DIARIES: The Diaries of Sofia TolstoyTranslated by Cathy Porter Forward by Doris Lessing Alma Books, 609pp, £20
IN THE famous first line of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy wrote that "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". His wife, Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy's unhappiness was both individual and typical of intelligent, able women in the 19th century, stifled by domesticity, longing for lives of their own. Married at the age of 18 to the greatest novelist of the century, 16 years her senior, she was dominated by his genius but deeply hurt by his wilfulness.
As Cathy Porter puts it, in her excellent introduction: “While Tolstoy soars above the world, she remains chained to earth by all the problems he leaves there for her to deal with.”
His was the selfishness of genius, leaving her to raise and educate their children, manage the estate and all the family’s finances, house and feed the hundreds of Tolstoyan disciples that flocked to Yasnaya Polyana to visit him. Moreover, without her, and later their daughters, his manuscripts would have been unpublishable, as his writing, tiny and crabbed, was practically illegible; she copied and recopied all his work. She tended sick peasants who came seeking assistance, made clothes for the family and negotiated with publishers, even seeking an audience with the Tsar when one of Tolstoy’s works was banned.
Of their 13 children, nine survived into adulthood and her pain at the loss of her babies and particularly the last born, Ivan (Vanechka), who died aged seven is vividly recorded here. But there is also great happiness in these remarkable diaries – her joy in her surroundings, her deep love for her husband and children, her passion for music.
She describes her delight at the world around her – the trees she planted, the song of nightingales, frozen ponds where the family skated, her children, especially when they were young. The book is divided into sections: part I, which covers the years of her marriage; part II, a daily diary for 1906-7 and 1909-1919; and appendices which include accounts by Sofia of her marriage; “Various notes for Future Reference”; and the death of Vanechka. The entries are prefaced by very useful notes, which provide a context for each year’s record, and informative endnotes. The photographs, some taken by Sofia, who was a keen photographer, are wonderful.
The Tolstoy family and many of their circle wrote diaries, and they have provided a rich resource for historians, also for fictional accounts, of which Jay Parini’s striking novel about the end of Tolstoy’s life in The Last Station is the best known. In their early marriage, Tolstoy and Sofia read each other’s diaries, and perhaps wrote them as a form of dialogue.
Sofia’s reputation has suffered in the memoirs of others, including Tolstoy himself, and some, especially his friend, Vladimir Chertkov, portrayed her as a domineering, materialistic woman, subject to hysterical outbursts. Certainly she was strong willed, prone to jealousy and self-doubt, probably a difficult individual in her own way, but the voice in her diaries provides a moving account of affairs as she saw them.
Their marriage was a stormy one and his death in 1910 followed his decision to leave home and her effort to drown herself. She was to survive until 1919, her final entry, a month before her death, discussing how to defend the estate of Yasnaya Polyana against the widespread looting during the Civil War.
Cathy Porter is an accomplished historian and translator from Russian, whose work has included several books addressing women's lives, such as her biography of the feminist revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai, and a study of Women in Revolutionary Russia. This most recent addition provides a riveting and thought-provoking account of a remarkable woman, her life and times.
Carla King is a lecturer in Modern History at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin
