Tolstoy

Chertkov was twenty-nine when they met, Tolstoy fifty-five. He did not have a title, but his background was even more distinguished than Tolstoy’s. Both his parents were descended from old aristocratic families (one paternal relative had founded the Chertkov Library which Tolstoy had worked in when he was writing War and Peace), and they were very close to the court. The future Alexander III was Chertkov’s playmate when he was a child, while Alexander II was a regular visitor to the family’s opulent mansion in St Petersburg while he grew up, and showed him particular favour from a young age. As well as inviting Chertkov and his parents to holiday at the Romanov palace in Livadia in the Crimea, the Tsar singled him out during cavalry parades. At the age of nineteen, after an elite education, Chertkov had followed his father into the army, where a brilliant career awaited him.³⁶ ‘Le beau Dima’, as he was known, was enormously wealthy, as well as being tall, handsome, and on the guest list of all the most exclusive balls and social gatherings. He was also famous for a certain eccentricity: his refusal to dance with Empress Maria Fyodorovna on one occasion had caused a sensation in a world which took protocol very seriously. In 1879 Chertkov had taken an eleven-month leave, which he spent in England, and shocked his parents soon after his return by informing them of his decision to resign from the army. Since 1881 he had been living at Lizinovka, his parents’ enormous estate in Voronezh province, where he had thrown himself into philanthropic works for the benefit of the peasants by setting up schools, libraries and training facilities.³⁷

Chertkov’s desire to devote his life to the peasantry was not the only reason he was drawn to Tolstoy. He was also inspired by unorthodox Christian ideals which he initially inherited from his mother, who had become a Protestant evangelist after the untimely deaths of her eldest and youngest sons. It was his dynamic mother, Elizaveta Ivanovna, who had been instrumental in bringing Lord Radstock to Russia in 1874. It was she who had effected his introduction to all the best salons in St Petersburg, and introduced him to her brother-in-law, Colonel Vasily Pashkov, who carried on Radstock’s work after he was expelled from Russia in 1878. One of the richest men in Russia, Pashkov also came from the aristocracy, but after becoming an evangelical Christian he had eschewed high society salons for prayer meetings held at his house, which sometimes attracted over 1,000 followers. He had also founded the Society for the Encouragement of Spiritual and Ethical Reading which disseminated copies of the Gospels translated into Russian, and other edifying literature. When Chertkov had gone to England, he naturally met with Lord Radstock,³⁸ who gave him introductions to the British aristocratic and political elite, including the future Edward VII.³⁹

7. Vladimir Chertkov as a young man, 1880s

Chertkov had practised a Christian way of life since returning from England, but he was not an evangelist like his mother. His religious views were much more in tune with Tolstoy’s beliefs, which explains why, when they met, it felt to them almost as if they were already old friends. Tolstoy was the first person Chertkov had ever known who shared his views on the incompatibility of Christianity with military service.⁴⁰ As for Tolstoy, he was dazzled by his young visitor, and the bond that was immediately formed between them was strengthened by not only their shared religious convictions, but also their common aristocratic background.⁴¹ Chertkov had found his messiah and Tolstoy had found the confidant he had longed for. Throughout their friendship, much of their communication was by letter: their correspondence fills five separate volumes of Tolstoy’s collected works in the edition which Chertkov launched in the 1920s. Tolstoy had also found in Chertkov an unexpected source of protection, for his friend’s formidable connections to the court meant they could embark on their programme of planned activities with a degree of impunity.⁴² As well as proposing a publishing venture, Chertkov wanted to help disseminate Tolstoy’s writings abroad, and soon after their first meeting he began translating What I Believe into English, a language of which he had a flawless command.⁴³