Archpriest Georgy Orekhanov. V.G. Chertkov in the life of L.N. Tolstoy. - M.: PSTGU Publishing House, 2014.
The release of a book about Chertkov and Tolstoy, written by an Orthodox clergyman and church historian and labeled "scientific publication", arouses quite predictable interest.
The large-scale celebration of the 100th anniversary of Tolstoy's death seemed to be a suitable occasion to make some kind of inventory of the established stereotypes in the field of study and perception of Tolstoy. However, even now we can say that no "reassessment of all values" (at least - Tolstoy's values) has not happened. Tolstoy is a respectable academic discipline, and in the field of high journalism and essay writing, the late Tolstoy has become the subject of so many interpretations over the past hundred years that to say here, if not a new, then at least not a completely banal word, is not an easy task.
Tem more interesting book arch. G. Orekhanov, since, as is known, the official Russian Orthodoxy(both synodal and Soviet period, and modern), and free Orthodox thinkers were severely disposed towards the word and deed of the late Tolstoy. The Synodal act of 1901 created the perspective that determined the perception of the late Tolstoy "near the church walls."
Orekhanov, on the other hand, offers a look at Tolstoy, the “doctor”, which can be called without exaggeration very balanced and devoid of emotionally negative overtones: “the ideas of L.N. Tolstoy ... were built on a radical denial of church teaching and the mystical component of Christianity in general. Rejecting “historical Christianity”, the writer formulates some new principles, to which he tries to attribute a special status of “proto-Christianity” and the core of which is a rather arbitrary interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount, clothed in the form of the doctrine of “non-resistance to evil by violence”. These principles have a pronounced social connotation.” Here we immediately note that, although Orekhanov speaks of a "writer", he is, in general, not interested in "the writer Tolstoy". Tolstoy, the author of "Hadji Murat", "Father Sergius" and "Master and Worker", is not in the book. There are Tolstoy's letters, articles, diaries - and only peripherally - "Resurrection". The explanation for this is quite simple: the book is not about Tolstoy the writer, but about Tolstoy and Chertkov, more precisely, about Chertkov in Tolstoy's life*. Therefore, the book does not consider not only writer's biography late Tolstoy, but also Tolstoy's doctrine. The author proceeds from the fact that both the postulates of Tolstoy's teaching and the polemical context associated with it are known to the reader, which is correct: the book is not a biography of an idea (Tolstoy's), but a fragment of Chertkov's biography against the background of Tolstoy's biography.
Rozanov, in the article “Where is Tolstoy’s “peace”?” written in the days when Tolstoy was dying in Astapovo, compared Chertkov with Fr. Matthew Rzhevsky. The parallel is seductive in its brightness, but hardly true. Widely known are the words of Tolstoy (written in French) in a letter to Chertkov in 1908: "If Chertkov did not exist, he would have to be invented." Less, it seems, is the continuation of the phrase: "For me, at least for my happiness, for my pleasure." "Eudemonian" V.G. Chertkov, however, was destined to turn in the perception of contemporaries and descendants into a demonic and sinister figure - and the author of the book under review unambiguously shares this view.
Chertkov was close to Tolstoy for nearly thirty years**. Orekhanov explains Tolstoy's initial enthusiasm for Chertkov by Tolstoy's loneliness after his conversion, Chertkov's energy and his, Chertkov's, religious interests. Orekhanov also points to Chertkov's self-criticism, which impressed Tolstoy, but the rest of the presentation does not testify to any kind of Chertkov's self-criticism. It can even be said that for the author of the book this meeting between Tolstoy and Chertkov remains mysterious: the carefully and correctly collected facts do not sum up the answer to the question of how Tolstoy was seduced and captivated by Chertkov's moralizing activism.
Orekhanov dwells in some detail on Chertkov's experience preceding his meeting with Tolstoy. This is a meeting and communication with the followers of Lord Redstock and V.A. Pashkov. Strangely, the author does not mention anywhere that in Anna Karenina the high-society circle of Redstock supporters is presented (ironically) as the salon of Countess Lidia Ivanovna: Tolstoy had no illusions about "old, ugly, virtuous and pious women." And one of the “smart, learned, ambitious men” in this circle is Aleksey Aleksandrovich Karenin. Both in Pashkovism and in Chertkov's religious "search," it seems difficult not to notice that Prot. G. Florovsky called "religious mediocrity"***. Orekhanov himself neutrally remarks that "the sermon of 'Pashkovism' bore a pronounced Protestant character of a marginal persuasion."
Overactive, demanding to the point of cruelty, in the Tolstoyan movement Chertkov became "plus royaliste que le roi", turning Tolstoy's preaching into a dogmatic system served by a whole staff of "assistants" who turned in Tolstoy's house into "suppliers of information" about Tolstoy's every step and word. Chertkov really "should have been invented" for Tolstoy's metaphysical tragedy to acquire the dimension of an unresolved "scandal".
V.F. Khodasevich wrote in 1933: “The line beyond which a biographer has no right to cross cannot be established in principle. A biographer who consciously avoids certain questions does not stand up to criticism. He must either strive to know and understand everything, or completely refuse to perform his task. In relation to Tolstoy, such a refusal would be tantamount to a refusal to study Tolstoy in general. Therefore, it seems quite justified the special attention paid in the book to the question of Tolstoy's secret will, which turned out to be, in fact, the key to last years Tolstoy's life. The role of Chertkov, without exaggeration violent in relation to Tolstoy, in this "struggle for the testament" is described by Orekhanov in detail and, what is very important, with the evidence of both Chertkov's supporters and opponents. It is important to note that the author almost does not touch upon the relationship between Chertkov and S.A. Tolstoy, "believing that these relations had the character of a complex and contradictory tragedy, which is quite fully considered in the scientific literature"*.
