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In the years before the
Russian Revolution exploded in 1917,

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political opposition was stamped on.

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Outspoken radicals were either shot,
imprisoned or exiled.

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But there was one voice in Russia,
a furious critic of the evil

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and injustice of the Tsarist
state who was never silenced.

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Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy.

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Why did Tolstoy,
a hugely successful novelist,

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assume this provocative role?

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Why did he become such a thorn
in the side of Imperial Russia?

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Perhaps there's
a clue in his childhood...

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"It was my brother Nicolenka who
announced to us that he

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"possessed a secret by means of which
when it was disclosed,

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"all men would become happy.
There'd be no diseases, no troubles,

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"no-one would be angry with anyone,
all would love each other."

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"This secret, as he told us,
was written by him on a green stick

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"which he buried by the road
on the edge of a certain ravine."

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This utopian story captivated
Tolstoy as a child

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and haunted him
for the rest of his life.

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By the time he was 40, Tolstoy
had written one of the greatest
novels of all time.

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But during his next 40 years,
it wasn't literature that

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preoccupied him, but a relentless,
ruthless, all-consuming desire

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to discover what was
written on the little green stick.

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By the beginning of the 1870s,
thanks to War And Peace,

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Tolstoy was established as Russia's
greatest living writer.

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He was fast becoming a wealthy man.
Life was good.

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He was in love with his wife.
He already had four children
and there was another on the way.

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Yet strangely, he was
ill at ease with himself,

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with who he was
and the way he lived.

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This land-owning aristocrat was
beginning to ask fundamental

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questions about the stark inequality
of Russian society, the poverty of

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the vast peasant underclass, and the
iron rule of the Imperial regime.

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In 1871, he decided to make
the long journey across Russia

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and down the great Volga River to
the eastern region of Samara

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and the empty wilderness
of the Russian Steppe beyond.

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Why did Tolstoy come here?

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TRANSLATION: Tolstoy loved
the Steppe.

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This enormous expanse, and the people
who had not been spoilt by serfdom.

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There were no serfs here.

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All the peasants were
tenants in their own right.

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Tolstoy grew up in a rural village.

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He knew peasants
and he sympathised with them.

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He was always concerned for them.

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Tolstoy fell in love with the land
and with the people of Samara,

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and despite Sofia's reservations,
he decided to buy a large plot,

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and in the summer of 1873,

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he insisted on bringing the whole of
his family

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with an entourage of servants here
for their annual summer holiday.

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This bedstead memorial
marks the place

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where their simple farmhouse stood.

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This place became his retreat,
his inspiration,

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and you can see just why he was
so captivated by it.

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This country, he said, is beautiful.

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It is just emerging
from its virginity.

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Just below the site of the farm,
Victor, our guide,

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arranged a typical Bashkiri feast
of lamb and fermented horse milk.

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This is the famous Kumis.

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This is the mare's milk that
was drunk by Tolstoy.

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In fact, he came here in pursuit of
this particular beverage, actually.

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Cheers. Cheers.

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I really have.
Look, I've really drunk it.

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This is not pretending.

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This is like something in the Arab
world, they call it loveat.

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That's yoghurt which is
fermented yoghurt.

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This is really like milk,
but it is fermented.

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It tastes very fizzy
and rather sour.

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I don't know
if it's to everyone's tastes,

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but I've got this in common with
Tolstoy. I like this.

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The first summer Tolstoy brought
the family here

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was especially hot and dry.

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In fact, the region was in the grip
of a terrible drought and famine.

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TRANSLATION: Lev Tolstoy wrote
a letter from his farm here

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to his publishers about the famine
in Samara which was

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published in the main
Moscow newspaper.

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Because of that letter,
all of Russia

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and the entire world was alerted to
the famine in the Samara region.

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He was single-handedly
responsible for famine relief.

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The state realised it should
do something, but it was
so inefficient,

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and apart from anything else it was
so inefficient, the Tsarist regime.

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Tolstoy, who was a good landowner,
good army officer,

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he went to Samara.

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He actually made sure that food got
to the actual people who needed it.

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He raised money. He wrote letters to
the English papers

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and alerted the world to
the famine in Russia.

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This simple wooden cross on this
remote highway, is a modest

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memorial to the thousands
who died in the terrible

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famines of the 1870s and '80s.

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For Tolstoy, the Steppe of Samara
was both a refuge and a revelation.

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An escape from his formal life,
his life as a writer

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and as a landowner, into a world
in which the authority of church,

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government and social hierarchy
were just words in the wind.

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At first glance, it might seem hard
to see the link between the moral,

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political and religious tumult
bubbling in Tolstoy's mind

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and the romantic novel that
he was beginning to compose
that summer in Samara.

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As much as anything he wrote,
Tolstoy's masterpiece,

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Anna Karenina, is a profoundly
autobiographical work,

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and even the introspective,
tragic heroine

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shares a great deal
with her creator.

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At the beginning of Anna Karenina,
Anna, the wife of a St Petersburg

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civil servant, travels to Moscow to
visit her brother and his family.

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Unexpectedly, she encounters
a young cavalry officer,

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called Vronski, first at the train
station and then at a ball.

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On the way home on the train,
she tries to read a novel,
a romantic English novel,

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to distract herself from the growing
sense of guilt that in some way

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she has behaved
improperly with this man.

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Anna read attentively, but
there was no pleasure in reading.

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No pleasure in entering into other
people's lives and adventures.

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She was too eager to live herself.

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Tolstoy was like Anna.

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He was reluctant to
commit to fantasy.

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He was too involved with real life.

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As he began to write this story,
the characters

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and events that emerged began to
bear a striking resemblance

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to the people, events
and conflicts in his own life.

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If War And Peace was
a book about who Tolstoy was,

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perhaps Anna Karenina was a book
about who Tolstoy had become.

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I've always believed there is
a bigger difference between

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War And Peace and Anna Karenina than
has generally been acknowledged.

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Think of the beginning
of Anna Karenina, the epigraph...

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"Vengeance is mine,
said the Lord, I will repay."

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Vengeance is there at the beginning.
Suicide is there at the end.

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And we know in biographical
terms, that Tolstoy got the idea

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from the sad fate of a poor woman
who threw herself under a train

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not too far from Yasnaya Polyana,
and he was taken in as the local JP,

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and he had to view the mangled
corpse there in the mortuary

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and be there while they carried out
the post-mortem,

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and it stuck in his mind.

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There is a darker tone about Anna
Karenina. There is more violence.

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There is more pessimism.

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It's not the sunny uplands that
happened at the end of War And Peace.

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Anna Karenina intertwines
the unfolding tragedy of Anna

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and her lover Vronski
with a second troubled romance,

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between Kitty Scherbatsky and
the landowner called Dimitri Levin.

