Russia driven out of Serbia. At the front, whole regiments are surrendering and there is open talk of revolution. Russian defeat seems beyond question. At home the economic situation deteriorates, with soaring living costs, declining wages, rampant speculation and administrative chaos. Strikes and demonstrations and women’s “food riots” sweep the country. September—Germans advance to gates of Riga, and civilians are ordered to evacuate war zones, and their homes and crops set on fire. Two and a half million registered refugees. Tsar Nicholas assumes supreme command of army.
Summer—Sasha Tolstaya returns briefly to Yasnaya Polyana to recuperate from malaria. 6th June—Taneev dies; Sofia doesn’t attend his funeral.
19th January. We’re all terribly upset—Dushan has been arrested and imprisoned for signing Bulgakov’s appeal.
22nd (Moscow). Went to the State and Merchant banks, then on to the Rumyantsev Museum, where I had a long talk with the keeper of manuscripts, Georgievsky. They are giving me a good room for the manuscripts, but there is a dreadfully steep cast-iron spiral staircase up to it.
23rd. I went to two exhibitions with Nina, the Union and the Wanderers’. Exhibitions are so bad nowadays, not at all what they used to be, there’s such a lot of decadent daubing. I saw Chertkov’s son Dima in the vegetarian canteen where we were dining.
5th February. I corrected three proof pages of L.N. Tolstoy’s Letters to His Wife, coached the little girls and added up the income and expenses books. Tanya and Varya Nagornova went to Tula; they weren’t allowed into the prison to see either Bulgakov or Dushan.
19th. I often think of poor Dushan. But it’s hard for me to protest—my health is poor, I have no energy and my strength has gone. I listened to a reading of Leskov’s No Way Out.
17th March. My daughter Tanya has returned from Moscow and St Petersburg, where she visited 4 ministers and pleaded for Dushan. He will be tried in a civil court.
3rd April. Everything is so sad, and I can do nothing. A letter from Misha about the death of his son; a letter from Sasha filled with youthful merriment—and she is at war! I simply can’t make her out.
6th. Misha has come to say goodbye, for he is off to war again, this time in the staff of the Khan of Nakhichevan. It was painful to part with him yet again, and painful to hear of his son’s death.
19th. Today I had visitors from Tula—the teachers and headmistress of the Arsenev High School. Sympathetic people. Some peasants came wanting money for their shop. I visited the grave with the two Tanyas and we decorated it with flowers.
27th. Bad news from the war; they’re firing on Liepaja, the Germans have taken five provinces and sunk a private English steamer. I was overwhelmed with such sadness I could do nothing all day but wander about Yasnaya Polyana. I corrected the proofs of the Letters.
30th. I showed Lev Nikolaev.’s rooms to a great many visitors, including some revolutionary workers. I went to the grave and planted flowers—violets, daisies and cowslips.
1st May. A lot of visitors—some girls just out of secondary school and a lot of schoolboys and young people. I showed them round Lev Nikolaevich’s rooms and told them about him.
10th. Andryusha came with Baranov, and they visited the grave. The public behaved outrageously; I have asked the police to come tomorrow. There were 55 visitors or more.
15th. Nina and I went to Tula and managed to obtain permission from the Police General to visit Dushan and Bulgakov. They were touchingly pleased to see me and asked about everything. Police General Volsky gave us the permit. I sent 700 rubles to my son Andryusha and attended to business in Tula.
7th June. I am deeply shaken by the sad news of Sergei Ivanovich Taneev’s death on the 6th.
11th. More visitors. I worked on the index and went out to watch the hay being harvested. Very hot, with the threat of drought. I feel Taneev’s death more deeply and painfully than ever. I read about his magnificent, well-attended funeral. He was truly appreciated.
9th July. We sat on the balcony this afternoon sewing respirator cases for the army and drinking tea. I am reading the Gospels all the way through. Every age in life has its own viewpoint.
19th. I am losing interest in life. Bad news from the war. Life here is frightening, with no guards and no dogs.
24th. The house has been plunged in gloom by news of the German capture of Warsaw. I never believed in a Russian victory from the start, and now things are going from bad to worse.
8th August. Dreadful news from the war: Kovno, Novogeorgievsky and many other places have been taken. Riga is being evacuated and there’s fighting in the Gulf of Riga.
23rd. My daughter Sasha has returned, cheerful and much thinner, full of experiences and stories.
28th. Lev Nikolaevich’s birthday. A wet, overcast morning, then it brightened up. I went to the grave and prayed for the souls of Lev Nik. and the parents who bore him. It’s strange how quickly Tolstoy has been forgotten. There was no one here today, neither friends nor outsiders.
14th September. I showed some Latvian refugees around Lev Nik.’s rooms. There were more than 40 of them.
17th. I spent my name day happily. Andryusha came with his wife and little daughter, and Sasha with her woman doctor friend, and my grandchildren played and enjoyed themselves all day long.
18th November. I am sewing a blanket for the refugees. Tanya went to Zaseka and came back with a terrible account of their poverty; the children go to school barefoot, many of the women have nothing but thin blouses and short little skirts to wear. I again made notes for My Life. It’s hard sometimes to relive the old life!
19th. I devoted the day to finishing my notes for 1898. This evening Nina read me a critical article about Sienkiewicz, and the beginning of his novel Quo Vadis.*
24th (Moscow). I left for Moscow. Problems with tickets—they had trouble finding me a seat. I travelled with some officers and an army doctor who were home on leave. I am staying at the Slavonic Bazaar on Nikolskaya Street. This evening I went to a quartet recital in memory of Taneev.
2nd December. I left this morning in an excellent compartment, comfortable and spacious. I found both Tanyas in good health and spirits and am overjoyed to be back.
7th. Dushan Petrovich Makovitsky has returned here from prison.*
22nd. My son Lyova arrived early this morning. He curses himself for gambling and living such a disorderly life, but it doesn’t make him stop! Yet he has so many good qualities! This evening we read his play.* Gloomy, but clever.