NOTES

 

 

1university: Tolstoy only completed the first two years of the law course of Kazan University and left without taking a degree in 1847.

2brothers: Nikolay (1823–60), Sergey (1826–1904), and Dmitry (1827–56).

3Musin-Pushkin: M. N. Musin-Pushkin, a member of a prominent noble family, had been appointed warden of the University of Kazan in 1827.

4Voltaire: Prince Nikolayevich Sergeyevich Volkonsky from whom Tolstoy inherited the Yasnaya Polyana estate was a Voltairean, like many of his class, and bequeathed a fine Enlightenment Library there.

5rien . . . faut: “nothing develops a young man like an affair with a lady” (French).

6war: the Crimean War (1853–56) between Russia and an alliance of Britain, France, Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire.

7the death of my brother: of Dmitry in 1856, of tuberculosis.

8peasant schools: in the late 1850s Tolstoy became much concerned with popular education and established a school for the peasants on his estate at Yasnaya Polyana.

9emancipation of the peasants: this took place in 1861.

10arbitrator: in the settlement of boundaries or disputes with the peasants.

11koumiss: a drink of fermented mare’s milk, often prescribed for health.

12Samara estate: in 1871, Tolstoy bought a remote estate in Bashkir country where the family could lead the “simple life,” drink koumiss, etc.

13Schopenhauer: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), German philosopher. Tolstoy venerated Schopenhauer for his ideas about the futility of human striving. Schopenhauer was one of the first Western philosophers to seriously study Indian philosophy.

14Socrates: c. 469–399 B.C., Greek philosopher, one of the founding fathers of Western philosophy.

15nothing: Tolstoy is quoting from the two last paragraphs of Book IV of Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation [or as Idea], first published in 1819 but later revised. I have used here the first English translation by R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp (London, 1883).

16sun: from Ecclesiastes, chapters 1, 2, and 9. Tolstoy is quoting from the Synodal Russian Bible of 1876. The translation uses the King James Version with a few very small changes to match the Russian.

17Shakyamuni: “sage of the Shakyas,” an honorific title often given to Gautama Buddha.

18goest: from Ecclesiastes, chapter 9.

19Descartes: (1596–1650), French philosopher and mathematician who would have formed part of an “arts” education in Russia, essentially a philosophical one.

20Kant: (1724–1804), German philosopher of the Enlightenment. His major work is The Critique of Pure Reason.

21resurrection: the Russian name for Sunday—voskreseniye—means “resurrection.”

22Tsar’s Gates: the central door of the iconostasis in a Russian Orthodox church.

23Chetyi-Minei and the Prologues: two compilations of the Lives of the Saints.

24Three years: 1878–1880.

25catechumen: someone receiving instruction with a view to baptism.

26Old Believers, Molokans: the former—schismatics who adhered to the liturgical practices from before the reforms of 1652–66; the latter, literally “milk-drinkers”—sectarians who rejected the rituals of the Orthodox Church.

27Pashkovites: Russian Evangelicals.

28hermits: in Russian and Eastern Orthodoxy, hermits, singly or in communities, play a significant role.

29filioque: “from the Son”, a phrase in the Nicene Creed used by most of the Western churches; together with the primacy of the pope, the main source of schism between Eastern and Western churches.

30Alexis Mikhailovich: tsar, r. 1645–79, a time of religious reforms.

31a war: the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.

32young men: he is referring to the execution of revolutionary terrorists.