ABSTRACT
As early as November 1870 the Countess Tolstoy was writing to her brother : " We are now leading a very strenuous life, and work all day. Leo sits before a heap of books, portraits, pictures, and, with corrugated brow, reads, examines and makes notes. In the evenings, after the children are in bed, he tells me of his plans and what he intends to write. Now and then he is disillusioned, seized with despair, and thinks that nothing will come of it. And then he grows full of enthusiasm for his theme once more. But so far, one can hardly say he is writing; he is only preparing to write." 89
The following month, Tolstoy himself wrote to Strakhov: "Until now, I have done no work. I am surrounded with volumes upon Peter I and his period. I read, make notes, and try to write, but without success. But what a marvellous period for the artist ! However one looks at it, it teems with problems and mysteries that poetry alone can unravel. The whole key to Russian life lies there. . . . It seems that my preparations will be in vain; they have gone on too long and excite me too much " 89
Despite his many other interests, two years later he was still occupied with the same subject. " Do you by any chance know anything about our Tolstoy ancestors that I am unaware of? " he asked his cousin, who had been instrumental in getting him some important information, in June 1872. "If there should be any documents about it, will you be kind enough to send them ? The darkest period of our ancestors'
172 A Fragment of the Projected Novel life is their exile to the convent of Slovetzk where Peter and Ivan Tolstoy died. Who was Ivan's wife, the Princess Troiekurov ? When and to where did they return ? Please God I shall go to the convent of Slovetzk in the summer. I hope to learn something there. It is both affecting and very important that Ivan refused to return though he was permitted to do so. You say that the period of Peter the Great is not interesting, that it is cruel. Whatever it may have been, it was the beginning of all things." 62
The following March the Countess Tolstoy wrote to her sister: "All the characters of the period of Peter the Great are ready, in costume, and in their place, but they do not breathe yet. Yesterday I told him so, and he agreed. Perhaps they are going to stir, to begin to live, but not y e t . . . . " 89
Meanwhile Tolstoy continued to fill notebooks with facts, with impressions, and even with detailed sketches. At last he set himself to work ; but after several attempts at a beginning, he gave it up. The subject had become distasteful to him. Though the detached eye of the artist might still see its possibilities, the generous, sensitive spirit of the man revolted. He had come to realize, as his cousin Alexandra had warned him, that there was too much cruelty in the period for him to present it with any sympathy. He could not agree with the established opinion as to the greatness of a sovereign in whose reforms he saw only the desire for personal advantage; in whose founding of Petersburg he saw only an attempt to weaken his nobles and to create conditions which would leave him free to lead an immoral life; in whose friendships he saw only die pandering of sycophants and debauchees ; and in whose murder of his own son, which he deemed most revolting of all, he saw a lack of moral feeling that made it impossible for him even to imagine his psychology. Nor could he have been anything but embarrassed to consider the part his own ancestor had played in the affair.