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Levin is an awkward, tormented
country-loving nobleman

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who agonises over his duty to
his peasants

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and insists on labouring
in the fields

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alongside them, which is exactly
what Tolstoy had begun to do.

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How far would you say Levin is
a sort of surrogate,

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how far does Levin embody
the ideas that Tolstoy had?

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There's a pretty strong hint
there in the name itself...
Levin, Lev Tolstoy.

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We also know that there are many
scenes in Anna Karenina

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which are lifted
straight out of his life,

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like all the hay-making scenes
and this kind of thing.

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There is no doubt at all that
Dimitri Levin is Tolstoy,

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and here's another example, by
the way, of how the autobiographical

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element shines through.

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It's the moment when Kitty
and Levin have their first baby,

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and it's given to the father,
to Levin,

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and do you know what his reaction is?

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His attitude says, "I looked at
this writhing little infant

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"and I thought, how vulnerable,

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"oh, the awful things that are going
to happen to you in your life."

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How could anyone take
such a pessimistic attitude?

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The book is autobiographical,

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not only in the way
it describes Tolstoy.

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Kitty's sister, Dolly, is
an impressively honest

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portrait of Sofia
at the time of writing.

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Sofia's diaries from the period
are largely silent,
and not surprisingly.

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She'd already given birth to
eight babies on this very sofa,

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and three of these children died
while Anna Karenina was
being written.

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For all his failings as a husband
and a father,

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Tolstoy in Anna Karenina

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manages with extraordinary
sensitivity to give Sofia a voice.

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"Yes, it comes to this,
she thought,

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"looking back at
her 15 years of married life.

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"Nothing but pregnancy,
sickness, mind dulled

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"and indifferent to everything,
and most of all, the disfigurement.

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"The birth, the agony, the hideous
agonies, that last moment,

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"then nursing the baby, the
sleepless nights, the fearful pains.

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"Dolly shuddered at the mere
recollection of the pain she had
endured from sore nipples,

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"which she'd suffered
with almost every baby.

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"Then the childrens' illnesses
and the everlasting anxiety.

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"And on top of it all,
the death of these children

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"and the cruel memory that
never ceased to tear

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"her mother's heart at the death of
her last born who died of croup.

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"She recalled the funeral

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"and the general indifference
around the little pink coffin

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"and her own heart-rending,

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"lonely anguish as she gazed
at the pale little

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"forehead, part fringed with curls,

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"and the half-open
wondering little mouth.

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"The last thing she'd seen
as the pink lid with the embroidered
cross was closed over him."

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After an early flurry of writing,
Tolstoy found the completion

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of Anna Karenina increasingly
onerous, and developed a love/hate

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relationship with a story that had
become too close for comfort.

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He wrote to a friend...

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"How I long to clear
this sordid tale away from my desk."

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Where Anna Karenina's story ends
is now

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a commuter suburb
about 40 minutes out of Moscow.

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A typically anonymous
Soviet-style town -

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functional, concrete
and unprepossessing.

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00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:06,480
It's changed its name
since Anna Karenina was written,

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00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:10,880
but it had an equally dour
reputation in Tolstoy's day

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as a remote stopping-off point on
what was called the road of tears.

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00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:22,280
Natalia Sopfikova runs
a small museum in the town.

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00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:27,640
TRANSLATION: Tolstoy on several,
maybe eight, occasions
passed through on the railway.

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when he travelled to the Samara
Steppe for his Kumis treatment.

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00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:40,960
Of course, he knew this place.
The road through the town was
famous in Russia as the road

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00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:45,480
of woe and tears, because this was
the route along which prisoners

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were taken to Siberia.

200
00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:54,080
The prisoners were brought to
this station, where they could say

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00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:57,760
farewell to their relatives
who saw them off on their journey.

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00:14:57,760 --> 00:14:59,840
It was the last station

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to which the relatives were allowed
to travel.

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00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:05,920
I remember that
when I studied it at school,

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00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,000
I read this novel from cover to cover
without stopping.

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00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,240
War And Peace is of course
an epic...a more voluminous work.

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00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:16,640
Anna Karenina was closer to us

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because it was more true to life,
let's put it that way.

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And of course, as a woman,
I can understand Anna,
who lived with a husband

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who was much older than she,
and for that matter,
a husband she did not love.

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It was a marriage of convenience.

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00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:35,400
But as a mother,
I do not understand Anna,

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because she gave up her son
for the sake of the man she loved.

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00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:41,440
It's a very difficult situation.

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"She tried to fling herself
below the wheels of the first

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"carriage as it reached her,
but the red bag which she tried

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"to drop out of her hand
delayed her and she was too late.

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00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:04,600
"She missed the moment.

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"She had to wait for
the next carriage.

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"A feeling such as she had known
when about to take the first

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"plunge in bathing came upon her,
and she crossed herself.

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00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,840
"That familiar gesture brought back
into her soul

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"a whole series of girlish
and childish memories.

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"Suddenly, the darkness that had
covered everything for her
was torn apart.

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"A life rose up before her
for an instant,

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00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:34,440
"with all its bright past joys.
But she did not take her eyes
from the wheels of the second

227
00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:38,400
"carriage, and exactly at the moment
where the space between

228
00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:42,240
"the wheels came opposite her,
she dropped the red bag, and drawing

229
00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:46,640
"her head back into her shoulders,
fell on her hands
under the carriage,

230
00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:52,360
"and likely, as though
she would rise up again at once,
dropped to her knees.

231
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,840
"At the same instant, she was terror
stricken at what she was doing.

232
00:16:55,840 --> 00:17:00,560
"'Where am I? What am I doing?
What for?

233
00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:04,720
"She tried to get up to drop
backwards, but something huge

234
00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:08,400
"and merciless struck her on
the head and rolled her on her back.

235
00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:13,240
"'Lord, forgive me all,' she said,
feeling it impossible to struggle."

236
00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:24,280
Very often when
writers are finishing a book,

237
00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:27,720
they are visited by
depressions and fears.

238
00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:31,640
Virginia Wolf famously killed herself
having finished a book.

239
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,080
She just couldn't stand
the idea of finishing,

240
00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:37,280
and I think that's one of the reasons
that Tolstoy's holding off.

241
00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,120
He knows that when he finishes
this book, something is going

242
00:17:40,120 --> 00:17:43,560
to happen in his life,
so he can't really finish it.

243
00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:48,040
On the one hand, he's becoming
utterly disillusioned
with the whole art of fiction.

244
00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:51,880
On the other hand,
he's asking himself,

245
00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,400
he's now deep into
a middle-age crisis,

246
00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:57,840
"What am I going to do with myself
when this book's finished?"

247
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:08,560
By the time Tolstoy completed
Anna Karenina, he was 50

248
00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:13,120
and increasingly preoccupied with
the meaning of his own existence.