The author dwells in detail on Tolstoy's deathbed. The question of Tolstoy's visit to Optina Hermitage is key for Orekhanov in understanding the finale of Tolstoy's life. In his opinion, “[t]here seems to be that the “Optinsky leaven” that the writer received in his youth still wandered in him in last days“He sought spiritual support where he could find it and always found where the elders lived, where he was never rejected.” At the same time, Tolstoy “at the first appearance of the messengers of the closest friend [i.e. Chertkova, - M.E.] showed cowardice.” Orekhanov also carefully examines the issue of Tolstoy's possible appeal, already from Astapovo, to the Optina monks with a request for a meeting - and about the attempts of the Optina monks to see Tolstoy in Astapovo, which was most severely suppressed by Chertkov and his associates. Orekhanov notes: “... it seems that Chertkov’s desire by any means to prevent the writer from repenting, reuniting with the Church and meeting not only with the clergy, but even with S.A. Tolstoy explains, in addition to religious views Chertkov himself, and his fear that in the last days of Tolstoy's life, his will, under the influence of representatives of the Church, could be changed in favor of his wife or children. It would be reckless and presumptuous to unequivocally interpret Tolstoy's intentions - in the form in which we know about them, but the possible motives for the behavior of Chertkov, who, in fact, took Tolstoy hostage to his "Tolstoy-enlightenment" mania, as presented by Orekhanov, are quite plausible. The author successfully avoids decreeing intonations, leaving the reader room for their own conclusions and not imposing the “orthodoxy” of their worldview.
Orekhanov is well acquainted not only with the “literature of the question”, but also with sources, including those that have not been published to this day**. He remarks: “for some mysterious reasons, the archive of V.G. Chertkov still remains not only not studied scientifically, but even completely not described. The author of the study has reputable and reliable consultants, employees State Museum Tolstoy in Moscow and the State Museum of Tolstoy "Yasnaya Polyana".
However, the book is not free from flaws. So, it is hardly appropriate to talk about the “image” of Tolstoy (p. 66) and Chertkov (p. 8), call Chertkov an “image maker” (p. 136), and Tolstoy a “global[m] PR phenomenon[om]” (p. 155), assert that "the writer's anti-church sermon was a landmark event in the life of Russia" (p. 91). This linguistic sloppiness and connivance with modern Newspeak is hardly appropriate, especially in a book in which Tolstoy is one of the main characters.
IN scientific publication the assertion that one of Chertkov's assistants, G.A. Punga "according to some reports, in the 1920s. served as Minister of Finance in the government of Latvia” (p. 58), since this is not “some information”, but historical fact: Punga was finance minister Republic of Latvia from June 28, 1923 to January 26, 1924.
The calculation of the total circulation published by Chertkov looks strange. English translations Tolstoy in "400 million pages" (p. 47). Yet the circulation is determined by the number of copies, not pages or characters.
However, these technical errors do not end there. Much more serious objections are raised, for example, by the rapprochement of Chertkov’s personality with literary character Stavrogin from "Demons". The author himself makes reservations, stating, however, “about possible biographical parallels” (p. 25): “Of course, this comparison is possible only within certain limits. If, nevertheless, it is admissible and not without justification, it remains only in Once again marvel at the prophetic gift of the Russian writer, down to the most mundane details: in the novel “Demons” Stavrogin is the son of General Stavrogina and is nicknamed “Prince Harry” (p. 25). On the previous page, Orekhanov writes that the young Chertkov had the nickname “le beau Dima” (p. 24), and the general’s mother is hardly sufficient reason for “biographical parallels” between a person and a literary character, not to mention the fact that that Dostoevsky's ability to "marvel at the prophetic gift" adds nothing to the examination of the Chertkov phenomenon.
Elsewhere, considering Tolstoy's departure from Yasnaya Polyana, Orekhanov writes: “The question that interests us is with what feeling did Tolstoy leave the estate, what was behind this departure, in other words, what happened in the soul of the great writer?” (p. 93). The question of “what happened in the soul” is in itself possible and for a clergyman it is legitimate. However, for the researcher, such a formulation is fraught with complications. The analysis and interpretation of sources can easily turn into "reading in the hearts." Orekhanov feels the fragility of this frontier, but it seems that in this he lacks just research reflection.
With all the shortcomings noted, the book by Prot. G. Orekhanova - noteworthy experience of understanding the "problem of Tolstoy" in the Orthodox research community.
Page 228
* G. Orekhanov specifically stipulates that he considers “first of all the activities of V.G. Chertkov until 1917, although in some cases, obeying the logic of the construction of the work, one has to go beyond these time frames.
** Over the years, Tolstoy wrote "more letters to Chertkov than to any other person, including members of his family."
*** Although, as is known, Florovsky in his Ways of Russian Theology applied this expression to Tolstoy himself: “He undoubtedly had the temperament of a preacher or a moralist, but he had no religious experience at all. Tolstoy was not religious at all, he was religiously mediocre. At one time, Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky noted this very boldly. In Tolstoy's teaching he saw only a surrogate for religion, fit only "for a group of educated sectarians." Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky judged like a non-religious humanist, but he observed correctly.
Page 229
* But, revealingly, Orekhanov does not give any bibliographical note at this point in his text.
** The reader may be surprised to learn, for example, that the diary of P.I. Biryukov has not yet been published and is cited from an autograph stored in the RGALI (p. 148).
L. N. Tolstoy with V. G. Chertkov in 1906.
Tolstoy's life triangle
The departure of L. N. Tolstoy from Yasnaya Polyana seriously excited everyone Russian society and remained one of the hot topics in the press after his funeral. This interest is expanding day by day. And although the number of people involved in the discussion increased, the main actors Leo Tolstoy, Sofya Andreevna, Chertkov still remained in the scandalous case. Passions ran high around a kind of triangle day by day.
