0:00:05 > 0:00:09In the years before the Russian Revolution exploded in 1917,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12political opposition was stamped on.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Outspoken radicals were either shot, imprisoned or exiled.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21But there was one voice in Russia, a furious critic of the evil
0:00:21 > 0:00:26and injustice of the Tsarist state who was never silenced.
0:00:26 > 0:00:27Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Why did Tolstoy, a hugely successful novelist,
0:00:33 > 0:00:36assume this provocative role?
0:00:36 > 0:00:41Why did he become such a thorn in the side of Imperial Russia?
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Perhaps there's a clue in his childhood...
0:00:45 > 0:00:48"It was my brother Nicolenka who announced to us that he
0:00:48 > 0:00:52"possessed a secret by means of which when it was disclosed,
0:00:52 > 0:00:57"all men would become happy. There'd be no diseases, no troubles,
0:00:57 > 0:01:02"no-one would be angry with anyone, all would love each other."
0:01:04 > 0:01:08"This secret, as he told us, was written by him on a green stick
0:01:08 > 0:01:12"which he buried by the road on the edge of a certain ravine."
0:01:13 > 0:01:18This utopian story captivated Tolstoy as a child
0:01:18 > 0:01:21and haunted him for the rest of his life.
0:01:21 > 0:01:26By the time he was 40, Tolstoy had written one of the greatest novels of all time.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30But during his next 40 years, it wasn't literature that
0:01:30 > 0:01:35preoccupied him, but a relentless, ruthless, all-consuming desire
0:01:35 > 0:01:39to discover what was written on the little green stick.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00By the beginning of the 1870s, thanks to War And Peace,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04Tolstoy was established as Russia's greatest living writer.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08He was fast becoming a wealthy man. Life was good.
0:02:08 > 0:02:15He was in love with his wife. He already had four children and there was another on the way.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Yet strangely, he was ill at ease with himself,
0:02:18 > 0:02:21with who he was and the way he lived.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28This land-owning aristocrat was beginning to ask fundamental
0:02:28 > 0:02:34questions about the stark inequality of Russian society, the poverty of
0:02:34 > 0:02:39the vast peasant underclass, and the iron rule of the Imperial regime.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46In 1871, he decided to make the long journey across Russia
0:02:46 > 0:02:52and down the great Volga River to the eastern region of Samara
0:02:52 > 0:02:54and the empty wilderness of the Russian Steppe beyond.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02Why did Tolstoy come here?
0:03:05 > 0:03:07TRANSLATION: Tolstoy loved the Steppe.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12This enormous expanse, and the people who had not been spoilt by serfdom.
0:03:12 > 0:03:14There were no serfs here.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18All the peasants were tenants in their own right.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Tolstoy grew up in a rural village.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28He knew peasants and he sympathised with them.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31He was always concerned for them.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42Tolstoy fell in love with the land and with the people of Samara,
0:03:42 > 0:03:47and despite Sofia's reservations, he decided to buy a large plot,
0:03:47 > 0:03:49and in the summer of 1873,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52he insisted on bringing the whole of his family
0:03:52 > 0:03:56with an entourage of servants here for their annual summer holiday.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01This bedstead memorial marks the place
0:04:01 > 0:04:03where their simple farmhouse stood.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10This place became his retreat, his inspiration,
0:04:10 > 0:04:13and you can see just why he was so captivated by it.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16This country, he said, is beautiful.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18It is just emerging from its virginity.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27Just below the site of the farm, Victor, our guide,
0:04:27 > 0:04:33arranged a typical Bashkiri feast of lamb and fermented horse milk.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36This is the famous Kumis.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40This is the mare's milk that was drunk by Tolstoy.
0:04:40 > 0:04:46In fact, he came here in pursuit of this particular beverage, actually.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53- Cheers.- Cheers.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00I really have. Look, I've really drunk it.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02This is not pretending.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06This is like something in the Arab world, they call it loveat.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09That's yoghurt which is fermented yoghurt.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14This is really like milk, but it is fermented.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17It tastes very fizzy and rather sour.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20I don't know if it's to everyone's tastes,
0:05:20 > 0:05:23but I've got this in common with Tolstoy. I like this.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The first summer Tolstoy brought the family here
0:05:31 > 0:05:33was especially hot and dry.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38In fact, the region was in the grip of a terrible drought and famine.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44TRANSLATION: Lev Tolstoy wrote a letter from his farm here
0:05:44 > 0:05:47to his publishers about the famine in Samara which was
0:05:47 > 0:05:50published in the main Moscow newspaper.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53Because of that letter, all of Russia
0:05:53 > 0:05:57and the entire world was alerted to the famine in the Samara region.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04He was single-handedly responsible for famine relief.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08The state realised it should do something, but it was so inefficient,
0:06:08 > 0:06:12and apart from anything else it was so inefficient, the Tsarist regime.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16Tolstoy, who was a good landowner, good army officer,
0:06:16 > 0:06:17he went to Samara.
0:06:17 > 0:06:23He actually made sure that food got to the actual people who needed it.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27He raised money. He wrote letters to the English papers
0:06:27 > 0:06:30and alerted the world to the famine in Russia.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38This simple wooden cross on this remote highway, is a modest
0:06:38 > 0:06:42memorial to the thousands who died in the terrible
0:06:42 > 0:06:45famines of the 1870s and '80s.
0:06:45 > 0:06:51For Tolstoy, the Steppe of Samara was both a refuge and a revelation.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54An escape from his formal life, his life as a writer
0:06:54 > 0:06:58and as a landowner, into a world in which the authority of church,
0:06:58 > 0:07:03government and social hierarchy were just words in the wind.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12At first glance, it might seem hard to see the link between the moral,
0:07:12 > 0:07:17political and religious tumult bubbling in Tolstoy's mind
0:07:17 > 0:07:23and the romantic novel that he was beginning to compose that summer in Samara.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26As much as anything he wrote, Tolstoy's masterpiece,
0:07:26 > 0:07:31Anna Karenina, is a profoundly autobiographical work,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33and even the introspective, tragic heroine
0:07:33 > 0:07:35shares a great deal with her creator.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47At the beginning of Anna Karenina, Anna, the wife of a St Petersburg
0:07:47 > 0:07:52civil servant, travels to Moscow to visit her brother and his family.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Unexpectedly, she encounters a young cavalry officer,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59called Vronski, first at the train station and then at a ball.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04On the way home on the train, she tries to read a novel, a romantic English novel,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08to distract herself from the growing sense of guilt that in some way
0:08:08 > 0:08:10she has behaved improperly with this man.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Anna read attentively, but there was no pleasure in reading.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20No pleasure in entering into other people's lives and adventures.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24She was too eager to live herself.
