The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-03-17
SAYS REMORSE MADE
.TOLST0Y FLEE FAMILY
son OF GREAT RUSSIAN WRITER
THINKS HE WAS conscience
STRICKEN.
WILL SOLVED MYSTERY
-
OPPRESSED BY THOUGHT OF HAv.
ING REVOKED DOCUMENT
GIVING ETATE TO
-4s&&~
| WILL SOLVED MYSTERY

PARIS. March 21--Count Elias Toi.
stoy, son of the great writer. an
swers In the Revue de Paris the ques-
ton. Why did Tolstoy leave Jasnaja
PoliJana before his deathe
since the death of my father" he
writes. II have often wondered what
impelled him to seek new life when
he was on the edge of the grave. I
was quite puzzled until his win Off
cred the solution OF the mystery.
He made a nrst sketch OF his last
viii in his diary on March ~. 1895.
The fourth paragraph contains the re-
quest made to his heirs to surrender
the copyright of his works for the hem
eft OF the public. This will. which
lacked the legal formalities. was q tes-
timony to my fathers confidence In his
family. Four years later he made his
first regular will signed by three
witnesses. In October of that year he
must have made another.
'Strakow came to IasnajA Pcijana,
where he did not expect to find my
mother. to convince my father how
painful IL would be to his friends to
know that he had supported his family
In the preservation OF tho copyright.
Strakow has himself described how, on
his second Journey to Jasnaja. where
he acted as witness of this new will.
leave OF my mother.
Made Third VIII In 1910.
but the text of the second will did
not please the admirers and friends OF
my father. and they induced him to
make third will I'm Juno. 1910. in the
forest of Limonowo. near the estate Of
Tschertkow.
How wretched this whole affair ia
and then It Is SO Unnecessary said my
father, as he signed this will. That waa
his real opinion of It. II stranger
like Strakow felt conjunction about
the atmosphere OF conspiracy which
hung round the drawing up OF these
Wills what must Tolstoy himself have
fes
at was impossible to tell his wifs
everything; that would have given Of
tense to his friends. 1t would have
been still worse to tear II up. My
father conceived that he was under =
moral obligation to them. Add to this
his attacks of faintness, the proEres-
sive dulling OF his powers OF thought.
his firm belief in the nearness Of his
own death and the debility OF his wife.
which continually increased, as she
felt instinctively the unnatural e.
arrangement OF her husband. and could
rot account for It, II she asked him
what he was hiding from her. was u
his duty to tell the truth or not?
Flight the OnIy Selntion.
What could he do in this intolerablA
position OF affairs? The dream of le&v-
ing Jasnaja Pol1anA, which he had
been cherishing for n good long time
thrust itself forward now A. the only
solution. My father did not leave his
hearth and homo in order to turn his
dream into fact. but no went away T.
conceal his unjust course OF action.
i am too old and too weak to start
on q new life.' he said to my brother
Sergius. some days before his depAr-
ture. Physically and morally sick. and
oppressed by his own thoughts, he want
forth without any fixed aim, but with
the sole object OF Kidding himself %
the moral torment which he could bear
no longer.
Fly. fiyr he repeated with his last
breath on his deathbed at Ostapowo."
The explanation OF Tolstoy's self-re-
proach IL that he revoked the with
leaving his estate to his wife, and left
at any rate the greater part OF II to
his second daughter.