According to the testimony of a faithful student of Lev Nikolaevich - Alexei Sergienko, who kept diaries and helped in correspondence on April 26-27, 1910, Lev Nikolaevich said: "I know that no one loves me like Vladimir Grigorievich." And quite shortly before his death, Tolstoy expressed himself in French: “If Chertkov did not exist, he would have to be invented. For me, at least for my happiness.”
During Tolstoy's illness in Astapovo, she best friend and the executor was inseparably near him until his death. Vladimir Grigoryevich was the first of the mortally ill writer whom he wished to see at his bedside. Countess Tolstaya, who arrived in Astapovo and was not allowed to see her husband, fiercely hated Chertkov, threw thunder and lightning, poured all kinds of curses on his head.
Vladimir Grigoryevich tried his best not to catch her eye in Ozolin's house.
Chertkov and Sofya Andreevna fought desperately with each other. Tolstoy's family and his entourage were divided into two camps. Ilya, Andrey, Mikhail, Leo - for the mother. The camp of Chertkov included Goldenweiser, Feokritova, Makovitsky, secretaries of Tolstoy, Alexandra Lvovna. Sergey and Tatyana kept neutrality. Lev Lvovich fully supports his mother.
On November 16, 1910, in Novoye Vremya, he published a letter: “Therefore, guilt falls on one Chertkov premature death father. On his vanity, the boundlessly one-sided and stupid influence under which he lived the last years of his life, and especially the months, my poor old father.
Somewhat later, on November 22, before leaving for Paris, he gave an interview: “Only the will, hidden from the family under pressure from Chertkov and giving rise to his father’s mental anguish, was the reason for his departure from Yasnaya Polyana.”
After him, another brother, Ilya, in response to this letter, circulated the following statement in a number of newspapers: "... in my opinion, a narrow and biased interpretation of Chertkov's meaning detracts from the greatness of my father's memory." The eldest, Sergei Lvovich, enters into the controversy: "... I do not object to the letter of my brother Lev Lvovich Tolstoy, which deeply upset me, about Chertkov's influence on our father, only because I consider polemics with him on this issue unacceptable." A few days later, Tatyana Sukhotina's daughter also made a statement.
Secret testament
In the family strife, of course, the stumbling block was the will of L. N. Tolstoy, drawn up and signed in the spirit of special secrecy. This document was written on July 22, 1910, at about 3 pm, two versts from Yasnaya Polyana, near the village of Grumond, in the Zasek state forest.
Leo Tolstoy, who arrived on horseback, wrote on a stump, copying from a draft with an English reservoir pen. The will was signed by his hand, and also certified by witnesses: A. B. Goldenweiser, A. D. Radynsky, A. P. Sergeenko. An additional order by L. N. Tolstoy was attached to the will: “V. G. Chertkov to publish the works of Leo Tolstoy on the same grounds, that is, without pursuing any material personal goals.
Vladimir Grigorievich Chertkov is a significant person among Tolstoy's like-minded people. He was allowed a lot. He alone could enter the office of Lev Nikolaevich during his work. Considered a great student, he had unrestricted access to his teacher's diary. Even without being around, Chertkov occupied the thoughts of the writer. Only Chertkov could disobey and disagree with Tolstoy's opinion. Lev Nikolaevich once asked a student to join the society for the fight against alcoholism, which he was trying to introduce in Russia, and he said that he could not promise anything.
hunting farm
The life of V. G. Chertkov, a friend and publisher of L. N. Tolstoy, is closely connected with the neighboring Voronezh region. Here was his estate - the hunting farm Rzhevsk, which he received as a gift from his uncle Mikhail - the ataman of the Don Cossacks in 1868.
General M. I. Chertkov participated in the construction railway Voronezh-Rostov, so Chertkovo station is named after him. The old name still exists today. The names of many villages in the south came from the noblemen Chertkovs. Voronezh region: Ekaterinovka, Lizinovka, Marievka, Nikolaevka ... In the city of Rossosh there is a bell tower-temple of Alexander Nevsky, built by Chertkov. Khutor Rzhevsk disappeared from the map, like many others " noble nests”, but the name of Chertkovs is known even now.
In their ancient aristocratic family there was a custom, which P. D. Chaly tells about in the book “Russian Provincial Estates”: “The Chertkovs were in the ranks of generals. When a landowner died, uniforms embroidered with gold, orders and stars were transferred to temples so that the people could see what honor the deceased deserved.
In the old part of Rossosh, the remains of a landowner's estate have been preserved, and in Lizinovka there is a craft school open to peasant children. In the Ostrogozhsky Museum you can see a painting by the famous Russian artist Alexei Kivshenko, which depicts a young V. G. Chertkov, who received the most refined aristocratic education, a brilliant guards officer.
And suddenly this darling of fate resigns and leaves St. Petersburg.
Vladimir lost interest in secular life and went to the wilderness, to the farm. He was overcome by questions of relations between the masters and the peasants, the arbitrariness of the authorities, the unfair way of life.
There is a legend about how at the ball the queen herself gave a handsome officer a flower in his buttonhole, and he did not want to be a favorite out of pride. Mental discord led young man to the house of Leo Tolstoy. Chertkov was then 29 years old, and Lev Nikolayevich - 55. At that time he was the author of "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina".
After the first conversation with the great writer, Vladimir wrote down: "We met as old acquaintances." Lev Nikolaevich in a letter to a friend says: “I know your dissatisfaction with yourself, your awareness of the inconsistency of life with the demands of the heart, from my own experience.” They will become soul mates and friends for life. Moreover, the youngest of them will become the most important Tolstoyan.
Chertkov moved to his parents' estate in Lizinovka, Voronezh province. He was absorbed in caring for the needs of the peasants, opened savings and loan associations, consumer shops, libraries, schools, reading rooms, a tea room, and built a craft school. It trained carpenters, tinsmiths, shoemakers.
