Tolstoy

After The Death of Ivan Ilych, which had won many accolades from critics, Tolstoy wrote only two major artistic works in the late 1880s: the play The Powers of Darkness, and the novella The Kreutzer Sonata. He had first tackled the dramatic genre back in the 1860s, but had taken neither of his efforts back then very seriously. Now he was drawn towards popular drama. The books published by The Intermediary had already immeasurably improved the calibre of literature available to the peasantry, and Tolstoy wanted to transform the crude repertoire of drama on offer to the masses. He began in the spring of 1886 with a comedy on the evils of alcoholism called The First Distiller. It was published by The Intermediary and then staged in June at the open-air theatre attached to a porcelain factory outside St Petersburg. Despite the rain, 3,000 workers made up an enthusiastic audience. Two years later it was banned by the theatrical censor for featuring imps and devils, and an act set in hell.¹⁰²

The Powers of Darkness, which is also drawn from peasant life, is a much more serious work. Based on a recent criminal case involving murder and adultery heard in the Tula court, it was completed in the autumn of 1886. The theatrical censor immediately banned it. This was a setback, as the script had already been typeset at three different printers, and Tolstoy had agreed that the play could be performed for the actress Maria Savina’s benefit night – he himself was very keen to see it staged. Sonya fired off a letter to the government’s head of censorship, Evgeny Feoktistkov, who expressly forbade its performance, but did now consent to its publication. Over 100,000 copies were printed in the first months of 1887, including an edition with The Intermediary which sold for three kopecks.¹⁰³ Meanwhile, Chertkov started a sophisticated public relations operation. As anticipated, the reading he organised at the home of Countess Shuvalov, using his formidable society connections, soon set people talking. Not only was it reported positively in the press, but soon the Tsar’s curiosity was aroused. A special reading was arranged for him in the Winter Palace on 27 January, which was attended by the Empress, grand dukes and duchesses, and other members of the court. Alexander III declared that he liked the play very much, and ordered it to be staged by the Imperial Theatres. He was soon forced to back down, however, after being reprimanded by Pobedonostsev. The Chief Procurator had been horrified to learn of the Tsar’s irresponsible attitude to the ‘crude realism’ and ‘denigration of moral feeling’ in this appalling play – he told the Tsar he had never seen anything like it.¹⁰⁴

There was much worse to come. The Kreutzer Sonata, a worthy successor to Anna Karenina in terms of its association of carnal love with extreme violence, would be his most scandalous work yet. It owed its inspiration to several sources. First of all there was an anonymous female correspondent who wrote to complain to Tolstoy in February 1886 about the distressing situation of women in contemporary society, and their debasement by men.¹⁰⁵ Then there was the acquaintance who told a story about once sitting in a train carriage opposite a man who confessed that he had been unfaithful to his wife. And there was a direct musical stimulus: on several occasions in 1887 Tolstoy’s son Sergey, a fine pianist, accompanied Lev and Misha’s violin teacher Yuly Lyasotta in performances of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9, the kreutzer Sonata, both in Moscow and at Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy certainly knew Beethoven’s kreutzer Sonata very well, and it was one of relatively few opuses to feature on the list of his favourite musical works later compiled by Sergey.¹⁰⁶ It is the first of the sonata’s three movements which has the greatest parallel with the story. The frenzied dialogue between violin and piano in its central presto section performed by Pozdnyshev’s wife and her male violinist partner suggests to Pozdnyshev a dialogue of a different kind, which provokes him to fits of jealousy he can eventually no longer control.

On one of the occasions when the sonata was performed at the Tolstoys’ home, the painter Repin was present, and Tolstoy even toyed with the idea of his friend accompanying his story with a painting.¹⁰⁷ Tolstoy would have certainly discussed his ideas for the story with Repin, for he found himself posing for another portrait in the summer of 1887 during the painter’s stay at Yasnaya Polyana. They had been acquainted for seven years by this point, but Repin had bided his time, clearly wanting to get to know Tolstoy better before fixing him on canvas. The portrait, which depicts him sitting calmly in a chair with a book in his hand, dressed in black, seemed to many to be reminiscent of an Old Testament prophet.