249
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:16,280
That summer, he and his friend

250
00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:20,040
and editor Nikolai Strakhov
made a pilgrimage here to

251
00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:26,040
the monastery of Optina Pustin,
about 140 miles from
Yasnaya Polyana.

252
00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:30,880
Optina Pustin today is
a compelling place to visit.

253
00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:40,160
In the 19th century, it was one of
the most important and influential

254
00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:44,160
Russian monasteries, but then it was
closed and vandalised by

255
00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:50,760
the communists who deported
or executed the entire
religious community.

256
00:18:52,120 --> 00:18:56,240
By the middle of the 20th century,
Optina Pustin is a derelict ruin.

257
00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:01,560
However, today, the church -
and, indeed, the whole monastery -

258
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:06,040
is being rebuilt by a new generation
of fiercely devout monks

259
00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:08,880
in a striking demonstration of
modern Russia's

260
00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:11,720
Orthodox Christian revival.

261
00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:19,640
When Tolstoy first came here to
Optina back in the summer of 1877,

262
00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:23,280
there was a similar atmosphere
of religious enthusiasm under way.

263
00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,800
At the time of his first visit,
he was incredibly devout,

264
00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:31,440
and coming to
the end of Anna Karenina,

265
00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:36,320
he was in this state of profound
depression, and he wanted answers.

266
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:40,080
He desperately wanted to find
an answer to the meaning of life.

267
00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,600
He didn't like the idea that
it was meaningless.

268
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:46,520
He wanted there to be meaning,
particularly to his own life,

269
00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:49,960
and so he was someone
who at that point was

270
00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:52,760
observing all the fasts
and going regularly to church.

271
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:57,200
So I think his quest was very
sincere on that first occasion.

272
00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:03,560
Like many thousands of Russians
from all over the country,

273
00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:08,200
Tolstoy came to Optina to meet
an extraordinary starex,

274
00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:11,400
or religious elder,
by the name of Amvrosi.

275
00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:16,920
Pilgrims came specially to
consult Amvrosi,

276
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,200
who was treated as a cross between
a clairvoyant and a saint.

277
00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,960
The monastery nominated
Father Selaphil to talk to me

278
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:28,400
about the still-delicate
subject of Lev Tolstoy.

279
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:35,400
TRANSLATION: Lev Nikolayevich
Tolstoy was an incredibly complex,

280
00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:41,280
tragic man. Many people found him
hard to understand.

281
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:46,840
This was a man who was unsettled
throughout his life,

282
00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:48,800
forever in torment.

283
00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:55,280
His childhood and his youth had
passed in a moral and sinful decline.

284
00:20:56,440 --> 00:21:02,080
His soul was in pain. He was
seeking answers to many questions.

285
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,560
He was looking for
a more spiritual life.

286
00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:09,480
So the monks saw him
as a sick person, a weary,

287
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:13,880
languishing person,
with a scorched heart.

288
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,280
A man you could say who has
clotted blood on his lips.

289
00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:28,000
It's not clear exactly what
occurred in the conversation

290
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,240
between Tolstoy and Amvrosi,

291
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,480
but certainly this visit to Optina
monastery marks the beginning

292
00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:38,240
of a profound religious journey
and the unflinching soul-searching

293
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:43,920
that was to turn Tolstoy's -
and his family's - life upside down.

294
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:49,920
"26th August, 1882.

295
00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:55,640
"It was 20 years ago when
I was young and happy that I started

296
00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:59,920
"writing the story of my love
for Leovoytchka in these diaries.

297
00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:03,360
"There is virtually nothing
but love in them, in fact.

298
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:08,560
"20 years later, here I am, sitting
up all night on my own, reading

299
00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:12,480
"and mourning its loss.
For the first time in my life,

300
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,960
"he has run off to sleep alone
in the study.

301
00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:18,320
"We were quarrelling about
such silly things.

302
00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:21,520
"I accused him of taking
no interest in the children

303
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,880
"and not helping me
look after Illya, who is sick.

304
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:28,720
"Today, he shouted at the top of
his voice that his dearest wish

305
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:30,480
"was to leave his family.

306
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:32,800
"I shall carry the memory
of that heartfelt,

307
00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:35,000
"heart-rending cry to my grave.

308
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,440
"I pray for death, for without
his love, I cannot survive.

309
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,520
"I knew this the moment
his love for me died."

310
00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:47,360
Was there a moment
in their relationship

311
00:22:47,360 --> 00:22:49,320
when it began to go bad?

312
00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:55,560
To understand their relationship,
you have to understand

313
00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:57,480
the change in Tolstoy's mood.

314
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:04,280
It was not she or the family that
changed. It was Tolstoy who changed.

315
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:10,400
Tolstoy walked away
from their family.

316
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:16,120
The family, instead of being
an ideal, became an obstacle.

317
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:22,960
An obstacle for a man
who viewed himself

318
00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:26,160
not as a writer anymore.

319
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:31,960
TRANSLATION: Tolstoy wrote
in the last years of his life

320
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:35,360
that it was shameful to write
in an artistic manner.

321
00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:37,800
He was ashamed of his literary work.

322
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:41,440
When he was asked about
Anna Karenina, he pretended
not to remember

323
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:43,920
what work he was being asked about.

324
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:49,160
"What is that? Is it some tale about
a lady who loved an officer?"

325
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:59,120
He abandoned his literary past. He
abandoned his ideal as a family man.

326
00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:03,160
That's how depression
and spiritual conversion affect.

327
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:08,680
Sofia was saying
he became a very different person.

328
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:10,240
"I did not marry this man."

329
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:14,800
She was someone who we have to have
a lot of sympathy for.

330
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:16,840
It was very difficult
living with him,

331
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:19,880
but she also had
her own shortcomings.

332
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:25,040
They were both people with flaws.
She was dogmatic in her own way too.

333
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:30,440
She was a famously humourless
person, but her whole life had been

334
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:34,960
bound up with her husband's, so it
was understandably extremely painful

335
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,760
for her that everything
that had given her happiness,
which was having

336
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:43,680
a part in copying his works and
being part of his creative life,

337
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:48,320
that had all been
sort of thrown out,
and it meant nothing to him anymore.

338
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:52,240
In the early 1880s,
Tolstoy began pouring his energies

339
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:58,000
into a series of soul-searching,
religious and philosophical tracts.

340
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:02,320
He turned his back on the dogma
of the Russian Orthodox Church

341
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:06,760
and even went so far as to produce
his own version of the gospels.

342
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:13,240
He decided to start translating
the gospels himself, and what he did

343
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:18,200
actually was just to merge the four
gospels into one, and this was

344
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,080
his own kind of Tolstoyan gospel,

345
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:24,120
and he jettisoned everything
that didn't really meet

346
00:25:24,120 --> 00:25:27,080
his approval,
which was most of it, actually.

347
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,440
All the miracles, for example,

348
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:33,880
everything that was
vaguely metaphysical had no place.

