# Leo Tolstoy: His Life and Work/Chapter 9
## St. Petersburg

Tolstoy was sent to St. Petersburg as a despatch bearer. There he was attached to a rocket battery under General Konstantinov and returned to the front no more.
In St. Petersburg, where he arrived November 21, 1855, he found himself at once in the circle of "The Contemporary," and was received there with open arms.
In his "Confession," Tolstoy thus speaks of that period: "During that time I began to write, out of vanity, love of gain, and pride. I followed as a writer the same path which I had chosen as a man. In order to obtain the fame and money for which I wore, I was obliged to hide what was good and bow down before what was evil. How often while writing have I cudgelled my brains to conceal, under the mask of indifference or pleasantry, those yearnings for something better which formed the real problem of my life! I succeeded in my object and was praised. At twenty-six years of age, on the close of the war, I came to St. Petersburg, and made the acquaintance of the authors of the day.
"I met with a hearty reception and much flattery."
Naturally, during the twenty years before he wrote those lines, Tolstoy was beset by various feelings, though even then his unsparing self-analysis and skepticism were pushed so far as to astonish his companions.
"The contemporary" was a review founded by A. S. Pushkin and Plentev. Its first number was issued in 1836. After Pushkin's death, the review was published from 1838 to 1846 by Plentev alone and lost all its importance. In 1847 N. A. Nekrasov and T. T. Panayev became the proprietors of the review. In Collaboration with the well-known literary critic Belinskiy, they managed in a short time to attract the best authors, and until its suppression by the authorities in 1866, this review was the chief organ of progressive russian art, criticism and sociology.
At the time of Tolstoy's appearance in Petersburg, the more intimate members of this literary circle are to be seen in the two well-known photo-groups of authors - Panayev, Nekrasov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Druzhinin, Ostrovskiy, Goncharov, and Grigorovich and Sollogulo. One may add to the circle V. P. Botkin, Fet, and others not included in the two groups.
Members of the staff of "The Contemporary" were bound by certain obligations as to honoraria as well as the contribution of articles. These obligations were sometimes found too burdensome, and caused many unpleasant frictions among literary men. Publishers and editors of other reviews would, by urgent entreaties, obtain "copy" from the celebrated authors belonging to the personnel of "The Contemporary." The administration of that review resented such proceedings very much, a feeling which was reciprocated by the rival publishers.
Tolstoy's German biographer, Loewenfeld, gives a description of one such incident as follows:
The association of "The Contemporary" ceased long before, and it became an ordinary publishing concern.
Tolstoy did not meet Belinskiy in the circle of "The Contemporary." The latter died in 1848, after having worked hard to put the "Review" on a satisfactory footing. His enthusiasm breathed new life into the dying periodical, and made its existence secure for a long while to come. But Tolstoy was not influenced directly by Belinskiy. The reason for this was, in the first place, the different character of their respective times. Belinskiy was a man of the forties, in the full sense of the word, whereas Tolstoy entered upon his literary career in the fifties, and moved among Belinskiy's followers, who lacked his attractive power; though, on the other hand, the social surroundings in which Tolstoy had been reared could not be favorable to his intimacy with these representatives of the republic of letters - "raznochintsy," as they called themselves, all sorts and conditions of men. He kept company with men of his own standard of breeding, and even with them was always reserved, independent, mostly in opposition, and trying to influence others, while himself little responsive to outside influence. Once may point out a more serious cause, that underlying difference in general views. Though Tolstoy had not yet definitely formed his views of life, still the tendency of "The Contemporary" had never attracted him.
Moreover, as Tolstoy has acknowledged in his literary work, he was more attracted by talent that was simply artistic than by that of a social tendency.
In his youth he had been under the sway of rousseau's philosophical teaching.
Discussing the subject of French literature with Professor Boyer from Paris, who paid him a visit in the spring of 1901, Tolstoy thus expressed his opinion of his two teachers - Rousseau and Stendhal:
From twenty to thirty-five years of age Tolstoy was chiefly influenced by the following works:
Titles - Degree of Influence
Goethe, Hermann und Dorothea - Very great
V. Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris - Very great
Tyuchev, Verses - Great
Koltsov, Verses - Great
Fet, Verses - Great
Plato, Phaedo and the Symposium - Very great
Odyssey and Iliad - Very great
Thus we have the more or less complete list of Tolstoy's literary guides.
Tolstoy entered the circle of St. Petersburg authors, his powerful artistic personality and obstinate, often aggressive temperament creating a storm in their hitherto quiet and peaceful atmosphere.
The following is from Fet's reminiscences of Tolstoy's first appearance in St. Petersburg:
D. V. Grigorovich, in his "Literary Reminiscences," tells a similar story of the earlier period of Tolstoy's acquaintance with St. Petersburg authors:
This tendency of Tolstoy to contradiction is also illustrated in the following episode related in the reminiscences of G. P. Danilevskiy:
We know that Tolstoy changed his opinion of Herzen later on, and this will be mentioned in due place.
E. Garshin, in his reminiscences of Turgenev, gives the following interesting account of Turgenev's opinion of tolstoy. It shows the early element of mutual incompatibility which almost brought their relations to a fatal end.
All these facts as to the mutual relations of the two authors show that any real spiritual intimacy between them was impossible. But the liberal movement carried both of them in the same direction, and they considered themselves fellow-workers for the same cause. Besides, their aristocratic origin, their education, their prominent position in the literary circle -- all this, though against their will, was bringing them, outwardly at any rate, together. But, as readers will see from the following incident, whenever they tried to be more than simple companions, a conflict was the result, and this sometimes exposed their priceless lives to danger. To do them justice, they both clearly realized the distance dividing them, they owned it openly to each other and to others, and, what is more important, they made great moral efforts to keep up, if not cordial, at least amicable relations based on mutual respect. On this ground, they present a suggestive example to following generations.
We may insert here the account given by Mme. Golovachov- Panayev of the early days of the acquaintance of Turgenev and Tolstoy, which confirms our assertion.
Turgenev, with his honest, truthful nature, had many times publicly declared his great admiration of Tolstoy's talent, and more than that, he once said to a French publisher, using the expression of John the Baptist in relation to Jesus Christ: "I am unworthy to untie his shoe." Their relations nevertheless were never cordial.
Only on his death-bed, in his last letter to Tolstoy, while with touching tenderness imploring him to return to literary activity, he gave him the name with which no Russian author had been hitherto honored, the name of "the great writer of the Russian land." And this glorious name will follow him into eternity.
To give the reader an idea of the relations between Tolstoy and Turgenev at the early period of their acquaintance, we will interrupt the chronological order of our work and quote several setters of Turgenev to Tolstoy, written in the same year.
December 8, 1856, he wrote to Tolstoy:
We do not possess exact information as to Tolstoy's opinion of "King Lear" in Druzhinin's translation, but from the letter of Botkin to Druzhinin quoted below, one can see that Tolstoy liked Druzhinin's translation.
Here is the letter:
It seems the joy of Botkin was premature, for Tolstoy persisted in his dislike of Shakespeare, but on this we shall have occasion to remark in one of the following chapters.
On the 5th of December 1856, Turgenev wrote to Druzhinin from Paris:
"Youth" really was forwarded to Druzhinin to be criticized by him; he read it and wrote the following interesting letter in answer:
The fact that Druzhinin could have written to tolstoy in such a manner shows that they really were on familiar terms, and that Druzhinin could influence him.
Tolstoy's stay in St. Petersburg -- from November until May -- was interrupted by a short visit to Orel on business connected with family affairs.
February 2nd Tolstoy received the news of his brother Dmitriy's death; he drew a vivid picture of the latter's personality in his Reminiscences, quoted by us in the chapter on "Youth". Here we quote the second part of those Reminiscences, referring to his brother's subsequent life, illness and death:
Peace was concluded on March 12 [1856], and this circumstance made it easier for Tolstoy to get his leave.
During the winter he finished "Lost on the Steppe; or, The Snowstorm"; "Two Hussars"; "an Old Acquaintance"; and "A Russian Landowner". Tolstoy had to distribute his works among three periodicals; thus the first two novels appeared in "The Contemporary", the third in the "Reading Library", and the fourth in "Memoirs of the Fatherland."
Among other things, Tolstoy wrote to his Aunt Tatayana at this period:
This letter shows that Tolstoy's relation to Turgenev varied from time to time.
St. Petersburg life was evidently not to Tolstoy's liking. Soon after his arrival, he did his best to get away and prepared to go abroad.
In the letter to his brother of March 25, 1856, he says incidentally:
On the 12th of May [1856], while yet in St. Petersburg, he put down in his diary:
as literary affairs, gave little satisfaction to its chief supporters; this was perhaps due to the individual diversity of convictions, views, habits, education, and surroundings of the contributors, as this always hinders any common work devised by educated people. In every circle composed of "intellectuals", division into groups very soon takes place: a tolerant attitude is very soon replaced by indifference; after that rivalry asserts itself, culminating in open enmity. That was the case with "The Contemporary."
As far back as the beginning of 1856, the idea struck some of the contributors of separating and founding a new magazine. Druzhinin's letter to Tolstoy bears testimony to this. In it he says, among other things:
On May 17th [1856], Tolstoy set off for Moscow.
May 26th [1856] he spent in the house of Dr. Bers, married to a friend of Tolstoy's childhood, Mademoiselle Islenev; there were then living at Pokrovskoye, not far from Moscow. In tolstoy's diary there are a few words about this visit.
One of them, the youngest, became Tolstoy's wife six years later.
After that he proceeded on his journey, and on May 28th [1856] arrived at Yasnaya Polyana.
Next day he wrote a letter to his brother Sergey, in which, among other things, he remarked:
On his arrival at Yasnaya, he naturally goes to greet his neighbors, his sister Marie, Turgenev, and others.
From the two following letters to his brother, we see that at the end of the summer he was seriously ill. Thus, at the beginning of September 1856 he writes:
In his letter of September 15th [1856] he says:
Soon after he again removed to St. Petersburg, whence he wrote to his brother the 10th of November 1856:
On November 26, 1856, Tolstoy retired from Military service. We may mention a good act done by him at the close of his service.
The commander of the battery where Tolstoy served, Captain Lieutenant Korenitskiy, was to be tried by courtmartial after the war, but thanks to Tolstoy's influence and exertions he was spared.
With the retirement of Tolstoy from service begins a new period of his life, full of social and literary interests, with strivings after personal happiness.
Notwithstanding his uncompromising views and his rejection of literary authorities, Tolstoy was a welcome guest and a valued member of the literary circle of "The Contemporary."
But Tolstoy himself was far from pleased with that circle. It could not be otherwise. One need only read the reminiscences of authors belonging to that period, for example, Herzen, Panayev, Fet, and others, men of different schools, to come to very sad conclusions as to the moral weakness of those men, though they pretended to be leaders of humanity. When we think of the dinner parties of Nekrasov, the carousals of Herzen, Ketcher and Ogarel, Turgenev's love for the culinary art, all those friendly parties, incomplete without a great deal of champagne, hunting, card- playing, etc. -- we are pained to think of the idleness, the mental blindness of these men, who could not see the evil of their revels, with all the love for democracy and progress which they mixed up with them. In the midst of this shamelessness, which is perhaps still going on in some shape or other even at the present day, only one voice of accusation and self-correction resounded -- the voice of a man whose soul could not endure that self-deception. That voice was Tolstoy's.
In his "Confession" he gives the following picture of the manners of the literary people, i.e., of society, at the end of the fifties and beginning of the sixties:
However, while living in the same circle with these men, Tolstoy had taken part in all their affairs and was one of the most active members in their common enterprises. Thus, one of the most important schemes of the Society of Assistance to Authors and Scholars, the so-called "Literary Fund," is in many respects indebted to him for its foundation. Druzhinin is generally considered the founder of the society. But in Tolstoy's diary there is the following note:
The name of Tolstoy must therefore be added to the list of the founders of the "Literary Fund."
To this period belong his more thorough study and admiration of Pushkin's works.
According to Tolstoy, he seriously appreciated Pushkin after having read Merimee's French translation of his "Gypsies".
The reading of this work, thus expounded in prose form, gave Tolstoy a very strong impression of the greatness of Pushkin's poetical genius.
In Tolstoy's diary for January 4, 1857, there is the following remark:
The advance of moral development to which he refers did not allow Tolstoy to find satisfaction in that society and in its work, and he eagerly looked for another outlet. As a restless spirit usually manifests its uneasiness in action, so Tolstoy showed restless activity, and one way in which his impatience found vent was foreign travel, apparently without a fixed plan. This is what he says about the matter in his "Confession", judging himself and those surrounding him with his characteristic plainness of speech:
But, before going abroad, Tolstoy gave up a great deal of time to the search for personal and family happiness.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Loewenfeld. Count L. N. Tolstoy, p.125, Moscow.
* ↑ Paul Boyer, "Le Tempes, 28 August 1901
* ↑ A. Fet, My Reminiscences, Part I, p. 105.
* ↑ "A Visit to Yasnaya Polyana," by G. P. Danilevskiy, "Historical Review," March, 1886, p.529.
* ↑ E. Garshin, Reminiscences of I. S. Turgenev, "Historical Review, November 1883
* ↑ Reminiscences of Mme. A. Golovachov- Panayev, p279
* ↑ Letters of I.S. Turgenev (First Collection), p27
* ↑ Letters of I. S. Turgenev (First Collection), p33
* ↑ From Druzhinin's papers, "Twenty-five Years," a volume published by the Society of assistance to Authors and Scholars, St. Petersburg, 1884
* ↑ Botkin
* ↑ Letters of I.S. Turgenev (First Collection), p32
* ↑ From Tolstoy's Reminiscences.