The Autobiography of Countess Sophie Tolstoi/The Autobiography
A SHORT AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF COUNTESS SOPHIE ANDREEVNA TOLSTOI
I
I was born on August 22, 1844, in the country, at the village of Pokrovskoye, in the manor of Glyebov-Stryeshnev, and up to the time of my marriage I spent every summer there. In the winter our family lived in Moscow, in the Kremlin, at the house near the Troitskii Gate which belonged to the Crown, for my father was court physician (1) and also principal physician to the Senate and Ordnance Office (2).
My father was a Lutheran, but my mother belonged to the Orthodox Church. The investigations of my sister, T. A. Kuzminskii, and of my brother, A. A. Bers (3), show, with regard to my father's origin, that it was his grandfather who emigrated from Germany to Russia. During the reign of the Empress Elisabeth Petrovna regiments were raised in Russia for which new instructors were required. At the request of the Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/26 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/27 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/28 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/29 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/30 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/31 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/32 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/33 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/34 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/35 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/36 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/37 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/38 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/39 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/40 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/41 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/42 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/43 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/44 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/45 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/46 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/47 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/48 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/49 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/50 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/51 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/52 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/53 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/54 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/55 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/56 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/57 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/58 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/59 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/60 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/61 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/62 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/63 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/64 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/65 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/66 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/67 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/68 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/69 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/70 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/71 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/72 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/73 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/74 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/75 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/76 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/77 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/78 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/79 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/80 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/81 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/82 Page:Autobiography of Sophie Tolstoi.djvu/83 works of L. N. Tolstoi, and gave all the proceeds to my children. But they, and particularly the grandchildren, are so numerous! Including the daughters-in-law and myself, we are now a family of 38, and my help was, therefore, far from satisfactory.
I always feel in my heart profound gratitude to the Sovereign Emperor for granting me a pension, which allows me to live in security and to keep the manor of Yasnaya Polyana.
Three years have now passed. I look sadly on the havoc in Yasnaya Polyana, how the trees which we planted are being cut down, how the beauty of the place is gradually being spoiled, now that everything has been handed over to the timber merchants and peasants, who frequently have painful quarrels, now about the land and now about the woods. And what is going to happen to the manor and the house after my death?
Almost daily I visit the grave; I thank God for the happiness granted to me in early life, and as to the last troubles between us I look upon them as a trial and a redemption of sin before death. Thy will be done (75).
October 38, 1913,
Yasnaya Polyana.