349
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,280
The only thing that really survived
was everything

350
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,480
that Jesus actually said.

351
00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:43,160
He thought that was all right,
and his religious philosophy,

352
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,360
it actually boiled down to
the sermon on the mount.

353
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:50,800
This was no abstract philosophy.

354
00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:56,240
Tolstoy was determined to
live by the gospels.
He'd always admired the peasants,

355
00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:00,200
but increasingly
he aspired to be like them.

356
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:03,640
He laboured in the fields,
he dressed like them, he even learnt

357
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,160
to make his own boots,
and what's more,

358
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:09,560
he attempted to give them land.

359
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:14,000
However, his acts of charity
only provoked distrust

360
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,480
among the peasants
and infuriated his wife.

361
00:26:19,120 --> 00:26:22,120
In 1881, the Tolstoy family
moved to Moscow,

362
00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:24,320
at least for the winter months.

363
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:28,040
Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana
reluctantly, for the sake of

364
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:31,480
the children's education,
and was utterly miserable.

365
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,760
Witnessing the poverty
in the city only intensified

366
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:40,000
his aspirations
for a simpler life.

367
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:44,680
"5th October, 1881.

368
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:47,520
"Keep only as many servants
as are necessary to help us

369
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,360
"change things and to instruct us,

370
00:26:50,360 --> 00:26:54,280
"and then only while we train
ourselves to do without them."

371
00:26:54,280 --> 00:27:00,320
"Live all together,
the men in one room,
the women and the girls in another.

372
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,560
"Sell or give away
anything superfluous -

373
00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:08,640
"the piano, furniture, carriages.
The one aim is happiness.

374
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:10,960
"One's own and that of one's family.

375
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:14,920
"This happiness consists of
being content with little

376
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:16,880
"and doing good to others."

377
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:23,520
Despite these high ideals, this is
still the same Tolstoy who wrote

378
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:27,960
those self-improving diary entries
as a student back in Kazan,

379
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,960
promising to study
but ending up in the brothel.

380
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:37,520
The more Tolstoy became obsessed
with religion and morality

381
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:41,320
and living an aesthetic life,
the more he found himself at odds

382
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:44,640
with the world,
and, increasingly, with his family.

383
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:48,440
It's not a happy story.

384
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:53,480
He retreated bit by bit
into the interior until he's left

385
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:57,400
on a small island of,
I don't know, self-righteousness

386
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:01,040
and unrealistic expectations
and disappointments.

387
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,400
It's a very sad story,
but you know what he couldn't do?

388
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:07,880
He couldn't love anyone.
That's the great tragedy of Tolstoy.

389
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:11,840
The only conclusion
he comes to in the whole of his work

390
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:15,040
is that the only answer
for humanity is love.

391
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:17,280
We must love each other,

392
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,360
and that will eventually solve
all our problems. And yet there

393
00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:25,200
wasn't anyone in Russian culture
less capable of loving than Tolstoy.

394
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:32,760
And yet it's at this very moment
that Tolstoy forms the closest
friendship of his life.

395
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:38,400
In 1883 he received an unexpected
visit from a young man

396
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,840
by the name of
Vladimir Chertkov.

397
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:45,000
Chertkov was a handsome, wealthy
cavalry officer rumoured to be

398
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,400
an illegitimate half-brother of
the Tsar, who gave up

399
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:51,240
his military career
and society position

400
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:55,640
after converting to
evangelical Christianity.

401
00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,160
It was as if the two men
almost instantly fell in love.

402
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:07,080
Tolstoy and Chertkov remained
intensely close until Tolstoy's

403
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:12,120
death, exchanging over 1,000
letters over the next 27 years.

404
00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:16,160
"November, 1884.

405
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,640
"I would like to live with you,
and if we are still alive,

406
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:22,120
"I shall live with you.

407
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:24,120
"Never cease to love me
as I love you."

408
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:30,240
Chertkov worked relentlessly
to preserve,

409
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,880
print and promote
the work and ideas of Tolstoy.

410
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:36,440
In particular, he enabled
the translation

411
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,960
and circulation of his writing
outside Russia.

412
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:46,320
In 1897, Chertkov became
heavily involved in campaigning

413
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:51,400
alongside Tolstoy for a pacifist
sect called the Doukhobors.

414
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:53,720
A Christian group that
Tolstoy had first

415
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:55,880
encountered in the wilderness
of Samara.

416
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:04,960
It was a dangerous high-profile
campaign that earned Chertkov
ten years of exile

417
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:09,240
and turned Tolstoy
into an enemy of the state.

418
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:16,800
The campaign also propelled Tolstoy
into writing his final least-known
full-length novel, Resurrection.

419
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:23,760
Resurrection is a novel
that needs to be resurrected.

420
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:25,680
It has been submerged

421
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:29,320
and nearly forgotten about, and
I'd recommend anyone to read this.

422
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:31,240
It's a very powerful novel indeed.

423
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:36,360
It did begin badly in
the artistic sense because
he's writing for the wrong reasons.

424
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:41,280
This story
he wrote for peculiar motives.

425
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:48,840
Tolstoy wrote Resurrection in order
to raise a large sum of money
to save the Doukhobors.

426
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:52,160
They were threatened with
imprisonment and execution

427
00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:56,440
because of their refusal
to fight in the Imperial Army.

428
00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,800
Tolstoy funded their escape
to Canada.

429
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:02,640
It was a lovely compromise
arrived at by the Tsar.

430
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,920
You know, I cannot excuse these
people from military service,

431
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:10,120
I will let them go abroad,
but I'm not paying for it,
so Tolstoy paid for it.

432
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:16,520
Elaine Podovnokov, a modern day
member of the Doukhobor community,

433
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:19,920
has moved back to Russia
to work as a teacher,

434
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,480
and she and her family
are now building a log house

435
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,240
in Yasnaya Polyana village,
not far from the Tolstoy estate.

436
00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:28,880
Then my mum and dad
are the fourth...

437
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:32,520
Looking back, what did
the Doukhobors represent?

438
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,640
What was it about them that made
them so appealing to Tolstoy?

439
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:38,000
There were two main issues, I think,

440
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:42,880
and that is that they would not kill
another human being even in warfare.

441
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,680
They felt that every human being
was a temple of the living god,

442
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:49,560
that a piece of God
lived inside each human being.

443
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:55,200
That was one, and the other one
was that God did not only live
within the confines of a church

444
00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,920
and that there were godly people
because the ultimate church

445
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:03,160
was the body that housed the spirit
of the living god.

446
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:05,400
Is there a community in Canada

447
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:09,040
who know that they owe their lives
to Leo Tolstoy?

448
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:10,760
Yes. Yes.