0:08:26 > 0:08:27Tolstoy was like Anna.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30He was reluctant to commit to fantasy.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32He was too involved with real life.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37As he began to write this story, the characters
0:08:37 > 0:08:41and events that emerged began to bear a striking resemblance
0:08:41 > 0:08:44to the people, events and conflicts in his own life.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50If War And Peace was a book about who Tolstoy was,
0:08:50 > 0:08:54perhaps Anna Karenina was a book about who Tolstoy had become.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59I've always believed there is a bigger difference between
0:08:59 > 0:09:03War And Peace and Anna Karenina than has generally been acknowledged.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06Think of the beginning of Anna Karenina, the epigraph...
0:09:06 > 0:09:09"Vengeance is mine, said the Lord, I will repay."
0:09:09 > 0:09:14Vengeance is there at the beginning. Suicide is there at the end.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18And we know in biographical terms, that Tolstoy got the idea
0:09:18 > 0:09:22from the sad fate of a poor woman who threw herself under a train
0:09:22 > 0:09:27not too far from Yasnaya Polyana, and he was taken in as the local JP,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30and he had to view the mangled corpse there in the mortuary
0:09:30 > 0:09:33and be there while they carried out the post-mortem,
0:09:33 > 0:09:35and it stuck in his mind.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39There is a darker tone about Anna Karenina. There is more violence.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41There is more pessimism.
0:09:41 > 0:09:47It's not the sunny uplands that happened at the end of War And Peace.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54Anna Karenina intertwines the unfolding tragedy of Anna
0:09:54 > 0:09:57and her lover Vronski with a second troubled romance,
0:09:57 > 0:10:02between Kitty Scherbatsky and the landowner called Dimitri Levin.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Levin is an awkward, tormented country-loving nobleman
0:10:08 > 0:10:10who agonises over his duty to his peasants
0:10:10 > 0:10:13and insists on labouring in the fields
0:10:13 > 0:10:18alongside them, which is exactly what Tolstoy had begun to do.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24How far would you say Levin is a sort of surrogate,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28how far does Levin embody the ideas that Tolstoy had?
0:10:28 > 0:10:32There's a pretty strong hint there in the name itself... Levin, Lev Tolstoy.
0:10:32 > 0:10:38We also know that there are many scenes in Anna Karenina
0:10:38 > 0:10:41which are lifted straight out of his life,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44like all the hay-making scenes and this kind of thing.
0:10:44 > 0:10:51There is no doubt at all that Dimitri Levin is Tolstoy,
0:10:51 > 0:10:56and here's another example, by the way, of how the autobiographical
0:10:56 > 0:10:58element shines through.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02It's the moment when Kitty and Levin have their first baby,
0:11:02 > 0:11:07and it's given to the father, to Levin,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10and do you know what his reaction is?
0:11:10 > 0:11:14His attitude says, "I looked at this writhing little infant
0:11:14 > 0:11:17"and I thought, how vulnerable,
0:11:17 > 0:11:21"oh, the awful things that are going to happen to you in your life."
0:11:21 > 0:11:25How could anyone take such a pessimistic attitude?
0:11:25 > 0:11:27The book is autobiographical,
0:11:27 > 0:11:31not only in the way it describes Tolstoy.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Kitty's sister, Dolly, is an impressively honest
0:11:34 > 0:11:37portrait of Sofia at the time of writing.
0:11:38 > 0:11:44Sofia's diaries from the period are largely silent, and not surprisingly.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47She'd already given birth to eight babies on this very sofa,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51and three of these children died while Anna Karenina was being written.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57For all his failings as a husband and a father,
0:11:57 > 0:11:59Tolstoy in Anna Karenina
0:11:59 > 0:12:04manages with extraordinary sensitivity to give Sofia a voice.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08"Yes, it comes to this, she thought,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11"looking back at her 15 years of married life.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14"Nothing but pregnancy, sickness, mind dulled
0:12:14 > 0:12:18"and indifferent to everything, and most of all, the disfigurement.
0:12:18 > 0:12:24"The birth, the agony, the hideous agonies, that last moment,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28"then nursing the baby, the sleepless nights, the fearful pains.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33"Dolly shuddered at the mere recollection of the pain she had endured from sore nipples,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36"which she'd suffered with almost every baby.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40"Then the childrens' illnesses and the everlasting anxiety.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44"And on top of it all, the death of these children
0:12:44 > 0:12:47"and the cruel memory that never ceased to tear
0:12:47 > 0:12:51"her mother's heart at the death of her last born who died of croup.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54"She recalled the funeral
0:12:54 > 0:12:57"and the general indifference around the little pink coffin
0:12:57 > 0:13:00"and her own heart-rending,
0:13:00 > 0:13:04"lonely anguish as she gazed at the pale little
0:13:04 > 0:13:07"forehead, part fringed with curls,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10"and the half-open wondering little mouth.
0:13:10 > 0:13:16"The last thing she'd seen as the pink lid with the embroidered cross was closed over him."
0:13:23 > 0:13:27After an early flurry of writing, Tolstoy found the completion
0:13:27 > 0:13:31of Anna Karenina increasingly onerous, and developed a love/hate
0:13:31 > 0:13:36relationship with a story that had become too close for comfort.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38He wrote to a friend...
0:13:38 > 0:13:44"How I long to clear this sordid tale away from my desk."
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Where Anna Karenina's story ends is now
0:13:51 > 0:13:54a commuter suburb about 40 minutes out of Moscow.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59A typically anonymous Soviet-style town -
0:13:59 > 0:14:03functional, concrete and unprepossessing.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06It's changed its name since Anna Karenina was written,
0:14:06 > 0:14:11but it had an equally dour reputation in Tolstoy's day
0:14:11 > 0:14:15as a remote stopping-off point on what was called the road of tears.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22Natalia Sopfikova runs a small museum in the town.
0:14:22 > 0:14:27TRANSLATION: Tolstoy on several, maybe eight, occasions passed through on the railway.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32when he travelled to the Samara Steppe for his Kumis treatment.
