The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy (74 page)

8th March, Women's Day—women demonstrate in their thousands on streets of newly renamed Petrograd. Strikes, demonstrations and “food riots” become more violent, with buildings set on fire. 16th March—Tsar abdicates, his government is toppled and a new “Provisional” Government of liberal landowners is formed. The Soviet is resurrected and challenges the power of the Provisional Government. Spring—revolutionaries amnestied and many (including Lenin) return to Russia. June—Provisional Government urges on Russian soldiers against Germans; strikes and demonstrations in the towns reach massive proportions. July—unsuccessful attempt by soldiers, sailors and workers to seize power. 25th and 26th October—Bolsheviks take power at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, and declare an end to war with no annexations or indemnities. December—armistice signed with Germany, while Trotsky and others attempt to persuade the German High Command at Brest Litovsk to accept Bolshevik peace terms. France, Britain, Japan and the United States prepare to attack Soviet Russia
.

Angry peasants return from front and loot and burn estates near Yasnaya Polyana. Summer—looters driven off by staff brandishing pickaxes, and Sofia Tolstoy applies to the Provisional Government for armed protection. One hundred men dispatched to protect the property, and the Governor of Tula is requested to pay special attention to her needs. Sofia's daughter Tanya moves in with her young daughter (also Tanya, or Tanechka). Sergei Tolstoy gives a series of concerts, which receive good reviews. Tolstoy Museum agrees to bring out new
Complete Collected Works,
edited by his children Sasha and Sergei Tolstoy, and others
.

 

19th January
. Our old nurse, Anna Sukolyonova, died at midnight last night, and the nuns are now reading the psalter over her body. What grief! I lived with her for 35 years, and it was time for her to leave this life—she was 88. I coached my darling Tanechka; I am reading a lot.

 

21st
. We buried Nurse today; the little place by the window where she always sat and greeted me is now empty, and I feel so sad.

 

23rd
. I cannot rid my heart of anxieties about my children, especially Lyova, who is the most unstable and unhappy of them.

 

2nd February
. I paid the workmen's salaries. I feel very sorry for the working people, and would love to feed and clothe them and show them some affection—especially the children.

 

3rd
. Workers at the Tula ordnance factory are on strike. They have to stand in queues to buy food, and when they're late for work they're fined. Where's the justice in that?

 

17th
. Terribly upset by Tanya's account of Lyova's gambling losses in Moscow before he left for Japan. How dreadful! A new weight on my heart.

 

1st March
. An unexpected visit from Seryozha Popov, who was tried with Bulgakov and Dushan Petrovich and has just left prison. A new Provisional Government has been established. Frightful news of people killed in Petrograd when they rioted for bread.

 

3rd
. I read the paper carefully to find out about the change of government and the authority of the new State Duma. Everyone is in a tense and expectant mood.

 

5th
. An important day for Yasnaya Polyana. Workers from the Sudakovo iron foundry arrived with red flags and badges to pay their respects to Tolstoy's house and widow. Bearing portraits of Lev Nik., they tramped through deep snow in a biting wind to the grave. My two Tanyas went too. The workers sang and made speeches about “freedom”, and I replied with a short speech about L.N.'s legacy. Then everyone sang ‘Eternal Memory' and took photographs.

 

6th
. I sent
Russian Word
my article about the workers' demonstration yesterday.

 

7th
. A little soldier boy was sent here by Sasha to collect four copies of the
Complete Collected Works of L.N. Tolstoy
. The new freedom doesn't make me happy—everything frightens me.

 

11th
. I was shocked to receive a letter from my sister Tanya informing me that her husband had died. He had already embraced death long
ago, with his quiet, mild, affectionate attitude to all those around him. My sister wasn't with him—she had gone to a sanatorium.

 

20th
. Dushan Petrovich read us Lev Nik.'s ‘Our Revolution'* this evening.

 

4th April
. There were a great many visitors to the house and Lev Nik.'s rooms. A militiaman dictated to me a letter applying for a policeman to protect me. Dushan Petrovich's relatives came to visit. We now have some Slovak prisoners here.

 

5th
. I conscientiously read all the newspapers. Everything is so frightening—the war and the famine; there's menace in the air.

 

10th
. I cannot rid myself of this gnawing anguish. Nothing can awaken my soul now or call it back to life—neither spring, nor my former happiness, music or art. My only pleasure now is having my two Tanyas living with me, but they'll be leaving soon for their home in Ovsyannikovo.

 

12th
. Sasha and Varya Mikhailovna have arrived. Sasha is just the same, thank God, with the same loud, cheerful laugh. I'm delighted she came, but also wish she hadn't, since she'll be here for only two days, and we have waited and worried about her for so long.

 

15th
. Sasha went off to the front again with Varvara Mikhailovna; she was full of energy and high spirits, and I had to force myself not to cry.

 

18th
. Some professional and industrial workers from Sudakovo came to visit with a wreath tied with red ribbon from some soldiers. They carried some magnificent red flags embroidered in gold and silver, and played music which the crowd could understand. It's strange to hear the ‘Marseillaise' played here in Russia. They made speeches, then all went off to the grave, and there were more speeches—from a schoolboy, an Italian and a Czech.

 

19th
. 16 soldiers came to see the house and visit the grave. An engineer from Sudakovo called Parshin visited with books for the library.

 

23rd
. Life is dull and pointless and there's little joy in it—apart from my two Tanechkas. The moment I got up today I had to deal with the day-labourers' wages, the widows' pensions, visitors, students, soldiers, officers. The officers were most sympathetic, and said people visited Yasnaya Polyana as Christians visited Jerusalem and Mohammedans Mecca—to pay their respects to a holy place. Terrible news about a peasant murdered by Austrian prisoners.

