Image TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage Tile
Image size: 6144x7680 Scale: 35% - PanoJS3
Page overview thumbnail

Article text

DEATH OF COUNT
TOLSTOI.
TWO CARDIAC ATTACKS.
SUCCUMBS TO THE SECOND ONE.
ST. PETERSBURG, November 18.
Count Leo Tolstoy is still lying at
the Astopova railway-station. He de-
clines to receive his relatives, fearing
that they may shake his resolution to
spend the remainder of his days in isolation.
There are crowds of peasants at the
station praying for his recovery.
ST. PETERSBURG, November 19
The condition of Count Tolstoy is
still improving, and he is now able to
take a little nourishment in the shape
of gruel. The catarrhal form of inflammation
of the lungs is gradually
disappearing. He is conscious, but
sleep, ), and very weak. Artificial respiration
has been applied.
ST. PETERSBURG, November 20.
After a second cardiac attack yesterday,
morphia was injected. The Countess
was admitted to her husband's bed-
side this morning, but Count Tolstoy
did not recognise Tier.
Reuter's correspondent at St. Petersburg
states that Tolstoy is dead.
' . Later.
The news of Tolstoy's death has been
confirmed. The first cardiac attack
lasted for twenty minutes. He was
conscious in the evening, and slept.
Then early this morning he had a second
seizure, after which he again slept,
but he did not regain consciousness, and
died at 6 o'clock.
SKETCH OF HIS CAREER.
Count Lyoff Nicbolaiovitch Tolstoy,
better known to non-Russian readers'as
Leo Tolstoy, was born at Latnaya Poland,
in Central Russia, in 1828. He came of
a noble family, and his father had been
in the army, Tolstoy lost both his
parents while still very young, and was
brought up by guardians- he was sent
to the University of Kazan, but left it in
disgust at the conventions and formalities
of the place without taking his degree.
After some years of mildly benevolent
efforts amongst the serfs on the family
estate, which had rather disappointing
results, he entered the army, and in 1851
was sent to serve in Causcasjo. Here he
wrote, while only 24 "The Cossacks."
which Turgenieff, the leading Russian
novelist of that day, described as "the
best novel written in our language." He
also wrote other books dealing wilh incidents
of the struggles between the
Russians and the mountaineers. On the
outbreak of the Crimean war Tolstoy was
called to Sebastopol, and took part in the
defence of the citadel against the English
and their French allies. His experiences
there gave him the material for a series
of sketches of the horror of war, which,
in conjunction with his other work, made
him a leading exponent of Russian
literature. In 1857 he travelled in Germany,
France, and Italy, and after this
became a friend of Turge-nieff, and a prominent
figure in Russian society. According
to his confessions, written after
his conversion, he led a life during these
few years of which he could not think
without horror and disgust. In 1862 he
married the daughter of an army surgeon,
and settled down on his estate. The
next 15 years were taken up with literary
work and the duties of a country noble-
man, and experiments in popular education,
including the organisation in 1875
of schools for the peasant children on an
original basis. Sis (wo and work in
this period were "War. and Perce, a
kind of historical novel concerned with
Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812
and "Anna Karenina," the heroine, of
whirls is dwarfed by George Meredith
is "the most perfectly depicted female
character in all fiction."
In 1878) came the critic's in Tolstoy's lift.,
which has been described as his "ton
version.' he had long been troubled in
mind on religious, moral, and social
questions, and now began definitely that
break with th accepted religious, social,
and, to so. no extent, moral beliefs of his
country which led the way to the second
period of his literary activity. Be
turned to work on a long series of books
and pamphlets, in which he set forth the
new views in which he came to believe,
although, at the same time he did not
cease to be a literary artist and a writer
of novels and short stories, most of them,
however, distinctly with a purpose, for
Tolstoy had come to disbelieve in the
cult of art for art's sake." Tolstoy's
opinions as they formed themselves are
perhaps best shortly described as a kind
of Christian anarchism, based on the
teachings of the Gospel as he understood
it. He preached a kind of back-to the
land movement, holding that all men,
whatever else they did should labour
with their hands for their subsistence.
He despised and attacked potentates and
powers when he believed they were in the
wrong, and had a sympathy for the poor,
the oppressed, the outcasts, and the
criminals, which, in the case of the latter,
sometimes strikes some readers as
excessive, as in the case of many passages
in his wonderful novel, Resurrection
At the same time he had little
in common with the physical force revolutionists
holding opinions as strong
as any Quaker as to the wickedness of
shedding human blood, even in self
defence. He thought, however, that men
should live without Governments, and
without property - In 1865 he showed
the sincerity of his belief that holding
property was a sin by renouncing all property
in land, money, and in the copy-
right of his books. It seems, however,
that his wife and family did not share
his views on the question, and have continued
to hold and administer his property
for him. In 1901 he definitely
broke with the accepted religion of
Russia, and was excommunicated by the
Orthodox Church. In spite of the extreme
outspokenness of his criticisms and
opinions, it must be said, to the credit
of the Russian Government, that Tolstoy
has never been persecuted by it, and has
been allowed to go his own way. His
influence has spread far beyond the
boundaries of Russia. His books are
Lectures have been translated into many I
foreign languages, and have been a good
deal read, and probably much more
talked about in most parts of the world.
His death removes one who was, in the
opinion of some of those qualified to
judge, one of the greatest writers, not
only of the present day, but of all time,
and who was much more than a great
writer. The secret of the immense influence
which he undoubtedly had in
many ways, in spite of what to the ordinary
man must seem the visionary
nature of many of his opinions, was his
sincerity and directness. There is some
thing that appeals to the imagination in
the idea of a man who was a great and
famous writer, of noble blood, and pass-
ably well endowed with this world's goods,
giving up the advantages of his position
for conscience' sake, and working and
living like a peasant. An English
Socialist writer like H. G. Wells may believe
that private property in its present
form is a harmful institution, just as
Tolstoy did, but the latter, when he was
convinced of this got rid of his property
as far as he could, renouncing all his
rights in it- Wells, on the other hand,
maintains that this, is a counsel of perfection
which, in the present state of
things, an individual is not justified in
following, or, at the least, is certainly
justified! in not following. Tolstoy had
a habit of saying what he thought in
literary as well as in political and religious
matters. Thus, some years ago,
he wrote an article concerning Shake
spear which caused some stir. He seems
to have come, like George III., to the
conclusion that Shakespeare was read
stun", and did not hesitate to say so,
amongst other things attacking King Lear
ps bad both artistically and morally. In
regard to the moral tone of Tolstoy's own
works, it is in most respects very high,
but in some points it hardly suits Fug
lish taste. Like older English writers,
Tolstoy had a habit of using very plain
language, and said many things which, if
literally translated, would hardly pass in
English at the present day.
In spite of his advanced age, Tolstoy
was a hard worker, and continued his
literary activity almost to the last. He
became known as a writer in Bassin when
little more? than 20, and has been in the
forefront of Russian literature for over
half a century, while for many years he
has been looked up to by many both in
Russia and outside of it, as a kind of
prophet of the millennium.
$