0:14:33 > 0:14:41Of course, he knew this place. The road through the town was famous in Russia as the road
0:14:41 > 0:14:45of woe and tears, because this was the route along which prisoners
0:14:45 > 0:14:48were taken to Siberia.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54The prisoners were brought to this station, where they could say
0:14:54 > 0:14:57farewell to their relatives who saw them off on their journey.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00It was the last station
0:15:00 > 0:15:03to which the relatives were allowed to travel.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06I remember that when I studied it at school,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09I read this novel from cover to cover without stopping.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13War And Peace is of course an epic...a more voluminous work.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Anna Karenina was closer to us
0:15:16 > 0:15:20because it was more true to life, let's put it that way.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25And of course, as a woman, I can understand Anna, who lived with a husband
0:15:25 > 0:15:29who was much older than she, and for that matter, a husband she did not love.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32It was a marriage of convenience.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35But as a mother, I do not understand Anna,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39because she gave up her son for the sake of the man she loved.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41It's a very difficult situation.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56"She tried to fling herself below the wheels of the first
0:15:56 > 0:15:59"carriage as it reached her, but the red bag which she tried
0:15:59 > 0:16:02"to drop out of her hand delayed her and she was too late.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04"She missed the moment.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07"She had to wait for the next carriage.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11"A feeling such as she had known when about to take the first
0:16:11 > 0:16:14"plunge in bathing came upon her, and she crossed herself.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18"That familiar gesture brought back into her soul
0:16:18 > 0:16:22"a whole series of girlish and childish memories.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26"Suddenly, the darkness that had covered everything for her was torn apart.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29"A life rose up before her for an instant,
0:16:29 > 0:16:34"with all its bright past joys. But she did not take her eyes from the wheels of the second
0:16:34 > 0:16:38"carriage, and exactly at the moment where the space between
0:16:38 > 0:16:42"the wheels came opposite her, she dropped the red bag, and drawing
0:16:42 > 0:16:46"her head back into her shoulders, fell on her hands under the carriage,
0:16:46 > 0:16:52"and likely, as though she would rise up again at once, dropped to her knees.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56"At the same instant, she was terror stricken at what she was doing.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00"'Where am I? What am I doing? What for?
0:17:00 > 0:17:04"She tried to get up to drop backwards, but something huge
0:17:04 > 0:17:08"and merciless struck her on the head and rolled her on her back.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13"'Lord, forgive me all,' she said, feeling it impossible to struggle."
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Very often when writers are finishing a book,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27they are visited by depressions and fears.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Virginia Wolf famously killed herself having finished a book.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34She just couldn't stand the idea of finishing,
0:17:34 > 0:17:37and I think that's one of the reasons that Tolstoy's holding off.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40He knows that when he finishes this book, something is going
0:17:40 > 0:17:43to happen in his life, so he can't really finish it.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48On the one hand, he's becoming utterly disillusioned with the whole art of fiction.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52On the other hand, he's asking himself,
0:17:52 > 0:17:54he's now deep into a middle-age crisis,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58"What am I going to do with myself when this book's finished?"
0:18:04 > 0:18:08By the time Tolstoy completed Anna Karenina, he was 50
0:18:08 > 0:18:13and increasingly preoccupied with the meaning of his own existence.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16That summer, he and his friend
0:18:16 > 0:18:20and editor Nikolai Strakhov made a pilgrimage here to
0:18:20 > 0:18:26the monastery of Optina Pustin, about 140 miles from Yasnaya Polyana.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31Optina Pustin today is a compelling place to visit.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40In the 19th century, it was one of the most important and influential
0:18:40 > 0:18:44Russian monasteries, but then it was closed and vandalised by
0:18:44 > 0:18:50the communists who deported or executed the entire religious community.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56By the middle of the 20th century, Optina Pustin is a derelict ruin.
0:18:56 > 0:19:01However, today, the church - and, indeed, the whole monastery -
0:19:01 > 0:19:06is being rebuilt by a new generation of fiercely devout monks
0:19:06 > 0:19:09in a striking demonstration of modern Russia's
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Orthodox Christian revival.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19When Tolstoy first came here to Optina back in the summer of 1877,
0:19:19 > 0:19:23there was a similar atmosphere of religious enthusiasm under way.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28At the time of his first visit, he was incredibly devout,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31and coming to the end of Anna Karenina,
0:19:31 > 0:19:36he was in this state of profound depression, and he wanted answers.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40He desperately wanted to find an answer to the meaning of life.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42He didn't like the idea that it was meaningless.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46He wanted there to be meaning, particularly to his own life,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50and so he was someone who at that point was
0:19:50 > 0:19:52observing all the fasts and going regularly to church.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57So I think his quest was very sincere on that first occasion.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03Like many thousands of Russians from all over the country,
0:20:03 > 0:20:08Tolstoy came to Optina to meet an extraordinary starex,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11or religious elder, by the name of Amvrosi.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17Pilgrims came specially to consult Amvrosi,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20who was treated as a cross between a clairvoyant and a saint.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25The monastery nominated Father Selaphil to talk to me
0:20:25 > 0:20:28about the still-delicate subject of Lev Tolstoy.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35TRANSLATION: Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was an incredibly complex,
0:20:35 > 0:20:41tragic man. Many people found him hard to understand.
0:20:41 > 0:20:47This was a man who was unsettled throughout his life,
0:20:47 > 0:20:49forever in torment.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55His childhood and his youth had passed in a moral and sinful decline.
0:20:56 > 0:21:02His soul was in pain. He was seeking answers to many questions.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04He was looking for a more spiritual life.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09So the monks saw him as a sick person, a weary,
0:21:09 > 0:21:14languishing person, with a scorched heart.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17A man you could say who has clotted blood on his lips.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28It's not clear exactly what occurred in the conversation
0:21:28 > 0:21:30between Tolstoy and Amvrosi,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34but certainly this visit to Optina monastery marks the beginning
0:21:34 > 0:21:38of a profound religious journey and the unflinching soul-searching
0:21:38 > 0:21:44that was to turn Tolstoy's - and his family's - life upside down.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50"26th August, 1882.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55"It was 20 years ago when I was young and happy that I started
0:21:55 > 0:22:00"writing the story of my love for Leovoytchka in these diaries.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03"There is virtually nothing but love in them, in fact.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08"20 years later, here I am, sitting up all night on my own, reading
0:22:08 > 0:22:12"and mourning its loss. For the first time in my life,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16"he has run off to sleep alone in the study.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18"We were quarrelling about such silly things.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21"I accused him of taking no interest in the children
0:22:21 > 0:22:24"and not helping me look after Illya, who is sick.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28"Today, he shouted at the top of his voice that his dearest wish
0:22:28 > 0:22:30"was to leave his family.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32"I shall carry the memory of that heartfelt,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35"heart-rending cry to my grave.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39"I pray for death, for without his love, I cannot survive.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42"I knew this the moment his love for me died."