 

26th
. My son Misha has arrived. He told me a lot of interesting things about the front. The lack of discipline in the troops is terrible, and in general the situation is hopeless.

 

27th
. A mass of visitors. Forty-five schoolboys, five women, four soldiers and several other gentlemen. It has grown warmer and the nightingale is singing. We all had dinner on the veranda together, although everyone brought their own food.

 

30th
. An enormous number of visitors to the house and the grave, all of them soldiers.

 

30th May
. 200 soldiers came on foot to the house, and Ivanov, commander of the regiment, drove up later with his little girl. They were marching to music, and they played very well too, first the ‘Marseillaise', and at the grave the Funeral March. There were a lot of discussions—about Lev Nik., the royal family and Chertkov. I invited the commander to dinner, but he declined.

 

3rd June
. I received thanks from Moscow University for donating the
Complete Collected Works
to them, and they praised my edition as “the best”.

 

17th
. 400 soldiers arrived this morning with their colonel. They marched into the village last night playing music, and today they came to see us. I showed L.N.'s rooms to more than 62 of them.

 

18th
. More visitors to Lev Nik—ch's rooms—soldiers, Jews, 100 children from Sudakovo and several schoolboys.

 

25th
. I played a Mozart sonata as a duet with my granddaughter Annochka, then we did Beethoven's 1st Symphony and Weber's
‘Invitation to the Waltz'. Several guests—ladies, soldiers with their officer and so on. Then the Deputy Minister for Communications, Takhtamyshev, arrived. We gave them tea and berries, and showed them the rooms. The minister had his two sons with him and some friends.

 

29th
. I spent the day with Seryozha and Masha. This evening Seryozha, my sister Tanya, Dushan Petrovich and I all went for a walk; a beautiful sunset, a prisoner was scything the timothy grass. Seryozha's state of mind alarms and grieves me. The raids on the land and property at Nikolskoe are taking a threatening character.

 

6th July
. This evening my sister Tanya and I read the
Early Morning
newspaper. Frightful occurrences in Petrograd: shooting, killing of our own people, looting, rioting. And these bandits are our leaders!* My sister takes it all passionately to heart and follows everything with great interest; I merely suffer deeply.

 

25th
. I have finished a crayon drawing of a thistle (a large burdock). It was very difficult. There is a reference to a thistle in Lev Nik.'s story
Hadji Murat
.

 

2nd August
. Tanya went to Basovo; she is interested in village politics. I am copying letters.

 

6th
. The peasants are all singing in the village, even the two soldiers sent here to defend us. A lot of hateful visitors.

 

14th
. I did a little copying, then at 8 o'clock I went out with my daughter Tanya to buy provisions. We visited eight shops, including four consumers' co-operatives, and found nothing apart from ten lettuces and a loaf of rye bread. Famine looms. Dushan Petrovich's nephew went to Tula, and there too there was nothing to buy. I chattered to Gusev and wish I hadn't.

 

20th
. Reading the papers takes a lot of time and induces a feeling of horror. I read the Gospels every evening.

 

22nd
. Today I am 73 years old. What a terrible anniversary to be alive! Where are my poor children and what are they doing? And
what about my countless grandchildren? My heart aches with the tormenting prospect of famine. I was informed today that ten armed mounted soldiers will be arriving tomorrow with two officers.

 

25th
. It's sad that relations with my sister are so bad. She flies into a rage at the slightest thing, and is always losing her temper with me and calling me a holy fool because I appear to take things so calmly. But no one sees what takes place in my soul.

 

28th
. As soon as I got up this morning I went with my granddaughter Tanechka to the grave. We put flowers there and swept it clean and tidied it. Then the ten mounted soldiers arrived with their two commanders.

 

29th
. We read
Communist Ideas
, collected by Posse as a supplement to
Life for All
. Most interesting!

 

30th
. We read the paper avidly this evening, and with great sorrow. Civil war threatens; Kerensky and Kornilov won't yield power. I don't wish to judge them, but this new government has done absolutely nothing for Russia.

 

1st September
. Dreadful rumours on all sides. It's impossible to get bread, all the ministries have collapsed, the best ministers have left, the best generals have been arrested. I fear Kerensky is mentally ill, with delusions of grandeur.

 

2nd
. I was cheered by my son Misha's arrival from the Caucasus, where he wants to take his family for the winter. He was in low spirits and I wept when he left.

 

5th
. I went out to the field and picked nine baskets of potatoes.

 

11th
. Incomprehensible manoeuvres in government circles! Kerensky will evidently soon fall; there are so many intrigues and failures, so much love of power and so little understanding of what the country and the people need!

 

20th
. My son Ilyusha arrived this morning, looking thin, old and wretched. He left this evening, and it was sad having to part so soon.

 

17th October
. An agronomist called Volkov drove here from Tula in a motor car. They brought 12 or 10 soldiers—I can't remember how many—to protect us, and we managed somehow to accommodate them all.* The entire southern part of the Krapivna district has been set on fire.

 

23rd
. There's a rumour that we're about to be raided, and some militiamen have come for the night to keep guard over us. None of us slept—we didn't even take our clothes off.

 

4th November
. Captain Lyzlov and another officer came to say goodbye. The cavalry left today, and tomorrow a hundred light infantrymen will be leaving. Life in the country is becoming more and more frightening, but there's nowhere else to go.

 

5th
. The hundred infantry soldiers left today, thank God. This evening a senior militiaman arrived from Kosaya Gora with an engineer and four other men from there. It turns out they are going to keep guard over everything, the house and the books; they have spent the past three nights here already. This is most reassuring.