Tolstoy

The moment had arrived to answer that question. From this point until Tolstoy’s death thirteen years later, the Russian government deployed an effective strategy of leaving him alone, while taking punitive action against his followers. On 5 February Chertkov’s Petersburg apartment was searched, and he was informed he was to be sent into exile for illicit involvement in the affairs of sectarians, and for spreading subversive propaganda. His powerful connections had not given him complete immunity, but they did ensure he was not sent to Siberia. Vladimir Ulyanov, a lawyer turned revolutionary from Simbirsk, was not so lucky. He had been languishing in a Petersburg jail for conspiring against Alexander III, and that same month was exiled to a village on the River Yenisey, south of Krasnoyarsk (he later renamed himself Lenin, after the Lena, another mighty Siberian river). Chertkov had the much gentler option of going to England, a country he loved. Biryukov and Tregubov were also dealt with leniently: they were exiled to villages in the empire’s Baltic territories.

Accompanied by Sonya, Tolstoy came to St Petersburg to see his friends off – he had not been in the city since 1880, and it would be his last ever visit to the capital. The secret police had a field day, filing detailed reports on his every movement, including to the barber on Panteleimon Street where he had his beard trimmed. They even embellished their despatches with loving details about Tolstoy’s couture (a short coat tied with a grey belt, dark trousers and a dark grey knitted hat one day, and a heavy coat with a lambswool collar, dark grey trousers and a grey felt hat the next).⁶⁰ Tolstoy was mobbed everywhere he went, and given a huge ovation at the railway station when he left to go back to Moscow. There were only two people he did not enjoy seeing. One was Chertkov’s indomitable mother, Elizaveta Ivanovna, who loathed him for leading her only son astray (she also thought he was imbued with the spirit of the Antichrist for not acknowledging Christ’s resurrection).⁶¹ The other was his implacably devout old relative Alexandra Andreyevna, no longer his dear friend and confidante Alexandrine.⁶²

Tolstoy was abandoned by another of his devoted followers in 1897: six months after Chertkov’s departure, his daughter Masha suddenly announced that she was to be married. She was twenty-six, and had finally decided to insist on some independence after several potential engagements had been thwarted by her father.⁶³ Tolstoy was no happier about Masha marrying Nikolay Obolensky, the son of his niece Liza, who was a feckless youth without an income. He noted in his diary that seeing Masha get married to someone like Obolensky was like watching a thoroughbred horse being ruined by being made to carry water. He was also not happy about the fact that Masha now reneged on her earlier principles and demanded her share of the family property. But most importantly, Masha had been his faithful helpmeet – meek, quiet and always willing to help, so her departure from Yasnaya Polyana, even though she did not go far, left a huge hole in her father’s life. It was Masha he loved best of all amongst his children.