0:22:45 > 0:22:47Was there a moment in their relationship
0:22:47 > 0:22:49when it began to go bad?
0:22:52 > 0:22:55To understand their relationship, you have to understand
0:22:55 > 0:22:57the change in Tolstoy's mood.
0:22:57 > 0:23:04It was not she or the family that changed. It was Tolstoy who changed.
0:23:04 > 0:23:10Tolstoy walked away from their family.
0:23:10 > 0:23:16The family, instead of being an ideal, became an obstacle.
0:23:17 > 0:23:23An obstacle for a man who viewed himself
0:23:23 > 0:23:26not as a writer anymore.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32TRANSLATION: Tolstoy wrote in the last years of his life
0:23:32 > 0:23:35that it was shameful to write in an artistic manner.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37He was ashamed of his literary work.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41When he was asked about Anna Karenina, he pretended not to remember
0:23:41 > 0:23:44what work he was being asked about.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49"What is that? Is it some tale about a lady who loved an officer?"
0:23:53 > 0:23:59He abandoned his literary past. He abandoned his ideal as a family man.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03That's how depression and spiritual conversion affect.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Sofia was saying he became a very different person.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10"I did not marry this man."
0:24:11 > 0:24:14She was someone who we have to have a lot of sympathy for.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17It was very difficult living with him,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20but she also had her own shortcomings.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25They were both people with flaws. She was dogmatic in her own way too.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30She was a famously humourless person, but her whole life had been
0:24:30 > 0:24:35bound up with her husband's, so it was understandably extremely painful
0:24:35 > 0:24:38for her that everything that had given her happiness, which was having
0:24:38 > 0:24:43a part in copying his works and being part of his creative life,
0:24:43 > 0:24:48that had all been sort of thrown out, and it meant nothing to him anymore.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52In the early 1880s, Tolstoy began pouring his energies
0:24:52 > 0:24:58into a series of soul-searching, religious and philosophical tracts.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02He turned his back on the dogma of the Russian Orthodox Church
0:25:02 > 0:25:06and even went so far as to produce his own version of the gospels.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13He decided to start translating the gospels himself, and what he did
0:25:13 > 0:25:18actually was just to merge the four gospels into one, and this was
0:25:18 > 0:25:21his own kind of Tolstoyan gospel,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24and he jettisoned everything that didn't really meet
0:25:24 > 0:25:27his approval, which was most of it, actually.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29All the miracles, for example,
0:25:29 > 0:25:34everything that was vaguely metaphysical had no place.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37The only thing that really survived was everything
0:25:37 > 0:25:39that Jesus actually said.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43He thought that was all right, and his religious philosophy,
0:25:43 > 0:25:46it actually boiled down to the sermon on the mount.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50This was no abstract philosophy.
0:25:50 > 0:25:56Tolstoy was determined to live by the gospels. He'd always admired the peasants,
0:25:56 > 0:26:00but increasingly he aspired to be like them.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03He laboured in the fields, he dressed like them, he even learnt
0:26:03 > 0:26:06to make his own boots, and what's more,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09he attempted to give them land.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14However, his acts of charity only provoked distrust
0:26:14 > 0:26:16among the peasants and infuriated his wife.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22In 1881, the Tolstoy family moved to Moscow,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24at least for the winter months.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana reluctantly, for the sake of
0:26:28 > 0:26:31the children's education, and was utterly miserable.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36Witnessing the poverty in the city only intensified
0:26:36 > 0:26:40his aspirations for a simpler life.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44"5th October, 1881.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47"Keep only as many servants as are necessary to help us
0:26:47 > 0:26:50"change things and to instruct us,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54"and then only while we train ourselves to do without them."
0:26:54 > 0:27:00"Live all together, the men in one room, the women and the girls in another.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03"Sell or give away anything superfluous -
0:27:03 > 0:27:08"the piano, furniture, carriages. The one aim is happiness.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11"One's own and that of one's family.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15"This happiness consists of being content with little
0:27:15 > 0:27:17"and doing good to others."
0:27:19 > 0:27:23Despite these high ideals, this is still the same Tolstoy who wrote
0:27:23 > 0:27:28those self-improving diary entries as a student back in Kazan,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31promising to study but ending up in the brothel.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37The more Tolstoy became obsessed with religion and morality
0:27:37 > 0:27:41and living an aesthetic life, the more he found himself at odds
0:27:41 > 0:27:44with the world, and, increasingly, with his family.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48It's not a happy story.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53He retreated bit by bit into the interior until he's left
0:27:53 > 0:27:57on a small island of, I don't know, self-righteousness
0:27:57 > 0:28:01and unrealistic expectations and disappointments.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04It's a very sad story, but you know what he couldn't do?
0:28:04 > 0:28:08He couldn't love anyone. That's the great tragedy of Tolstoy.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12The only conclusion he comes to in the whole of his work
0:28:12 > 0:28:15is that the only answer for humanity is love.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17We must love each other,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20and that will eventually solve all our problems. And yet there
0:28:20 > 0:28:25wasn't anyone in Russian culture less capable of loving than Tolstoy.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32And yet it's at this very moment that Tolstoy forms the closest friendship of his life.
0:28:32 > 0:28:38In 1883 he received an unexpected visit from a young man
0:28:38 > 0:28:40by the name of Vladimir Chertkov.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45Chertkov was a handsome, wealthy cavalry officer rumoured to be
0:28:45 > 0:28:48an illegitimate half-brother of the Tsar, who gave up
0:28:48 > 0:28:51his military career and society position
0:28:51 > 0:28:55after converting to evangelical Christianity.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59It was as if the two men almost instantly fell in love.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07Tolstoy and Chertkov remained intensely close until Tolstoy's
0:29:07 > 0:29:12death, exchanging over 1,000 letters over the next 27 years.
0:29:14 > 0:29:16"November, 1884.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19"I would like to live with you, and if we are still alive,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22"I shall live with you.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24"Never cease to love me as I love you."
0:29:27 > 0:29:30Chertkov worked relentlessly to preserve,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33print and promote the work and ideas of Tolstoy.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36In particular, he enabled the translation
0:29:36 > 0:29:40and circulation of his writing outside Russia.
0:29:41 > 0:29:46In 1897, Chertkov became heavily involved in campaigning
0:29:46 > 0:29:51alongside Tolstoy for a pacifist sect called the Doukhobors.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53A Christian group that Tolstoy had first
0:29:53 > 0:29:56encountered in the wilderness of Samara.
0:29:59 > 0:30:05It was a dangerous high-profile campaign that earned Chertkov ten years of exile
0:30:05 > 0:30:09and turned Tolstoy into an enemy of the state.