Vladimir Grigoryevich then left his home, moved to the teachers of the vocational school, began to travel with the people in the 3rd class carriages. He was engaged in Zemstvo service, accounting, traveled to schools. Chertkov sent a letter to his mentor: "Lev Nikolaevich, come, approve, help." LN Tolstoy wrote in his diary on March 23, 1894: "I'm going to go to Chertkov." On March 26, he notes: “I am writing from Olginskaya, which I reached perfectly ... There is no snow here ...”. Tolstoy stayed with Chertkov for four days with his daughter Maria, visited the peasants and returned to Moscow.
"Intermediary"
Earlier, in February 1884, Tolstoy, after meeting with Chertkov, wrote: “I am getting more and more carried away and more thought publishing books for the education of Russian people. This idea pleased Chertkov. The famous book publisher Ivan Sytin recalls: “In November 1884, a very handsome young man in a high beaver hat, in an elegant fur coat, entered the shop on Staraya Square and said: “My name is Chertkov. I would like you to publish these books for the people.” From that moment began the publication of the "Intermediary". Cheap, at the same time elegant, with drawings by Repin, Surikov, Kivshenko, books were very popular among the people.
During publishing Vladimir Grigorievich met his future wife, close in spirit, -Anna Konstantinovna Diterichs, from a military family known in Russian history. After marriage, they move to Rzhevsk, where the "Mediator" was located. On the farm, books by Tolstoy, Chekhov, Korolenko, Garshin, Leskov, Ertel and other classics of Russian literature, works by thinkers were being prepared for printing. different countries and peoples.
L. N. Tolstoy directed the work of his assistants and edited books. He said: “Our goal is to publish what is accessible, understandable, necessary for everyone, and not for a small circle of people, and has a moral content ...”. Writers and artists came to the farm. Rzhevsk has become a kind of center of culture. The famous itinerant artist N. A. Yaroshenko creates here the paintings “A student student”, “In warm regions”. The canvases depict Chertkov's wife, Anna Konstantinovna. She was fond of philosophy, helped her husband turn their estate into a center for promoting Christianity.
Chief Tolstoyan
Being engaged in charity, Chertkov helped the peasants with money, food, clothes, he believed: “I don’t play the role of a benefactor, because I feel the surrounding population is my benefactor, and not vice versa.”
Mother - Elizaveta Ivanovna, a rich aristocrat, indulged her son in everything. She was related to the families of the Decembrists. The wife of Alexander II, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, offered her the position of lady of state in the palace, but she refused. After the death of her two sons and her disabled husband, the former general, Elizaveta Ivanovna found solace in the evangelical sect and took up charity work.
V. G. Chertkov decided to collect the manuscripts of L. Tolstoy and convinced Maria Lvovna, who was closer in her views to her father, of this. To this end, he sent a man to Yasnaya Polyana who, for a fee, rewrote the writer's drafts. Some of Tolstoy's relatives suspected Chertkov of selfish interests. But without his painstaking and exhausting work there would be no 90-volume complete works.
Meanwhile, the authorities were paying more and more attention to the actions of V. G. Chertkov and his family.
It’s no wonder that 60 peasant children were taught annually at the school of artisans at their expense, the mother arranged an emergency room, opened a folk shop. Ten thousand rubles were returned to the peasants annually out of 20 thousand of income. In February 1897, Chertkov was exiled to England for the sectarian, Doukhobor movements that were supported by the Tolstoyans, but he continued to publish Tolstoy’s books banned in Russia there, compiled his archive, published a newspaper, and wrote articles directed against the autocracy.
Returning from England after ten years of exile, the Chertkovs settled in 1907 near Yasnaya Polyana. In England, the Americans gave Chertkov five million dollars for the archive of the "great old man", but he returned the manuscripts to his homeland. Grief happened in the Chertkov family - daughter Olga died. Tolstoy, in turn, confided to Chertkov about the dramas in his family, because they were spiritually close. Shortly before his arrival in Russia, Vladimir Grigorievich once wrote to his teacher that he was happy to have found a spiritual companion in his wife and expressed regret that Tolstoy was unlucky.
Sofya Andreevna read the letter, she was indignant. In her diary on March 9, 1887, she wrote: “This is a stupid, cunning and untruthful person who has entangled Lev Nikolaevich with flattery, wants / probably in a Christian way / to destroy the connection that for about 25 years we have been so closely connected in every possible way ... Relations with Chertkov must be stopped. It's all lies and evil, but stay away from that." Much earlier, Sofya Andreevna had a different opinion about him: elegant, smart, educated.
L. N. Tolstoy treated Chertkov with extraordinary respect. He transferred all powers to his hands. Not a single new line of the writer could appear in print without the permission of the student, who alone dealt with all Russian and foreign publishers. Chertkov personally selected translators, supervised the production of works on the publication of works, and set dates for the publication of publications. He was even called "the only minister" of Tolstoy. An unbending, unshakable Tolstoyan, they enjoyed incredible respect.
The Chertkovs at first lived in Yasenki, which is five versts from Yasnaya, then settled in Telyatinki in two-story house. On the ground floor lived "comrades-in-arms" - secretaries and other servants. These 20 people despised property and comfort, slept on the floor, on only straw. Everyone dined at a long table with the owners, but ate different dishes, depending on who was on what social level. To ordinary people- watchmen, laundresses, workers were served porridge with vegetable oil, and others more refined dishes, but no one was offended by this.
Chertkov himself with his wife, son Vladimir and mother were located on the second floor. However, the son did not want to study or bathe, he said that you can live like a man only if you completely simplify.
After the funeral of his great teacher, Chertkov remained his faithful executor, and together with his wife devoted themselves to one thing - the publication of Tolstoy's writings. In 1918 and 1920, in the Kremlin, V. G. Chertkov agreed to be the editor-in-chief at the suggestion of Lenin.