449
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:14,960
When we study, we have our Sunday
schools or Sunday classes,

450
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,960
while we're studying
the Doukhobor history in Russia,

451
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:22,480
we always studied Leo Tolstoy
as someone, as a benefactor,

452
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:29,200
and he was considered like...
semi-god, because everybody knew
that in his young years

453
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:32,360
he lived differently,
and that was another lesson for us.

454
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:36,240
That you could at any time
in your life get a new awareness

455
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:39,520
of what life was all about
and change your way of living.

456
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:46,880
Spiritual evolution is the central
theme of Resurrection.

457
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:52,920
An aristocratic juror is
confronted in the dock with a woman
he once seduced and ruined.

458
00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:58,440
The woman has now been
wrongfully charged with murder.

459
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:04,720
Guilt forces him to offer to marry
her and campaign for her release.

460
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:11,920
When he fails, he follows her
and her fellow convicts
as they're exiled to Siberia.

461
00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:15,720
The book was a furious attack
on the penal system, the government

462
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:19,680
and, most pointedly,
the Orthodox Church.

463
00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:26,520
So what was it that he did in
Resurrection which so offended the
church that he was excommunicated?

464
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:31,880
What did he not do?! Everything he
wrote in Resurrection would have
found the disapproval of the church.

465
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:35,600
It's shown to be utterly useless
in all these things

466
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:39,600
and just a tool of government
completely incapable of any reform

467
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:45,760
and just as guilty as anyone else
in allowing the system to go ahead

468
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:48,560
whereby people can be sent to prison,

469
00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:51,240
can be punished savagely and so on.

470
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:56,440
Whenever the church comes up,
it's satirised.

471
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:03,640
"The priest carefully took
a spoonful from the chalice

472
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,480
"and put a piece of bread
soaked in wine

473
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:09,000
"deep into the mouths
of all the children in turn,

474
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,600
"and then the deacon
wiped their mouths

475
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:18,040
"whilst singing a cheerful song
about children eating God's body
and drinking his blood.

476
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:22,320
"After this the priest
took the chalice behind the screen,

477
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:27,000
"drank all the blood
that was left over and ate up
all the bits of God's body.

478
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:31,040
"Scrupulously sucked his moustaches
dry, wiped his mouth

479
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:35,320
"and the chalice, and then he walked
out briskly through the screen.

480
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:37,240
"To the creaking of
his calfskin boots

481
00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:42,800
"and their thin souls.
He was a picture of contentment."

482
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:47,880
The church is condemned.
The church is shown to be useless.

483
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:49,960
Everything else is condemned.

484
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:53,000
The judiciary and the army
and the government,

485
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:59,040
cos Tolstoy's well into the stage
where he rejects all forms
of organisation and government.

486
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,960
Tolstoy's ideas are very relevant
now. The more we read him,

487
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:07,520
the more we study him
or reread him,

488
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:11,880
the more totally we feel that

489
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:16,760
we need to look at our life now
through the eyes of Tolstoy.

490
00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:22,680
We should read
and reread the Resurrection now

491
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:25,720
because the novel
seems very contemporary.

492
00:35:25,720 --> 00:35:30,680
The problems which Tolstoy addressed
there are our problems.

493
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:35,360
What is meaningful? What is moral?
What is worthless?

494
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:41,160
The impossible contrast
between the rich and the poor.

495
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:46,440
All that was the problem at the turn
of the 19th/20th century,

496
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,840
and the problems remain today.

497
00:35:56,160 --> 00:36:00,200
Tolstoy's mockery and contempt
for the Orthodox Church

498
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:02,440
eventually forced a reaction.

499
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:05,680
In February 1901,
Metropolitan Anthony,

500
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,640
the senior cleric in St Petersburg,

501
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:11,400
mounted the pulpit and declared:

502
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:15,880
Count Tolstoy, under the seduction
of his intellectual pride,

503
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:21,160
has devoted his literary activity
and the talent given to him by God

504
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,600
to disseminate in teachings
repugnant to Christ and the church,

505
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:29,960
and destroying in the minds and
hearts of men their national faith.

506
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:35,320
But if the church thought that
Tolstoy's excommunication

507
00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:38,440
would undermine
his growing popularity in Russia,

508
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:40,680
the effect was absolutely
the opposite.

509
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:44,320
On the day in which the edict was
published, Tolstoy was walking here

510
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:47,320
in the centre of Moscow,
in Lubyanka Square,

511
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,040
a place now dominated
by that infamous building

512
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:52,400
which used to be
the home of the KGB.

513
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:56,000
February 1901
was a period of student protests,

514
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,920
and a large crowd of demonstrators
filled the square.

515
00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:02,200
Apparently, someone in the crowd
spotted Tolstoy,

516
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,840
who was out walking with a friend,
and called out ironically,

517
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:09,120
"Look, there goes
the devil in human form."

518
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:13,040
At which point the whole crowd
started cheering and shouting.

519
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:16,400
"Long Live Lev Nikolaivic!"

520
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:23,320
In the end the situation became so
passionate that mounted police had
to rescue Tolstoy from the crush.

521
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:27,040
Unfortunately for the church,

522
00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:32,200
Tolstoy's excommunication only
served to galvanise public support

523
00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:37,680
for him, and to draw attention
to his ideals and beliefs.

524
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:43,840
TRANSLATION: Tolstoy was saying
terrible things about the church

525
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:45,720
and in so doing

526
00:37:45,720 --> 00:37:48,920
was perverting a very
large number of his contemporaries,

527
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:53,760
and so the church, represented
by its higher body, The Synod,

528
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:55,600
said that in his deeds,

529
00:37:55,600 --> 00:38:00,480
Tolstoy was demonstrating he
was not at one with the church.

530
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:04,520
This rejection of Tolstoy
by the church

531
00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:06,640
was a rare and extraordinary act

532
00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:09,840
to take against such
an eminent Russian figure,

533
00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:15,320
and his excommunication is
still very much a live issue today.

534
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:20,760
Once again, church and state are
closely, even intimately aligned,

535
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,040
and Tolstoy's descendants
have failed in their attempt to get

536
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,920
the church to
reconsider its position.

537
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:33,600
TRANSLATION: In 2001, the church
did not respond to my letter.

538
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:37,080
It was not that I had written
to some anonymous clergyman.

539
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:42,760
I wrote to the then Patriarch,
Alexei, and I didn't get
a reply from him.

540
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:45,360
Well, that in itself was a response.

541
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:49,600
A lack of response is an admission
of a lack of desire
to speak on the subject.

542
00:38:50,720 --> 00:38:54,480
The church does not wish to admit
its mistakes or weaknesses.

543
00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:58,760
Yes, the conflict
has not yet runs its course.

544
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,880
The culmination of
Tolstoy's religious writing

545
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:08,760
was a book entitled
The Kingdom Of God Is Within You,

546
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:13,080
which laid out his philosophy
of non-resistance to violence.