0:30:09 > 0:30:17The campaign also propelled Tolstoy into writing his final least-known full-length novel, Resurrection.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Resurrection is a novel that needs to be resurrected.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25It has been submerged
0:30:25 > 0:30:29and nearly forgotten about, and I'd recommend anyone to read this.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31It's a very powerful novel indeed.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36It did begin badly in the artistic sense because he's writing for the wrong reasons.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41This story he wrote for peculiar motives.
0:30:42 > 0:30:48Tolstoy wrote Resurrection in order to raise a large sum of money to save the Doukhobors.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52They were threatened with imprisonment and execution
0:30:52 > 0:30:56because of their refusal to fight in the Imperial Army.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59Tolstoy funded their escape to Canada.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02It was a lovely compromise arrived at by the Tsar.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06You know, I cannot excuse these people from military service,
0:31:06 > 0:31:10I will let them go abroad, but I'm not paying for it, so Tolstoy paid for it.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16Elaine Podovnokov, a modern day member of the Doukhobor community,
0:31:16 > 0:31:20has moved back to Russia to work as a teacher,
0:31:20 > 0:31:22and she and her family are now building a log house
0:31:22 > 0:31:26in Yasnaya Polyana village, not far from the Tolstoy estate.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Then my mum and dad are the fourth...
0:31:29 > 0:31:32Looking back, what did the Doukhobors represent?
0:31:32 > 0:31:35What was it about them that made them so appealing to Tolstoy?
0:31:35 > 0:31:38There were two main issues, I think,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42and that is that they would not kill another human being even in warfare.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46They felt that every human being was a temple of the living god,
0:31:46 > 0:31:49that a piece of God lived inside each human being.
0:31:49 > 0:31:55That was one, and the other one was that God did not only live within the confines of a church
0:31:55 > 0:31:59and that there were godly people because the ultimate church
0:31:59 > 0:32:03was the body that housed the spirit of the living god.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05Is there a community in Canada
0:32:05 > 0:32:09who know that they owe their lives to Leo Tolstoy?
0:32:09 > 0:32:10Yes. Yes.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15When we study, we have our Sunday schools or Sunday classes,
0:32:15 > 0:32:19while we're studying the Doukhobor history in Russia,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22we always studied Leo Tolstoy as someone, as a benefactor,
0:32:22 > 0:32:29and he was considered like... semi-god, because everybody knew that in his young years
0:32:29 > 0:32:32he lived differently, and that was another lesson for us.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36That you could at any time in your life get a new awareness
0:32:36 > 0:32:39of what life was all about and change your way of living.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46Spiritual evolution is the central theme of Resurrection.
0:32:46 > 0:32:53An aristocratic juror is confronted in the dock with a woman he once seduced and ruined.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58The woman has now been wrongfully charged with murder.
0:32:58 > 0:33:04Guilt forces him to offer to marry her and campaign for her release.
0:33:04 > 0:33:12When he fails, he follows her and her fellow convicts as they're exiled to Siberia.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15The book was a furious attack on the penal system, the government
0:33:15 > 0:33:19and, most pointedly, the Orthodox Church.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26So what was it that he did in Resurrection which so offended the church that he was excommunicated?
0:33:26 > 0:33:32What did he not do?! Everything he wrote in Resurrection would have found the disapproval of the church.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35It's shown to be utterly useless in all these things
0:33:35 > 0:33:39and just a tool of government completely incapable of any reform
0:33:39 > 0:33:45and just as guilty as anyone else in allowing the system to go ahead
0:33:45 > 0:33:48whereby people can be sent to prison,
0:33:48 > 0:33:51can be punished savagely and so on.
0:33:51 > 0:33:56Whenever the church comes up, it's satirised.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03"The priest carefully took a spoonful from the chalice
0:34:03 > 0:34:06"and put a piece of bread soaked in wine
0:34:06 > 0:34:09"deep into the mouths of all the children in turn,
0:34:09 > 0:34:11"and then the deacon wiped their mouths
0:34:11 > 0:34:18"whilst singing a cheerful song about children eating God's body and drinking his blood.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22"After this the priest took the chalice behind the screen,
0:34:22 > 0:34:27"drank all the blood that was left over and ate up all the bits of God's body.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31"Scrupulously sucked his moustaches dry, wiped his mouth
0:34:31 > 0:34:35"and the chalice, and then he walked out briskly through the screen.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37"To the creaking of his calfskin boots
0:34:37 > 0:34:43"and their thin souls. He was a picture of contentment."
0:34:44 > 0:34:48The church is condemned. The church is shown to be useless.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50Everything else is condemned.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53The judiciary and the army and the government,
0:34:53 > 0:34:59cos Tolstoy's well into the stage where he rejects all forms of organisation and government.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04Tolstoy's ideas are very relevant now. The more we read him,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07the more we study him or reread him,
0:35:07 > 0:35:11the more totally we feel that
0:35:11 > 0:35:16we need to look at our life now through the eyes of Tolstoy.
0:35:16 > 0:35:22We should read and reread the Resurrection now
0:35:22 > 0:35:25because the novel seems very contemporary.
0:35:25 > 0:35:30The problems which Tolstoy addressed there are our problems.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35What is meaningful? What is moral? What is worthless?
0:35:35 > 0:35:41The impossible contrast between the rich and the poor.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46All that was the problem at the turn of the 19th/20th century,
0:35:46 > 0:35:49and the problems remain today.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00Tolstoy's mockery and contempt for the Orthodox Church
0:36:00 > 0:36:02eventually forced a reaction.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05In February 1901, Metropolitan Anthony,
0:36:05 > 0:36:08the senior cleric in St Petersburg,
0:36:08 > 0:36:11mounted the pulpit and declared:
0:36:11 > 0:36:15Count Tolstoy, under the seduction of his intellectual pride,
0:36:15 > 0:36:21has devoted his literary activity and the talent given to him by God
0:36:21 > 0:36:24to disseminate in teachings repugnant to Christ and the church,
0:36:24 > 0:36:30and destroying in the minds and hearts of men their national faith.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35But if the church thought that Tolstoy's excommunication
0:36:35 > 0:36:38would undermine his growing popularity in Russia,
0:36:38 > 0:36:40the effect was absolutely the opposite.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44On the day in which the edict was published, Tolstoy was walking here
0:36:44 > 0:36:47in the centre of Moscow, in Lubyanka Square,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50a place now dominated by that infamous building
0:36:50 > 0:36:52which used to be the home of the KGB.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56February 1901 was a period of student protests,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59and a large crowd of demonstrators filled the square.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02Apparently, someone in the crowd spotted Tolstoy,
0:37:02 > 0:37:06who was out walking with a friend, and called out ironically,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09"Look, there goes the devil in human form."