90 volumes have been prepared for publication. Chertkov held in his hands the 72nd volume of the complete works, ready for publication. But at the time of V. G. Chertkov’s death in 1936 at the age of 82, like L. N. Tolstoy, 15 volumes were published. Chertkov's son Vladimir was busy with restoring the estate of his ancestors. In 2000, a memorial stone was erected on the site of the manor house.
Yuri RUDAKOV.
Vladimir Grigoryevich Chertkov, who was born in St. Petersburg into a wealthy aristocratic court family and at the age of nineteen entered the service of the Horse Guards Regiment, retired in the early 1880s, unexpectedly abandoning the prospect of brilliant career military or statesman. He left for family estate Chertkov - Lizinovka, Voronezh province, and began to actively engage in activities to improve the lives of peasants. The main event that determined its entire further fate, was a meeting with Tolstoy in 1883. From now on, Chertkov devoted his whole life to collecting, storing, publishing and distributing the works and ideas of Leo Tolstoy.
Chertkov was a multi-talented person. He organized the Posrednik publishing house, which from March 1885 produced cheap books for the people. Together with P. I. Biryukov and I. M. Tregubov, Chertkov came to the defense of the Doukhobors by publishing the pamphlet Help! in England. For this, he was threatened with Siberian exile, but thanks to the intervention of the Empress Mother, with whom his mother Elizaveta Ivanovna Chertkova was closely acquainted, he was expelled from Russia. Since 1897, living in England, Chertkov took up an active social activities, participated in the organization of the resettlement of the Doukhobors to Canada. He placed the manuscripts, drafts, copies of Tolstoy's letters and diaries received from Russia in a special repository, equipped in accordance with the latest advances in technology. Chertkov translated Tolstoy's works into English language, published new, as well as Tolstoy's works previously distorted or banned by Russian censorship. He, like no one else from Tolstoy's contemporaries and entourage, contributed to his lifetime European and world fame.
In 1908, Chertkov and his family returned to Russia and settled on the Telyatinki farm, located not far from Yasnaya Polyana. In March 1909, due to the denunciations of some Tula landowners, Chertkov received an expulsion order from the Tula province and settled with his family in the Krekshino estate near Moscow. In May 1910, Chertkov, with his wife and employees, moved to the Otradnoye estate in the Moscow province, but in the summer he received permission to return to Telyatinki for the duration of his mother Elizaveta Ivanovna's stay there. In Astapovo, Chertkov spent the last days and hours of his life with Tolstoy.
In the spiritual life of Tolstoy, a special place was given to close friends. In the last years of his life, Chertkov became the closest person to him. Tolstoy's long-term correspondence with him is five volumes in full assembly writer's writings. In his diary dated April 6, 1884, Tolstoy noted in connection with Chertkov: "He is surprisingly one-centered with me" (49, 78). Fifteen years later, Tolstoy lamented in a letter to his friend Chertkov: Lately all these trifling matters obscured, clouded our connection. And I felt sad and sorry and wanted to throw off everything that hinders me and feel again that dear one, because not personal, but through God, my connection with you, very strong and dear to me. With no one, as with you (however, every connection is special), there is no such definite Divine connection - such a clear relationship of ours through God" (88, 169). And ten years later Tolstoy's attitude towards Chertkov did not change: “What a joy it is to have a friend like you.<…>And we draw closer not because we want it, but because we strive for one center - God, the highest perfection accessible to human understanding. And this meeting on the path of approaching the center is a great joy” (89, 133). “There is a whole realm of thoughts, feelings that I cannot so naturally [share] with anyone else – knowing that I am completely understood – as with you” (89, 230), Tolstoy wrote on October 26, 1910, his last letter Chertkov from Yasnaya Polyana.
Tolstoy highly appreciated the spiritual closeness with Chertkov, was grateful to a like-minded friend for their devotion common cause. A few days before his death, on November 1, he wrote to his eldest children Sergei and Tatyana from the Astapovo station: “You will both understand that Chertkov, whom I called, is in an exceptional position in relation to me. He devoted his life to serving the cause that I also served in the last 40 years of my life” (82, 222).
In a crooked mirror
On June 26, S. A. Tolstaya made the first entry in her diary in 1910, after her husband returned from Chertkov. The immediate impetus for starting recordings was the news that my husband had transferred the diaries to Chertkov for safekeeping and the entry from Tolstoy's diary I read: "I want to try to consciously fight Sonya with kindness, love" (58, 67). Having heard about the fate of her husband's diaries, she decided to rebuff Chertkov. In the diary, Sofya Andreevna no longer tried so much to capture certain events family life how much - to disown the looming prospect of Xanthippe appearing before the world, and she resolutely defended herself. In October, S. A. Tolstaya stated: “My diaries are a sincere cry of the heart and truthful descriptions of everything that is happening with us.” She insisted on the existence of another - her own truth.
Chertkov's image diary entries Sofia Andreevna and oral reviews were unchanged: close friend and Tolstoy's like-minded person appeared in them as a rude and stupid person, an idol and an evil Pharisee, Satan or the devil. Burning hatred for Chertkov was the cause of Sofya Andreevna's insane actions, and the relentless struggle with him was her main goal and painful fix idea. When Chertkov appeared in the Yasnaya Polyana house, she experienced extreme nervous tension. On the balcony of the Yasnaya Polyana house, standing with her shoes off, the countess eavesdropped on Tolstoy's conversations with him. Sofya Andreevna continually suspected her husband, Chertkov, and daughter Sasha of conspiracies against her. Sometimes she unceremoniously interfered in Tolstoy's conversations with guests and behaved tactlessly with Chertkov, and in recent months she essentially forbade her husband from seeing him. In her struggle with Chertkov, Sofya Andreevna did not stop at nothing. With the guests of Yasnaya Polyana and with those living in the house, she tirelessly shared her assumptions about her husband's special relationship with Chertkov. Whether this was a manifestation of her morbidly hysterical state or a deliberate decision to strike at Tolstoy's reputation, now one can only speculate, inevitably, however, while taking the side of certain participants in the Yasnaya Polyana events of the summer and autumn of 1910. Sofya Andreevna often lost control over herself: “I just saw them in my imagination locked in a room, with their eternal secret talking about something, and the suffering from these ideas immediately turned my thoughts to the pond, to cold water in which I now, this very minute, can find complete and eternal oblivion of everything and deliverance from my torments of jealousy and despair! Reflecting on the dramatic Yasnaya Polyana events, Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy wrote that Sofya Andreevna, reality “was presented as if in a distorted mirror, and at times she (Sofya Andreevna. - N. M.) lost her self-control, so that in some of her words and actions she could not be recognized as sane.
In those months of 1910, Sofya Andreevna was no longer as attentive as before to her husband's activities and his health. She could enter him at any moment, both during the day and during a night's sleep, more than once arranged ugly, terrifying scenes for their witnesses and harassed Tolstoy with suicide threats. Her suspicion knew no bounds, she rummaged through the papers of Tolstoy, the daughter of Sasha and her secretary Varvara Feokritova, publicly interrogated the servants, followed Tolstoy during his walks.
The struggle with Chertkov inevitably led Sofya Andreevna to confrontation with her husband. At times, in her everyday remarks about him, she was quite harsh. In the diary of S. A. Tolstoy herself, there is no mention of these emotional attacks, but there is something else, much more significant: accusations against Leo Tolstoy.
Sofya Andreevna asked, counting on understanding: “And who, if not Lev Nikolaevich, needs this luxury? Doctor - for health and care; two writing machines and two scribes - for the writings of Lev Nikolai; Bulgakov - for correspondence; Ilya Vasilyevich is a lackey for caring for a weak old man. A good cook is for Leo H's weak stomach. The whole burden of raising funds, farming, printing books - everything rests on me, so that I can give Lev Nick all my life. tranquility, comfort and leisure for his works". Sometimes it seemed to her that she was the only one who understood real reason what is happening: “For the fact that I have seen the light in many ways, Lev Nikol. hates me, and the stubborn taking away of the diaries is the closest weapon to hurt and punish me. Oh! this is feigned Christianity with malice towards those closest to us instead of simple kindness and honest, fearless frankness!”
Tolstoy's days... Why is it that in all human "anniversaries" something unpleasant, unseemly is always entwined? It must be the way people are. The intentions are the most commendable: to remember a person “on occasion” ... You can’t always remember, so at least on occasion. However, immoderation immediately begins: both in praise, and in dragging a heap of useless things, and in looking for “night shoes; nearby, a dispute rises - either about praises, or about shoes, and in the dispute between the living among themselves, the “dear hero of the day” imperceptibly drowns.
Tolstoy is especially happy (or unhappy) on "anniversaries". He himself disliked them terribly. But they began with him during his lifetime, and after his death, if you turn off a few years, when there was no time for anniversaries, every year there is some kind of "accident", an occasion for judgments, condemnations and praises of Tolstoy.
I repeat this, fundamentally, it is not bad at all, and it is understandable if we recall Maklakov's recent remark; he says, “that the world did not follow Tolstoy, and did well, for it is impossible to live according to Tolstoy; but Tolstoy awakened the human conscience. Disturbed the soul - to the good Since this anxiety continues well. Is it not, however, beginning to degenerate into a mere hype of jubilee celebrations?
And in Tolstoy's homeland, in Bolshevik Russia, it is even worse: there they frankly want to "use" Tolstoy (they do not disdain even the "small benefit"). And in general, - if, according to the proverb " dead body at least prop up the fence," propping up various fences with Tolstoy's body is especially in vogue; but when the Bolshevik fence is propped up by him, and even by the hands of "disciples" (Gusev's recent pamphlet is an excellent example), it is very disgusting to look at.
And we... More and more often I think that we are vainly throwing ourselves at every convenient "occasion" to chat about Tolstoy, to honor Tolstoy. Out of love for him, it would be necessary to keep the memory closed, sacredly bring it to another time. Now we are the wounded; the wound hurts, and where is there to judge something calmly and soberly, to evaluate it fairly. Into each of our old loves, the most eternal and faithful, some kind of bitterness is now often poured. Love requires chaste silence in times like ours, when—
"From pain we are eyeless ...".
And love for Tolstoy - in particular. And then it turns out: some form Tolstoy, making him almost a guardian angel of Russia, having lost whom she fell; others, on the contrary, consider him a predecessor of the Bolsheviks (!), while still others, who try to talk about him outside of time and space, simply do not get anything.
Without touching Tolstoy himself, remembering something or someone from his environment is another matter. Near Tolstoy had a lot of curiosity. Almost all the Tolstoyans, so different and so sadly similar, are interesting; no less, and some of the ardent anti-Tolstoyans. Of particular interest is their relationship with Tolstoy; sometimes even mysterious.
Sofya Andreevna, her strong anti-Tolstoy attitude, the entire so-called "Yasnaya Polyana drama" are understandable to anyone who has peered into the image of this whole Russian woman, wife and mother. Tolstoy's attitude towards her is also clear: while changing, he remained unchanged in love for the friend of his whole life - love, moreover, sighted, he perfectly saw Sofya Andreevna.
I confess that the most mysterious thing for me is the figure of Chertkov. And not just for me, for all of us, I think. We don't see him. But Tolstoy, who saw people like that and showed them to us, did not show Chertkov. In a letter to Al. L. (already after leaving, before his death) called him “the closest and the right person»; this seems to be all we learn from Tolstoy. Still not seeing Chertkov, we do not understand why he is “the closest and most needed”; and even to believe a word - we are somehow afraid: after all, the whole letter, where it is said, with all the words written there, to such an extent not tolstoy, on Tolstoy, as we heard and loved him, not like that you completely do not believe him; closeness of Chertkov to the real Tolstoy - also...
To this truly terrible letter I shall return; in the meantime, I want to make a small extract from my “Petersburg. diary,” not, of course, in order to solve Chertkov’s riddle, but simply to add my impression of this “closest and most necessary” person to Tolstoy to the impressions of other people who met him.
“... I don’t want to write, I force myself, I write private things ... Here we had Shokhor-Trotsky. He asked someone to collect, brought the material "Tolstoy and the war." After all, Tolstoyans are now entirely in prison for their attitude towards the war. Soon Shokhor himself sits down.
Gathered. Read. Other curious. Seryozha Popov with his letters (“my brother of the policeman!”), with the angelic patience of beatings in prisons, is a holy child. And a lot of them, saints. But ... something is not right here. Children, children. Don't win the war like that!
Then Chertkov himself came.
I sat (together with Shokhor) the whole evening. Strikingly "dislike" this man. Humble and ironic. A restrained smile, unkind, twists his lips. It is as if his “zest” has become stiff in him, large and unnecessary. In an unobtrusive shirt. He has irony in everything. Even when he humbly drinks hot water with lollipops (instead of tea with sugar) - and he does this somehow ironically. He also argues, and when the irony sounds with scornful notes, he catches himself and covers them with humble ones.
Not stupid, of course, and angry.
He left us the manuscript of Tolstoy and His Departure from Yasnaya Polyana, unpublished and impossible to print. I think, and in England (where he wants to publish it). This is a selection of facts, as if objective, sealed with the lines of Tolstoy's own diary (even at the very moment of departure). The manuscript is amazing and... some unthinkable. There is something impossible in the very fact of its existence. Offensive. For whom? Sofia Andreevna? In the very selection of facts, and indeed in every line, there is Chertkov's vicious hatred of her. Offensive for Tolstoy? Don't know. But for love Tolstoy to this woman - probably.
There is a nasty inscription on the manuscript - Chertkov's request "do not copy anything from here." As if any of us would have thought to do it!
Pero Chertkov skillfully emphasized “the murderous deeds of Sofya Andreevna. Down to small lines. The eternal secret search for the will she wanted to destroy. Right down to the pockets. AND heavy scenes. And when, as if someone said to her: “Yes, you are killing Lev Nikolaevich!” She replied, “Well then! I will go abroad! By the way, I've never been there!
It is curious that this may be true, but for me it is an opportunity to probe what Chertkov is doing with the “truth”. Under his pen, these words of S.A. they sound brutal, and no one will hear them otherwise than brutally; but I have the opportunity to imagine them differently, very close to what she told me on the balcony of Yasnaya Polyana, on a cold May evening, in 1904. The three of us stood, me, D. Merezhskovsky and she, looked into the twilight garden. There was talk about, it seems, that we are on the way abroad, we are going straight there. S.A., with the lively speed of a semi-serious joke, objected to me: “No, no, you better stay with Lev Nikolaevich, and I with Dm. Serg. going abroad: Because I've never been there!».
Say that S.A. expressed a desire to go abroad with a strange husband from Yasnaya Polyana - after all, there would be “truth”? Chertkovskaya, like the one, probably, about which he writes. If we imagine that in response to the reproach of "someone", obviously hated, S.A. maliciously threw the same familiar phrase about abroad - "atrocity" seems to be eclipsed ... But S.A. I'm not "justifying," since I'm being dragged to trial her with damned "facts." I just trust them.
On the night of his departure, Tolstoy (his diary is given) was already in bed, but did not sleep when he saw the light from behind the slightly closed door to the study. He realized that it was S.A. again with a candle rummages through his papers, again a will. It became so hard for him that he did not call out to her for a long time. Finally he called, and then she came in, as if she had just got up "to see if he was sleeping peacefully", for "she was worried about his health." This lie was the last straw of all domestic lies, which overflowed the cup of patience. Here is a wonderful touch (in the diary). I don't remember the real words; I know that he is writing, as he sat up on the bed, still in the dark, alone (S.A., having said goodbye, left) - and began to count his pulse.
He was strong and even.
After that, Tolstoy got up and began to dress, quietly, fearing that "she" would hear and return.
The rest is known ... He left - towards death.
How lucky it is that he died! What does not see our terrible hour - this unprecedented war. And if he sees, he “is not afraid of him, for he understands...", and here we are - nothing, nothing! ..
Much water has flowed under the bridge since 1915. The children of Tolstoy were divided, the Tolstoyans too: some of them in the USSR, others in Europe. Chertkov and Gusev (the Bolshevik fence recently propped up by Tolstoy) are in the USSR. About Chertkov, as always, little is heard. Even in these "Tolstoy days" I caught my eye, signed by Chertkov, only something brief, dry and base at the same time, a reprint (in Svob.) from a Moscow magazine. Whether his "impossible" manuscript was published in its entirety, I do not know. It probably was, because all things are now known there. I do not remember exactly whether the manuscript also included that cruel, non-Tolstoy letter to Tolstoy mentioned above; Aldanov now cites him (in Sovr. Zap.). I think it was in the manuscript, and if I don’t remember it, then because it merged too much with it in the same hateful line, magnificently confirming the “truth” (Chertkov’s). It talks about “peeping, eavesdropping”, about “sham hatred for the person closest and most necessary to me” and even about “obvious hatred towards me and pretense of love”...”. “If someone drowns, then certainly not for her, but for me”, “I want one thing - freedom from her, from this lies, pretense and malice, which pervaded her whole being».
Aldanov emphasizes the cruel words (or are they underlined in the original? Anyway, all the words are equally not Tolstoy) and asks: “Did he write this terrible testimony about the woman with whom he lived for 48 years in the heat of the moment? Or, perhaps, that demon that tormented Tolstoy broke through in him, pushed his hand?