547
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:16,880
Of course, Gandhi was one
of the millions of people who read

548
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:20,600
The Kingdom Of God Is Within You, and
it had an electrifying impact on him.

549
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:26,600
He was living in South Africa
and it made him want to set up
a Tolstoy farm, for example, there.

550
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:31,040
He did that and that was
for the Indians there,

551
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:35,760
and he'd himself been a
victim of the racism there

552
00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:39,840
and seen the coercive ways
of the government,

553
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:44,800
and it became a cornerstone
of his own philosophy.

554
00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:46,920
It was a very, very important moment.

555
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:52,200
Did Tolstoy absorb all this?
Did he realise the impact
of these ideas and his views?

556
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:55,040
Yeah, and he was absolutely
thrilled by this, of course,

557
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:59,320
because as much as he wanted
to run away and be an ascetic

558
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:04,480
and live like a wanderer with nothing
but the clothes on his back,

559
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:07,840
he also wanted his ideas
to be disseminated.

560
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:12,080
He actually wanted people
to come round to his way of thinking.

561
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,760
He wanted governments to dissolve.

562
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:17,920
He didn't want there to be
any more private property

563
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:20,840
and as this incredible narcissist,

564
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:24,720
he was very convinced
that he did know the truth.

565
00:40:24,720 --> 00:40:27,280
At the point at which Tolstoy

566
00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:31,200
had achieved something
very like sainthood

567
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,440
on the public
and international stage,

568
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:35,720
his personal life was in crisis,

569
00:40:35,720 --> 00:40:39,320
thanks largely to his relationship
with Chertkov.

570
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:45,040
A man who Sofia Tolstoy
now described as the devil himself.

571
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:48,440
It's at this moment
that a final and tragic act

572
00:40:48,440 --> 00:40:51,160
of Tolstoy's life begins to unfold.

573
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:55,640
"Lev Nikolaivic becomes
more intolerable each day

574
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:58,920
"because of his heartlessness
and his cruelty to me,

575
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:04,360
"and it is Chertkov who has brought
all this about gradually
and consistently.

576
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:09,800
"He has done everything in his power
to take control
of this unfortunate old man.

577
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:11,240
"He has separated us.

578
00:41:11,240 --> 00:41:14,440
"He has killed the creative spark
in Lev Nikolaivic

579
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:17,800
"and has kindled all the protest,
castigation and hatred

580
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:20,960
"that one sees
in these recent articles

581
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:25,400
"which his stupid evil genius
has reduced him to writing.

582
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,400
"Yes, if one believes in the devil,

583
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:33,960
"he has been embodied in Chertkov,
and he has destroyed our life."

584
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:41,480
Chertkov had this gift,
I would say, to antagonise people.

585
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:45,160
To charge them
with this negative emotion

586
00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:49,880
and when he would appear on the
scene, there would be conflicts.

587
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,680
There would be some conspiracies.

588
00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:55,720
There would be something else.
He was evil genius.

589
00:41:55,720 --> 00:41:57,680
The story of their marriage

590
00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:01,320
has been described as
probably the most unsuccessful

591
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:03,600
and vicious and horrible marriage

592
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:07,680
in the entire history of literary
marriages that we know about.

593
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:11,240
It was as bad as that,
all the biographers will tell you.

594
00:42:11,240 --> 00:42:13,600
And those declining years at the end

595
00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:17,000
when Chertkov gets on the inside
of this and excludes her

596
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:19,040
right up to the bitter end, really,

597
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,120
they make terrible reading.

598
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:25,440
Sonia seemed to believe
that as an old man,

599
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:30,480
he was actually having a homoerotic
affair with this man Chertkov.

600
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:32,600
Nonsense,
but it shows their closeness.

601
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:38,640
"20th August.

602
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:42,600
"Went riding and the sight
of the senorial domain so torments me

603
00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:45,840
"that I'm thinking of running away
and hiding.

604
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:49,520
"Today, I thought as I record
my marriage,

605
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:53,360
"that there was
something fateful about it.

606
00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:59,800
"I was never even in love,
but I couldn't help getting married."

607
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:07,840
In the late summer of 1910,
the Tolstoy marriage hit a new low.

608
00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:11,280
Chertkov had moved into a house
near to Yasnaya Polyana,

609
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:13,320
and a furious row developed

610
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:17,360
over who should have possession
of Tolstoy's diaries.

611
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,920
"9th September 1910.

612
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:26,680
"I wrote a letter to Chertkov
but haven't posted it yet.

613
00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:28,960
"This man is the cause
of all my suffering

614
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:31,960
"and I cannot reconcile myself
to him."

615
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:41,040
"11th September.

616
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:45,200
"Towards evening,
she began making scenes.

617
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:48,200
"Running into the garden...
"tears, screams.

618
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:52,320
"It's even got to the stage that when
I went after out into the garden,

619
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:56,160
"she screamed, 'He's a beast! A
murderer! I can't bear to see him!'"

620
00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:06,400
"24th September.

621
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:11,800
"After dinner she began to reproach
me and say that I shouted at her
and that I ought to pity her.

622
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:15,880
"I remained silent. She went to her
room and now it's after ten o' clock

623
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:18,880
"and she hasn't come out,
and I'm depressed."

624
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:25,840
"A letter from Chertkov
with reproaches and accusations.

625
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:28,000
"They are tearing me to pieces.

626
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:31,480
"I sometimes think
I should go away from them all."

627
00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:38,200
Finally, at the end of October,
one night he was trying to sleep.

628
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:41,640
He heard his wife going through his
papers on his desk in the next room.

629
00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:45,200
He woke up.
He couldn't go back to sleep,

630
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:49,400
and somewhat spontaneously
decided to go,

631
00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:54,400
although we know that during the week
before he was really talking about it

632
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:56,960
very actively with those around him.

633
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,160
So there was definitely a build-up.

634
00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:03,400
You feel like it's really...almost
when you read all of the accounts,

635
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:06,120
it almost feels it's inevitable
he's going to leave.

636
00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:09,680
Do we know what happened on
that night,

637
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:13,360
before she fell asleep,
what happened?

638
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,400
Tolstoy was in bed,
so she entered his bedroom,

639
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:20,360
just looked at Tolstoy,
and then she went to his study,

640
00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:25,280
and Tolstoy, he couldn't sleep
that night, so he didn't sleep well,

641
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:27,560
and so he heard she was in his study

642
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:30,640
looking through the papers.

643
00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:36,600
Then she came back to her bedroom
and so she fell asleep,

644
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:39,160
and Tolstoy...all of a sudden
he understood

645
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:45,520
he couldn't stay any longer here
in this house and decided to go away.

646
00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:51,480
This flight is so often depicted
as spontaneous and it was not.

647
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:55,160
Tolstoy already for years

648
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:57,920
received letters from his followers

649
00:45:57,920 --> 00:45:59,440
urging him to flee.

650
00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:06,360
They expected a full concurrence
of Tolstoy's words and deeds.

651
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:11,160
If he renounced luxury,
and there was no luxury
in Tolstoy's household...

652
00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:15,200
if you visited Yasnaya Polyana
you know, they lived like
English middle class.

653
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:20,360
So but if he renounced property
he has to separate himself

654
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:23,160
from his property and family.

655
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:29,560
So this was expected from him,
and she lived under the pressure

656
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:36,440
for many years and in fear of
their final separation and flight.

657
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:42,720
She knew it would take place and
Tolstoy in his diaries says that

658
00:46:42,720 --> 00:46:47,200
he wants her to give him an excuse
to go away,

659
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:51,440
and finally maybe she
did give this excuse

660
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:57,720
because of her fear
and because of her spying on him.

661
00:46:57,720 --> 00:46:59,360
"October 28th.

662
00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:01,800
"Went to bed at 11.30.

663
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:03,040
"Slept till after two.

664
00:47:03,040 --> 00:47:06,840
"Woke up. I heard the opening
of doors and footsteps.

665
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:11,680
"I saw through the crack
a bright light in the study

666
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:14,400
"and heard rustling.

667
00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:19,480
"It was Sofia Andreevna looking
for something and probably reading.

668
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:22,440
"I wanted to go back to sleep,
but couldn't.

669
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:26,160
"I gasped for breath,
counted my pulse...

670
00:47:26,160 --> 00:47:27,160
"97...

671
00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:34,280
"I couldn't go on lying there,
and suddenly I took
the final decision to leave."

672
00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:39,800
So he came to the stables,
he brought the doctor with him,

673
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:43,720
he went to the coachman's house
first and then came here?

674
00:47:43,720 --> 00:47:46,280
Yeah, and came here
with the coachman.

675
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:50,280
He was waiting in the special part of
the stables where the carriages were.

676
00:47:50,280 --> 00:47:53,200
But on the way to the stables,

677
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:59,040
walking through the apple tree
orchards, he lost his hat,

678
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:01,760
and he was going back to the house,

679
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:07,080
but fortunately he met his doctor,
who had in his pocket another hat.

680
00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:10,640
So what was his mood here
at this time?

681
00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:13,080
He was very nervous.
He was very tense.

682
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:15,280
He worried about his wife,
Sofie Andreevna.

683
00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:18,280
He was thinking was she awake or not.

684
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:21,840
He wanted to go away
as soon as possible.

685
00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:27,800
TRANSLATION: In the end
this was a King Lear moment,

686
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:32,520
the departure of Tolstoy.
It was a genuine Shakespearean drama.

687
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:37,520
When during that cold night
in October he left on his own,

688
00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:42,160
lost his hat, tripped and fell,
then he had to cross a ravine.

689
00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:47,240
They are all terrifying details,
but by this time, he was clearly ill.

690
00:48:47,240 --> 00:48:54,120
Speaking from a kind of
elevated perspective,

691
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:58,600
this was an artist finding a way
to complete a great life.

692
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:10,000
Having left the house in
the dead of night you'd imagine

693
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:14,160
that Tolstoy would have tried to
travel discreetly, but not at all.

694
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:19,280
He boarded a train and proceeded
to lecture the entire carriage

695
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:22,120
on pacifism and non-violence.

696
00:49:25,720 --> 00:49:27,840
His destination was back here.

697
00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:31,120
Back at the monastery
of Optina Pustyn,

698
00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:35,560
where he'd begun his spiritual quest
over 30 years earlier.

699
00:49:35,560 --> 00:49:38,040
He arrived at
the monastery guest house

700
00:49:38,040 --> 00:49:40,240
and announced to the monk on duty,

701
00:49:40,240 --> 00:49:44,720
"I am Lev Nikolaivic Tolstoy,
excommunicated by the church.

702
00:49:44,720 --> 00:49:47,760
"I have come to talk
to your elders."

703
00:49:49,880 --> 00:49:53,840
The following day Tolstoy
left Optina Pustyn

704
00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:56,200
to visit a nearby convent,

705
00:49:56,200 --> 00:50:02,040
where his sister Maria
now lived as a nun.

706
00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:05,520
When he met her in the cell,
he burst into tears.

707
00:50:05,520 --> 00:50:09,520
All that he wanted now
was a chance to live in solitude.

708
00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:14,960
Apparently, they even discussed
how he could rent one of the small
lodges in the monastery grounds.

709
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:19,000
But clearly, Tolstoy had not made
he mind up what to do.

710
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:21,920
At four o' clock the next morning,

711
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:25,520
he once again disappeared
into the night.

712
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:31,400
One of the most
extraordinary aspects

713
00:50:31,400 --> 00:50:33,400
of Tolstoy's journey of escape

714
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:37,200
was the mass of detail in which it
was recorded and commented on,

715
00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:39,080
both in the diaries of Tolstoy

716
00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:42,520
and of the doctor Macaviski,
who accompanied him.

717
00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:46,080
As well as in the correspondence
of his children and friends.

718
00:50:46,080 --> 00:50:49,720
However, amazingly, one thing
that no-one is clear about

719
00:50:49,720 --> 00:50:53,560
is exactly where this 82-year-old
man thought he was going.

720
00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:55,240
There are a number of theories,

721
00:50:55,240 --> 00:50:59,280
but perhaps the truth was
that there was no plan.

722
00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:02,400
As he embarked on yet
another arduous journey

723
00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:05,000
in cramped smoky railway carriages,

724
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:10,040
it's hardly surprising
that he was taken ill.

725
00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:13,960
He appears to have caught a
chill and developed a fever.

726
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:17,840
Eventually, Dr Macaviski decided
they should leave the train

727
00:51:17,840 --> 00:51:20,200
at the next station,
wherever it was,

728
00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:24,040
as Count Tolstoy was no longer
well enough to continue.

729
00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:40,480
Here at Astapovo, a tiny rural
station in the middle of nowhere,

730
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:44,360
Tolstoy was helped up the platform
to the station master's house,

731
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:46,320
where he was offered first a room

732
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:52,240
and eventually the whole house
by the awestruck railwaymen.

733
00:51:52,240 --> 00:51:57,720
Astonishingly, events that unfolded
at Astapovo over the next few days

734
00:51:57,720 --> 00:51:59,480
were captured on film.

735
00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:12,560
"3rd November. Astapovo.

736
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:17,840
"Had a bad night.

737
00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:20,720
"Lay for two days in a fever.

738
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:25,240
"Chertkov came on the second.

739
00:52:25,240 --> 00:52:29,200
"They say that
Sofia Andreevna has, too.

740
00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:31,240
"So much for my plan."

741
00:52:39,280 --> 00:52:43,280
"2nd November 1910.

742
00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:45,680
"I received a telegram at 7.30
this morning.