0:37:09 > 0:37:13At which point the whole crowd started cheering and shouting.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16"Long Live Lev Nikolaivic!"
0:37:16 > 0:37:23In the end the situation became so passionate that mounted police had to rescue Tolstoy from the crush.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27Unfortunately for the church,
0:37:27 > 0:37:32Tolstoy's excommunication only served to galvanise public support
0:37:32 > 0:37:37for him, and to draw attention to his ideals and beliefs.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43TRANSLATION: Tolstoy was saying terrible things about the church
0:37:43 > 0:37:45and in so doing
0:37:45 > 0:37:49was perverting a very large number of his contemporaries,
0:37:49 > 0:37:53and so the church, represented by its higher body, The Synod,
0:37:53 > 0:37:55said that in his deeds,
0:37:55 > 0:38:00Tolstoy was demonstrating he was not at one with the church.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04This rejection of Tolstoy by the church
0:38:04 > 0:38:06was a rare and extraordinary act
0:38:06 > 0:38:09to take against such an eminent Russian figure,
0:38:09 > 0:38:15and his excommunication is still very much a live issue today.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20Once again, church and state are closely, even intimately aligned,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24and Tolstoy's descendants have failed in their attempt to get
0:38:24 > 0:38:28the church to reconsider its position.
0:38:28 > 0:38:33TRANSLATION: In 2001, the church did not respond to my letter.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37It was not that I had written to some anonymous clergyman.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42I wrote to the then Patriarch, Alexei, and I didn't get a reply from him.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45Well, that in itself was a response.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49A lack of response is an admission of a lack of desire to speak on the subject.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54The church does not wish to admit its mistakes or weaknesses.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58Yes, the conflict has not yet runs its course.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05The culmination of Tolstoy's religious writing
0:39:05 > 0:39:08was a book entitled The Kingdom Of God Is Within You,
0:39:08 > 0:39:13which laid out his philosophy of non-resistance to violence.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17Of course, Gandhi was one of the millions of people who read
0:39:17 > 0:39:20The Kingdom Of God Is Within You, and it had an electrifying impact on him.
0:39:20 > 0:39:26He was living in South Africa and it made him want to set up a Tolstoy farm, for example, there.
0:39:26 > 0:39:31He did that and that was for the Indians there,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35and he'd himself been a victim of the racism there
0:39:35 > 0:39:40and seen the coercive ways of the government,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44and it became a cornerstone of his own philosophy.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47It was a very, very important moment.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52Did Tolstoy absorb all this? Did he realise the impact of these ideas and his views?
0:39:52 > 0:39:55Yeah, and he was absolutely thrilled by this, of course,
0:39:55 > 0:39:59because as much as he wanted to run away and be an ascetic
0:39:59 > 0:40:04and live like a wanderer with nothing but the clothes on his back,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08he also wanted his ideas to be disseminated.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12He actually wanted people to come round to his way of thinking.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14He wanted governments to dissolve.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18He didn't want there to be any more private property
0:40:18 > 0:40:20and as this incredible narcissist,
0:40:20 > 0:40:24he was very convinced that he did know the truth.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27At the point at which Tolstoy
0:40:27 > 0:40:31had achieved something very like sainthood
0:40:31 > 0:40:33on the public and international stage,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35his personal life was in crisis,
0:40:35 > 0:40:39thanks largely to his relationship with Chertkov.
0:40:39 > 0:40:45A man who Sofia Tolstoy now described as the devil himself.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48It's at this moment that a final and tragic act
0:40:48 > 0:40:51of Tolstoy's life begins to unfold.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55"Lev Nikolaivic becomes more intolerable each day
0:40:55 > 0:40:59"because of his heartlessness and his cruelty to me,
0:40:59 > 0:41:04"and it is Chertkov who has brought all this about gradually and consistently.
0:41:04 > 0:41:09"He has done everything in his power to take control of this unfortunate old man.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11"He has separated us.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14"He has killed the creative spark in Lev Nikolaivic
0:41:14 > 0:41:17"and has kindled all the protest, castigation and hatred
0:41:17 > 0:41:21"that one sees in these recent articles
0:41:21 > 0:41:25"which his stupid evil genius has reduced him to writing.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28"Yes, if one believes in the devil,
0:41:28 > 0:41:34"he has been embodied in Chertkov, and he has destroyed our life."
0:41:35 > 0:41:41Chertkov had this gift, I would say, to antagonise people.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45To charge them with this negative emotion
0:41:45 > 0:41:50and when he would appear on the scene, there would be conflicts.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52There would be some conspiracies.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55There would be something else. He was evil genius.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57The story of their marriage
0:41:57 > 0:42:01has been described as probably the most unsuccessful
0:42:01 > 0:42:03and vicious and horrible marriage
0:42:03 > 0:42:07in the entire history of literary marriages that we know about.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11It was as bad as that, all the biographers will tell you.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13And those declining years at the end
0:42:13 > 0:42:17when Chertkov gets on the inside of this and excludes her
0:42:17 > 0:42:19right up to the bitter end, really,
0:42:19 > 0:42:21they make terrible reading.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25Sonia seemed to believe that as an old man,
0:42:25 > 0:42:30he was actually having a homoerotic affair with this man Chertkov.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32Nonsense, but it shows their closeness.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38"20th August.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42"Went riding and the sight of the senorial domain so torments me
0:42:42 > 0:42:45"that I'm thinking of running away and hiding.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49"Today, I thought as I record my marriage,
0:42:49 > 0:42:53"that there was something fateful about it.
0:42:54 > 0:43:00"I was never even in love, but I couldn't help getting married."
0:43:02 > 0:43:07In the late summer of 1910, the Tolstoy marriage hit a new low.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11Chertkov had moved into a house near to Yasnaya Polyana,
0:43:11 > 0:43:13and a furious row developed
0:43:13 > 0:43:17over who should have possession of Tolstoy's diaries.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22"9th September 1910.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26"I wrote a letter to Chertkov but haven't posted it yet.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29"This man is the cause of all my suffering
0:43:29 > 0:43:32"and I cannot reconcile myself to him."
0:43:38 > 0:43:41"11th September.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45"Towards evening, she began making scenes.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48"Running into the garden... "tears, screams.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52"It's even got to the stage that when I went after out into the garden,
0:43:52 > 0:43:56"she screamed, 'He's a beast! A murderer! I can't bear to see him!'"
0:44:04 > 0:44:06"24th September.
0:44:06 > 0:44:11"After dinner she began to reproach me and say that I shouted at her and that I ought to pity her.
0:44:11 > 0:44:16"I remained silent. She went to her room and now it's after ten o' clock
0:44:16 > 0:44:19"and she hasn't come out, and I'm depressed."
0:44:21 > 0:44:26"A letter from Chertkov with reproaches and accusations.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28"They are tearing me to pieces.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31"I sometimes think I should go away from them all."
0:44:33 > 0:44:38Finally, at the end of October, one night he was trying to sleep.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41He heard his wife going through his papers on his desk in the next room.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45He woke up. He couldn't go back to sleep,
0:44:45 > 0:44:49and somewhat spontaneously decided to go,
0:44:49 > 0:44:54although we know that during the week before he was really talking about it
0:44:54 > 0:44:57very actively with those around him.
0:44:57 > 0:44:59So there was definitely a build-up.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03You feel like it's really...almost when you read all of the accounts,
0:45:03 > 0:45:06it almost feels it's inevitable he's going to leave.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09Do we know what happened on that night,
0:45:09 > 0:45:13before she fell asleep, what happened?
0:45:13 > 0:45:16Tolstoy was in bed, so she entered his bedroom,
0:45:16 > 0:45:20just looked at Tolstoy, and then she went to his study,
0:45:20 > 0:45:25and Tolstoy, he couldn't sleep that night, so he didn't sleep well,
0:45:25 > 0:45:27and so he heard she was in his study
0:45:27 > 0:45:30looking through the papers.
0:45:30 > 0:45:36Then she came back to her bedroom and so she fell asleep,
0:45:36 > 0:45:39and Tolstoy...all of a sudden he understood
0:45:39 > 0:45:45he couldn't stay any longer here in this house and decided to go away.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51This flight is so often depicted as spontaneous and it was not.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55Tolstoy already for years
0:45:55 > 0:45:58received letters from his followers
0:45:58 > 0:45:59urging him to flee.
0:46:00 > 0:46:06They expected a full concurrence of Tolstoy's words and deeds.
0:46:06 > 0:46:11If he renounced luxury, and there was no luxury in Tolstoy's household...
0:46:11 > 0:46:15if you visited Yasnaya Polyana you know, they lived like English middle class.
0:46:15 > 0:46:20So but if he renounced property he has to separate himself
0:46:20 > 0:46:23from his property and family.
0:46:23 > 0:46:29So this was expected from him, and she lived under the pressure
0:46:29 > 0:46:36for many years and in fear of their final separation and flight.
0:46:36 > 0:46:42She knew it would take place and Tolstoy in his diaries says that
0:46:42 > 0:46:47he wants her to give him an excuse to go away,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51and finally maybe she did give this excuse
0:46:51 > 0:46:57because of her fear and because of her spying on him.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59"October 28th.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01"Went to bed at 11.30.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03"Slept till after two.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07"Woke up. I heard the opening of doors and footsteps.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11"I saw through the crack a bright light in the study
0:47:11 > 0:47:14"and heard rustling.
0:47:14 > 0:47:19"It was Sofia Andreevna looking for something and probably reading.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22"I wanted to go back to sleep, but couldn't.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26"I gasped for breath, counted my pulse...
0:47:26 > 0:47:27"97...
0:47:28 > 0:47:34"I couldn't go on lying there, and suddenly I took the final decision to leave."
0:47:36 > 0:47:39So he came to the stables, he brought the doctor with him,
0:47:39 > 0:47:43he went to the coachman's house first and then came here?
0:47:43 > 0:47:46Yeah, and came here with the coachman.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50He was waiting in the special part of the stables where the carriages were.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53But on the way to the stables,
0:47:53 > 0:47:59walking through the apple tree orchards, he lost his hat,
0:47:59 > 0:48:01and he was going back to the house,
0:48:01 > 0:48:07but fortunately he met his doctor, who had in his pocket another hat.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10So what was his mood here at this time?
0:48:10 > 0:48:13He was very nervous. He was very tense.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15He worried about his wife, Sofie Andreevna.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18He was thinking was she awake or not.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22He wanted to go away as soon as possible.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27TRANSLATION: In the end this was a King Lear moment,
0:48:27 > 0:48:32the departure of Tolstoy. It was a genuine Shakespearean drama.
0:48:32 > 0:48:37When during that cold night in October he left on his own,
0:48:37 > 0:48:42lost his hat, tripped and fell, then he had to cross a ravine.
0:48:42 > 0:48:47They are all terrifying details, but by this time, he was clearly ill.
0:48:47 > 0:48:54Speaking from a kind of elevated perspective,
0:48:54 > 0:48:58this was an artist finding a way to complete a great life.
0:49:05 > 0:49:10Having left the house in the dead of night you'd imagine
0:49:10 > 0:49:14that Tolstoy would have tried to travel discreetly, but not at all.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19He boarded a train and proceeded to lecture the entire carriage
0:49:19 > 0:49:22on pacifism and non-violence.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27His destination was back here.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31Back at the monastery of Optina Pustyn,
0:49:31 > 0:49:35where he'd begun his spiritual quest over 30 years earlier.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38He arrived at the monastery guest house
0:49:38 > 0:49:40and announced to the monk on duty,
0:49:40 > 0:49:44"I am Lev Nikolaivic Tolstoy, excommunicated by the church.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48"I have come to talk to your elders."
0:49:50 > 0:49:54The following day Tolstoy left Optina Pustyn
0:49:54 > 0:49:56to visit a nearby convent,
0:49:56 > 0:50:02where his sister Maria now lived as a nun.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05When he met her in the cell, he burst into tears.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09All that he wanted now was a chance to live in solitude.
0:50:09 > 0:50:15Apparently, they even discussed how he could rent one of the small lodges in the monastery grounds.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19But clearly, Tolstoy had not made he mind up what to do.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22At four o' clock the next morning,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25he once again disappeared into the night.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31One of the most extraordinary aspects
0:50:31 > 0:50:33of Tolstoy's journey of escape
0:50:33 > 0:50:37was the mass of detail in which it was recorded and commented on,
0:50:37 > 0:50:39both in the diaries of Tolstoy
0:50:39 > 0:50:42and of the doctor Macaviski, who accompanied him.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46As well as in the correspondence of his children and friends.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49However, amazingly, one thing that no-one is clear about
0:50:49 > 0:50:53is exactly where this 82-year-old man thought he was going.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55There are a number of theories,
0:50:55 > 0:50:59but perhaps the truth was that there was no plan.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02As he embarked on yet another arduous journey
0:51:02 > 0:51:05in cramped smoky railway carriages,
0:51:05 > 0:51:10it's hardly surprising that he was taken ill.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14He appears to have caught a chill and developed a fever.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17Eventually, Dr Macaviski decided they should leave the train
0:51:17 > 0:51:20at the next station, wherever it was,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24as Count Tolstoy was no longer well enough to continue.
0:51:34 > 0:51:40Here at Astapovo, a tiny rural station in the middle of nowhere,
0:51:40 > 0:51:44Tolstoy was helped up the platform to the station master's house,
0:51:44 > 0:51:46where he was offered first a room
0:51:46 > 0:51:52and eventually the whole house by the awestruck railwaymen.
0:51:52 > 0:51:57Astonishingly, events that unfolded at Astapovo over the next few days
0:51:57 > 0:51:59were captured on film.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12"3rd November. Astapovo.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18"Had a bad night.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20"Lay for two days in a fever.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25"Chertkov came on the second.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29"They say that Sofia Andreevna has, too.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31"So much for my plan."
0:52:39 > 0:52:43"2nd November 1910.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45"I received a telegram at 7.30 this morning.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49"Lev Nikolaivic ill in Astapovo.
0:52:49 > 0:52:55"Tanya, the nurse and I all left for Astapovo for a special train."
0:52:57 > 0:53:03Sofia only asked and begged everyone who was walking into the house
0:53:03 > 0:53:05to let Tolstoy know that she was there.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10Her greatest fear was that he would die in her absence,
0:53:10 > 0:53:15and that they would not be able to say farewell to each other.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19"3rd November. Astapovo.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24"Lev Nikolaivic has pneumonia in the left lung.
0:53:24 > 0:53:25"They won't let me see him."
0:53:29 > 0:53:31"4th November.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33"Lev Nikolaivic is worse.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37"I wait in agony outside the little house where he is lying.
0:53:37 > 0:53:38"We are sleeping in the train."
0:53:41 > 0:53:43"5th November.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46"There is evidently little hope.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48"I am tormented by remorse.
0:53:48 > 0:53:54"The painful anticipation of his end and the impossibility of seeing my beloved husband."
0:53:56 > 0:53:57"6th November.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00"Dreadful atmosphere of anticipation.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02"I can't remember anything clearly."
0:54:03 > 0:54:05"7th November.
0:54:07 > 0:54:13"At six o'clock in the morning, Lev Nikolaivic died.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17"I was allowed in only as he drew his last breath.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20"They wouldn't let me take leave of my husband.
0:54:20 > 0:54:21"Cruel people."
0:54:33 > 0:54:37Thousands of people went on strike the day of the funeral.
0:54:37 > 0:54:39There were actually some mass demonstrations
0:54:39 > 0:54:41that spilled out into the streets.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43Real concern on the part of the government
0:54:43 > 0:54:48that this could be an opening up of that revolutionary energy
0:54:48 > 0:54:50that they had kind of pressed down
0:54:50 > 0:54:52after the 1905 Revolution.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56This is really his most famous story.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00This is the one that everyone followed,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03everyone literally, everyone in Russia
0:55:03 > 0:55:07and people all over the world were talking about this.
0:55:07 > 0:55:13It was based on this very enigmatic gesture of just trying
0:55:13 > 0:55:16to figure out what he was doing, where he was going,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19what he would do when he got there, why he had left?
0:55:19 > 0:55:25All of these questions provoked people to create this story,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27and because it's an unfinished one
0:55:27 > 0:55:30because he died without reaching his destination,
0:55:30 > 0:55:34it created that opening for people to imagine what it all meant.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38It's hard to find another story like it.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42It was a huge demonstration of public opinion.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45Most of those crowds weren't clutching the equivalent
0:55:45 > 0:55:47of the Times Literary Supplement.
0:55:47 > 0:55:48They weren't literary people.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52They weren't going there because they so admired War And Peace,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55they were going there because they saw him as their saviour.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57As the one man who could stand up
0:55:57 > 0:56:01and say that the government of Russia was intolerable.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05It's not surprising that revolution was in the air,
0:56:05 > 0:56:08and there'd already been one minor revolution.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11There was going to be another revolution.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14People thought it would be a Tolstoyan revolution.
0:56:16 > 0:56:22TRANSLATION: Tolstoy was not a comfortable figure
0:56:22 > 0:56:26for the Tsarist authority in Russia.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31Nor was he acceptable to the Bolshevik communist authorities,
0:56:31 > 0:56:33and he is still an inconvenience
0:56:33 > 0:56:38for the so-called democratic authorities today.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41He always said exactly what he thought,
0:56:41 > 0:56:45and this would never have been appreciated by any form of authority.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52When the 5,000 mourners arrived at the grave
0:56:52 > 0:56:56there was no ceremony, no priest, no cross.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59Everyone knelt, including the armed police
0:56:59 > 0:57:02after they were shouted at by the crowd.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06The place Tolstoy had chosen for his burial
0:57:06 > 0:57:11was not the churchyard where the rest of his family were buried,
0:57:11 > 0:57:16but here just by the path at the edge of the ravine.
0:57:16 > 0:57:21The spot where his brother had told him a little green stick was buried.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26The stick on which was written the secret of universal happiness.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34I wonder, did Tolstoy ever get to read
0:57:34 > 0:57:37what was on that little green stick?
0:57:37 > 0:57:41I suspect not. At least not for himself.
0:57:41 > 0:57:43This great Russian writer
0:57:43 > 0:57:46always seems to have been at odds with the world,
0:57:46 > 0:57:50always in trouble, and always a trouble maker.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57100 years on from those extraordinary scenes
0:57:57 > 0:58:01and the riots and demonstrations that followed Tolstoy's death,
0:58:01 > 0:58:06it's unsurprising that Tolstoy, the uncompromising critic of church,
0:58:06 > 0:58:10state corruption, social inequality and militarism,
0:58:10 > 0:58:15still seems difficult and problematic, and not just in Russia.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18It's easier to applaud Tolstoy the greatest of novelists,
0:58:18 > 0:58:22and dismiss Tolstoy the idealist as a crank.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24An artist out of his depth.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28But the real trouble with Tolstoy is that so much of what he advocated...
0:58:28 > 0:58:32that love is all that matters, that violence begets violence,
0:58:32 > 0:58:36that no man has the right to take control over the life of another...
0:58:36 > 0:58:39is uncomfortably but unavoidably true.
0:58:45 > 0:58:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:48 > 0:58:51E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk