a town, and in the cheapest coffin, as paupers are buried. Flowers
and wreaths are not to be sent, speeches are not to be made. If
possible, bury me without priests or burial service. But if those
who bury me dislike this, let them bury me in the ordinary way with
a funeral service, but as cheaply and simply as possible.
(2.) My death is not to be announced in the newspapers, nor are
obituary notices to be written.
(3.) All my papers are to be given to my wife, V. G. Chertkov,
Strakhov, and to my daughters Tanya and Masha,[P] for them, or for
such of them as survive, to sort and examine. (I have myself struck
out my daughter's names. They ought not to be bothered with this.)
I exclude my sons from this bequest not because I did not love them
(I have come of late to love them better and better, thank God) and
I know that they love me; but they do not altogether understand my
ideas; they did not follow their development; and they may have
views of their own which may lead them to keep what ought not to be
kept and to reject what ought to be kept. I have taken out of the
diaries of my bachelor life what is worth keeping. I wish them to
be destroyed. Also in the diaries of my married life I wish to be
destroyed everything which might hurt anyone if published. Chertkov
has promised me to do this even during my lifetime, and knowing the
great and undeserved love that he has for me and his moral
sensibility I am sure that he will do it splendidly. I wish the
diaries of my bachelor life to be destroyed not because I wish to
conceal the wickedness of my life--my life was the usual unclean
life of an unprincipled young man--but because the diaries in
which I recorded only the torments which arise from the
consciousness of sin produce a false and one-sided impression and
represent.... Well, let my diaries remain as they are. In them at
least is seen how in spite of all the frivolity and immorality of
my youth I yet was not deserted by God and though it was only in
old age, I began, though only a little, to understand and love Him.
I write this not that I attribute great or even any importance to
my papers, but because I know beforehand that after my death my
books will be published, and will be talked about, and will be
thought to be important. If that is so, it is better that my
writings should not harm people.
As for the remainder of my papers I ask those who will have the
arrangement of them not to publish everything, but only that which
may be of use to people.
(4). With regard to the publishing rights of my former works--the
ten volumes and the _A. B. C._--I ask my heirs to give these to the
public, _i. e._ to renounce the copyrights. But I only ask this, in
no sense order it. It would be a good thing to do it. It would be
good for you also. But if you do not wish to do it, that is your
business. It means that you are not ready to do it. That my books
for the last ten years have been sold was to me the most painful
thing in my life.
(5). There is one more request, and it is the most important. I
ask all, relations and strangers alike, not to praise me (I know
that this must happen, because it has happened during my life time
and in the worst way possible). Also if people are going to occupy
themselves with my writings, let them dwell upon those passages in
which I knew that the Divine power spoke through me; and let them
make use of them in their lives. There were times when I felt that
I had become the agent of the Divine will. Often I was so impure,
so filled with personal passions, that the light of this truth was
obscured by my darkness; but at times the truth passed through me,
and these were the happiest moments of my life. God grant that
their passage through me did not profane those truths, and that
people, notwithstanding the petty and impure character which they
received from me, may feed on them. The value of my writings lies
in this alone. And therefore I am to be blamed for them, but not
praised.
That is all.