Maybe a demon too. 'Cause we don't know Who Chertkov. But here's what we know, and probably: "the closest and most necessary" for a genuine Tolstoy was truth, there was clarity, forgiveness to others - not forgiveness to oneself, the inflexibility of love, i.e. just something that is not in Chertkov's manuscripts, nor in the letter, which was "pushed by the demon." And if we know this, and believe in the genuine need of the genuine Tolstoy, we can say with perfect right: Tolstoy did not see Chertkov, his eyes "were held back." Chertkov was not "the closest and most necessary" to him. After all, one thing: truth and love or revenge and hatred.
"Petersburg Record", from which I take quotes, long years was considered dead, and only recently, by some miracle, was returned to me. Not all, only the first part, and the manuscript ends at such a brief note:
“Seven years since the death of Leo Tolstoy. No one remembered him: “Well, I will remember you, “Christ’s day laborer!” Remember us too, happy...
Notes:
...Gusev's recent pamphlet... - N.N. Gusev. Life of L.N. Tolstoy. M., 1927.
Sofia Andreevna(1844-1919) - wife of L.N. Tolstoy.
Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich (1854-1936) - friend and like-minded L.N. Tolstoy.
Al.L.. - Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya (1884-1979) - daughter of L.N. Tolstoy.
Shokhor Trotsky Konstantin Semenovich (1892-1937) - writer, tolstoy.
Popov Sergei Mikhailovich (1887-1932) - Tolstoy's associate.
...on a cold May evening, in 1904. - The Merezhkovskys were in Yasnaya Polyana with L.N. Tolstoy May 11-12, 1904
...leads now Aldanov... - M.A. Aldanov. About Tolstoy // Modern Notes. Paris, 1928. No. 36.
November 7 (20), Tuesday (1917)- the entry cited by Gippius is not in the published one (Belgrade, 1929) ". Petersburg diary (1914-1917).
In the 1880s, V. G. Chertkov appeared in the life of the Tolstoy. Unlike the former closest friends of Tolstoy - the poet A. A. Fet and the philosopher N. N. Strakhov, Sofya Andreevna disliked this person. Already on March 9, 1887, she wrote in her diary: “This stupid, cunning and untruthful person, who has enveloped L. N. with flattery, wants (probably, this is Christian) to destroy the connection that soon 25 years we were so closely bound in every possible way!” In 1910, she summed up an irrefutably accurate result: "he took my husband's soul from me."
Vladimir Grigoryevich Chertkov, who was born in St. Petersburg into a wealthy aristocratic court family and at the age of nineteen entered the service of the Horse Guards Regiment, retired in the early 1880s, unexpectedly abandoning the prospect of a brilliant career as a military or statesman. He left for the Chertkov family estate - Lizinovka, Voronezh province, and began to actively engage in activities to improve the life of the peasants. The main event that determined his entire future fate was a meeting with Tolstoy in 1883. From now on, Chertkov devoted his whole life to collecting, storing, publishing and distributing the works and ideas of Leo Tolstoy.
Chertkov was a multi-talented person. He organized the Posrednik publishing house, which from March 1885 produced cheap books for the people. Together with P. I. Biryukov and I. M. Tregubov, Chertkov came to the defense of the Doukhobors by publishing the pamphlet Help! in England. For this, he was threatened with Siberian exile, but thanks to the intervention of the Empress Mother, with whom his mother Elizaveta Ivanovna Chertkova was closely acquainted, he was expelled from Russia. Since 1897, living in England, Chertkov took up active social work, participated in organizing the resettlement of the Doukhobors to Canada. He placed the manuscripts, drafts, copies of Tolstoy's letters and diaries received from Russia in a special repository, equipped in accordance with the latest advances in technology. Chertkov translated Tolstoy's works into English, published new ones, as well as Tolstoy's works previously distorted or banned by Russian censorship. He, like no one else from Tolstoy's contemporaries and entourage, contributed to his lifetime European and world fame.
In 1908, Chertkov and his family returned to Russia and settled on the Telyatinki farm, located not far from Yasnaya Polyana. In March 1909, due to the denunciations of some Tula landowners, Chertkov received an expulsion order from the Tula province and settled with his family in the Krekshino estate near Moscow. In May 1910, Chertkov, with his wife and employees, moved to the Otradnoye estate in the Moscow province, but in the summer he received permission to return to Telyatinki for the duration of his mother Elizaveta Ivanovna's stay there. In Astapovo, Chertkov spent the last days and hours of his life with Tolstoy.
In the spiritual life of Tolstoy, a special place was given to close friends. In the last years of his life, Chertkov became the closest person to him. Tolstoy's long-term correspondence with him is five volumes in the Complete Works of the writer. In his diary dated April 6, 1884, Tolstoy noted in connection with Chertkov: "He is surprisingly one-centered with me" (49, 78). Fifteen years later, Tolstoy complained in a letter to his friend Chertkov: “Recently, all these trifling matters have obscured, clouded our connection. And I felt sad and sorry and wanted to throw off everything that hinders me and feel again that dear one, because not personal, but through God, my connection with you, very strong and dear to me. With no one, as with you (however, every connection is special), there is no such definite Divine connection - such a clear relationship of ours through God" (88, 169). And ten years later Tolstoy's attitude towards Chertkov did not change: “What a joy it is to have a friend like you. And we draw closer not because we want it, but because we strive for one center - God, the highest perfection, accessible to human understanding. And this meeting on the path of approaching the center is a great joy” (89, 133). “There is a whole realm of thoughts, feelings that I cannot so naturally [share] with anyone else – knowing that I am completely understood – as with you” (89, 230), Tolstoy wrote on October 26, 1910, his last letter to Chertkov from Yasnaya Polyana.