743
00:52:45,680 --> 00:52:49,440
"Lev Nikolaivic ill in Astapovo.

744
00:52:49,440 --> 00:52:55,160
"Tanya, the nurse and I all left
for Astapovo for a special train."

745
00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:03,040
Sofia only asked and begged everyone
who was walking into the house

746
00:53:03,040 --> 00:53:05,760
to let Tolstoy know
that she was there.

747
00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:10,680
Her greatest fear was that
he would die in her absence,

748
00:53:10,680 --> 00:53:14,880
and that they would not be able
to say farewell to each other.

749
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:19,440
"3rd November. Astapovo.

750
00:53:20,600 --> 00:53:23,880
"Lev Nikolaivic has pneumonia
in the left lung.

751
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:25,680
"They won't let me see him."

752
00:53:29,400 --> 00:53:31,200
"4th November.

753
00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:32,960
"Lev Nikolaivic is worse.

754
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:36,880
"I wait in agony outside
the little house where he is lying.

755
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:38,720
"We are sleeping in the train."

756
00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:43,160
"5th November.

757
00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:45,920
"There is evidently little hope.

758
00:53:45,920 --> 00:53:48,360
"I am tormented by remorse.

759
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:54,400
"The painful anticipation of his end
and the impossibility of seeing
my beloved husband."

760
00:53:55,960 --> 00:53:57,640
"6th November.

761
00:53:57,640 --> 00:54:00,640
"Dreadful atmosphere of anticipation.

762
00:54:00,640 --> 00:54:02,800
"I can't remember anything clearly."

763
00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:05,600
"7th November.

764
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:13,120
"At six o'clock in the morning,
Lev Nikolaivic died.

765
00:54:13,120 --> 00:54:17,120
"I was allowed in only
as he drew his last breath.

766
00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:20,040
"They wouldn't let me
take leave of my husband.

767
00:54:20,040 --> 00:54:21,640
"Cruel people."

768
00:54:33,480 --> 00:54:37,240
Thousands of people went on strike
the day of the funeral.

769
00:54:37,240 --> 00:54:39,480
There were actually some
mass demonstrations

770
00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:41,280
that spilled out into the streets.

771
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:43,520
Real concern
on the part of the government

772
00:54:43,520 --> 00:54:47,960
that this could be an opening up
of that revolutionary energy

773
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:50,400
that they had kind of pressed down

774
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:52,440
after the 1905 Revolution.

775
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:56,480
This is really his most famous story.

776
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:00,800
This is the one that
everyone followed,

777
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:03,280
everyone literally,
everyone in Russia

778
00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:07,400
and people all over the world
were talking about this.

779
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:13,400
It was based on this very
enigmatic gesture of just trying

780
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:16,080
to figure out what he was doing,
where he was going,

781
00:55:16,080 --> 00:55:19,680
what he would do when he got there,
why he had left?

782
00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:25,560
All of these questions provoked
people to create this story,

783
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:27,600
and because it's an unfinished one

784
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:30,440
because he died without
reaching his destination,

785
00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:34,520
it created that opening for people
to imagine what it all meant.

786
00:55:34,520 --> 00:55:38,360
It's hard to find
another story like it.

787
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:42,760
It was a huge demonstration
of public opinion.

788
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:45,440
Most of those crowds weren't
clutching the equivalent

789
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:47,280
of the Times Literary Supplement.

790
00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:48,760
They weren't literary people.

791
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:52,000
They weren't going there because
they so admired War And Peace,

792
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:55,200
they were going there because
they saw him as their saviour.

793
00:55:55,200 --> 00:55:57,240
As the one man who could stand up

794
00:55:57,240 --> 00:56:01,040
and say that the government
of Russia was intolerable.

795
00:56:01,040 --> 00:56:05,560
It's not surprising that
revolution was in the air,

796
00:56:05,560 --> 00:56:08,720
and there'd already
been one minor revolution.

797
00:56:08,720 --> 00:56:11,160
There was going to be
another revolution.

798
00:56:11,160 --> 00:56:14,120
People thought it would
be a Tolstoyan revolution.

799
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:22,600
TRANSLATION: Tolstoy was not
a comfortable figure

800
00:56:22,600 --> 00:56:26,320
for the Tsarist authority in Russia.

801
00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:31,000
Nor was he acceptable to
the Bolshevik communist authorities,

802
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:33,800
and he is still an inconvenience

803
00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:38,280
for the so-called
democratic authorities today.

804
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:41,520
He always said exactly
what he thought,

805
00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:45,560
and this would never have been
appreciated by any form of authority.

806
00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:52,480
When the 5,000 mourners arrived
at the grave

807
00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:56,360
there was no ceremony,
no priest, no cross.

808
00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:59,680
Everyone knelt, including
the armed police

809
00:56:59,680 --> 00:57:02,680
after they were
shouted at by the crowd.

810
00:57:02,680 --> 00:57:06,120
The place Tolstoy had
chosen for his burial

811
00:57:06,120 --> 00:57:11,000
was not the churchyard where
the rest of his family were buried,

812
00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:16,240
but here just by the path
at the edge of the ravine.

813
00:57:16,240 --> 00:57:21,280
The spot where his brother had told
him a little green stick was buried.

814
00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:25,920
The stick on which was written
the secret of universal happiness.

815
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:34,720
I wonder, did Tolstoy
ever get to read

816
00:57:34,720 --> 00:57:37,000
what was on that little green stick?

817
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:41,240
I suspect not.
At least not for himself.

818
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:43,120
This great Russian writer

819
00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:46,720
always seems to have been
at odds with the world,

820
00:57:46,720 --> 00:57:49,960
always in trouble,
and always a trouble maker.

821
00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:57,160
100 years on
from those extraordinary scenes

822
00:57:57,160 --> 00:58:00,880
and the riots and demonstrations
that followed Tolstoy's death,

823
00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:06,240
it's unsurprising that Tolstoy,
the uncompromising critic of church,

824
00:58:06,240 --> 00:58:10,800
state corruption,
social inequality and militarism,

825
00:58:10,800 --> 00:58:15,160
still seems difficult and
problematic, and not just in Russia.

826
00:58:15,160 --> 00:58:18,640
It's easier to applaud Tolstoy
the greatest of novelists,

827
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:22,040
and dismiss Tolstoy
the idealist as a crank.

828
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:24,320
An artist out of his depth.

829
00:58:24,320 --> 00:58:28,800
But the real trouble with Tolstoy is
that so much of what he advocated...

830
00:58:28,800 --> 00:58:32,640
that love is all that matters,
that violence begets violence,

831
00:58:32,640 --> 00:58:36,680
that no man has the right to take
control over the life of another...

832
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:39,640
is uncomfortably
but unavoidably true.

833
00:58:44,920 --> 00:58:47,960
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

834
00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:50,960
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk