Yasnaya Polyana. It has been the home of the Tolstoys for generations. I myself have spent many days here, paying tribute, along with the thousands of visitors who flock to this idyllic spot each year, to two of my great-great-grandparents — one whom the world knows already, the other who deserves to be better known by the world. I am speaking, of course, of Leo Tolstoy (or Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, as he is known around here) and his wife, companion, transcriber, editor and publisher (among other things), Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya. And just as Yasnaya Polyana is now open to the world, so it is high time that the dialogue between my illustrious ancestors likewise receive its share of the world’s attention. Which is the essential purpose of setting forth, for the first time as a dialogue in print, the exchange of letters you are about to open and read. It brings the world of Yasnaya Polyana directly to you, wherever you may be on the globe.
It may be said that for two people who loved each other deeply but, for one reason or another, spent so much of their time apart, their mutual correspondence constitutes the best biography of their lives. The book is indeed a chronicle — not only of the life of the two correspondents, but of their family of thirteen children; their extended family of sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins and in-laws (some of whom enjoyed a prominent reputation among their own professional circles); the celebrated scholars, writers, artists, musicians, philosophers and others who graced the halls of Yasnaya Polyana with their visits; the peasants and servants whose relationship with their employer could be considered practically unique among the aristocratic families of the time; not to mention Russian society as a whole, whose evolving course from monarchial autocracy to worker revolution is by no means excluded from the chronicle presented herein.
But, of course, it is more than a chronicle. It is also a personal dialogue punctuated by constant expressions of mutual love — from the early days when husband and wife shared the same ideals of life right up to the last days when their divergent ideals of life proved a source of so much conflict between them. Even in his final letter to Sofia Andreevna, on the day of his leaving his beloved estate for good, Lev Nikolaevich could not refrain from expressing his love for her: “Don’t think I left because I don’t love you. I do love you and I have pity for you with all my heart…” Her letters, too, reciprocate the sentiment.
Yasnaya Polyana itself plays a major role throughout this husband-and-wife correspondence. A great majority of the letters were either written or received right here, by one party or the other. This quiet country estate, which was so dear to both of them in the early years of their marriage, later afforded Lev Nikolaevich the peace and solitude which he so desperately craved as a muse to his writing career. Sofia Andreevna, too, felt at home here, and sometimes found herself quite reluctant to return to their Moscow dwelling for the winter. Yasnaya Polyana provided a stable environment in which to raise their many offspring during their formative years. And today, as a twenty-first-century member of the Tolstoy family, I am pleased to see the events which this grand estate witnessed more than a century ago shared with the outside world through such a far-reaching correspondence, particularly with the many readers who will have access to it for the first time through an English translation.
I might also point out that the current volume is a fitting complement to my great-great-grandmother’s extensive autobiography, — a memoir she modestly entitled My Life. It was published a few years ago for the very first time in its original Russian and (shortly before that) shared, too, with the English-reading world. I am grateful to the Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa, with whom our Tolstoy Museums have had a collaborative and fruitful relationship for many years, for facilitating and publishing (through the University of Ottawa Press) the translation of both these volumes. They will help readers in many parts of the globe become better acquainted with the significant contribution to world culture made by two of my forebears — all through the ups and downs of their personal conjugal life. This book is truly “a portrait of a life in letters”.
October 2016
Vladimir Il’ich Tolstoy