The Autobiography of Countess Sophie Tolstoi/Translators' Note
TRANSLATORS' NOTE
The circumstances under which this autobiography of Tolstoi's wife has just been discovered and published in Russia are explained in the preface of Vasilii Spiridonov which follows. Spiridonov edited and published it in the first number of a new Russian Review, Nachala. We have translated his preface in full, and also the greater number of his notes, which contain much material with regard to Tolstoi which has not previously been available for English readers. Such readers may perhaps consider that some of these notes and the documentation generally are over-elaborate. But they must remember that the question of Tolstoi's "going away," and of his relations with his wife, Countess Sophie Tolstoi, and other members of his family, has roused the most passionate interest and controversy in Russia. This is partly due, no doubt, to the dramatic and psychological interest of the whole story, but it is also due very largely to the fact that Tolstoi's actions were bound up with his teachings, and his numerous disciples and opponents were watching the struggle of the preacher to put his principles in practice in his own life. The whole question of the will and the going away of Tolstoi, of the difference with his wife, and of the subsequent dealings with his property, has given rise to an immense literature in Russia. As Spiridonov's preface shows, it is treated as a trial in which the whole of humanity is to judge between Tolstoi and his wife. The importance of this book lies in the fact that in it Countess Sophie Andreevna Tolstoi herself states her own case in full. The reader should, however, remember that it is only one side of the case.
We have ourselves added a few short appendices, giving some additional information with regard to some of the more important points and persons.