Leo Tolstoy: His Life and Work. Paul Birukoff
it."
Seeing his hesitation and being alive to the great importance of the subject, I still insisted, and I sent him the outlines of the intended biography by way of canvas for him to embroider.
In my scheme I set forth the plan of dividing human life into periods of seven years' duration. I heard once from Tolstoy that he believed that, as physiologists divide human life into periods of seven years, so psychological life has the same periods of growth, and that each period of seven years' duration has its own moral physiognomy.
In arranging thus briefly the facts of Tolstoy's life we arrive at the following scheme:
(1) 1828–35: From birth to 7 years. Childhood.
(2) 1835–42: From 7 to 14 years. Boyhood.
(3) 1842–49: From 14 to 21 years. Youth, studies university, country life, and farming.
(4) 1849–56: From 21 to 28 years. The beginning of a literary career; the Caucasus, Sevastopol, St. Petersburg.
(5) 1856–63: From 28 to 35 years. Retirement from service. Travels, death of a brother, educational activity, services as a "Mediator," marriage.
(6) 1863–70: From 35 to 42 years. Married life. War and Peace. Farming.
(7) 1870–77: From 42 to 49 years. The famine in Samara. Anna Karenina. The summit of literary fame, family happiness, and wealth.
(8) 1877–84: From 49 to 56 years. Crisis, How I Came to Believe (My Confession). New Testament. What I Believe.
(9) 1884–91: From 56 to 63 years. Moscow. What shall we do? Literature for the people. Posrednik. Spread of ideas in the classes and the masses. The Critics.
(10) 1891–98: From 63 to 70 years. Famine. The Kingdom of God is Within You. the Doukhobors. The persecutions of the supporters of these views.
(11) 1898–1905: From 70 to 77 years. Resurrection. Excommunication. The latest period. Appeal to the military, the people, the clergy, and social reformers. The war.
On even a cursory glance at this scheme the reader must notice the spiritual tendency of each period. And this scheme or plan has not remained without results. Before long I received a letter from Tolstoy in which, among other things, he writes:
" … With regard to my biography, I may tell you that I very much desire to help you and to write at least what is most essential. I decided that I might write it, because I can understand that it may be interesting and possibly useful to men were I to show all the abomination of the life I led before my awakening, and--speaking without false modesty--what was good in it (were it only in intentions, which, owing to my weakness, were not always realized) after the awakening. It is in this spirit that I should like to write it for you. Your programme of seven-year periods is useful to me and does indeed suggest thoughts. I will endeavor to occupy myself with this as soon as I complete the work I am now engaged in."
Finally, in a few more months, I received a rough draft of the first part of his reminiscences written by Tolstoy. I hastened to make use of them, putting his own vivid descriptions in the place of colorless passages of the biography I had begun. At the first opportunity which I had I forwarded to Tolstoy the early chapters of my work, asking him to give his opinion of it. In his answer he says:
" … My general impression is that you make very good use of my notes, but I avoid entering into details, as this might draw me into the work of correcting, which I wish to avoid. So I leave it all to you, merely requesting that in your biography, when citing extracts from my notes, you should add that they are taken from uncorrected draft notes sent to you and put at your disposal by me."
I relate all this here in order to free Tolstoy from all literary responsibility, and, in accordance with his wish, I quote the italicized sentence both in the Introduction and with all the extracts from his notes.
With this encouragement I continued my labors.
The first volume, now published, contains the story of his origin and the earlier periods of his life--childhood, youth, and manhood, and ends with his marriage.
This limit is, I think, very appropriate, the more so as Tolstoy himself looks upon his marriage as the beginning of a new life. It happens also to have one practical convenience--its contents make up an ordinary-sized volume.
In the second volume will be described the period of Tolstoy's greatest literary success, family happiness, and material welfare, followed by an important crisis which led to his birth into a new spiritual life. The period is that of the years 1863–84, corresponding to his age, 35–56.
In the third and last volume will be presented the life which he lives now, and which I hope will continue to our joy for many years.
It is well remarked by one of Tolstoy's biographers that his life may be compared to a pyramid with its top downward and the base upward, growing higher and wider. The biographical material is distributed in a corresponding proportion: there is very little of it during his childhood, but, as we approach the present time, its growth becomes enormous.
Tolstoy's name is so well known that I am relieved of the difficult and responsible task of giving his general characteristics in order to introduce him to the public. It is my sole aim and endeavor to adhere to the simple facts.
October 15, 1905 Onex, near Geneva, Villa Russe, Switzerland
P.S. I had already reached the end of my first volume, when, in consequence of a temporary relaxation of repressive measures in Russia, I received permission to revisit my country. I went to Russia, accordingly, and have there been able adequately to enlarge the biographical material of the first volume, thanks to my personal intercourse with Tolstoy himself, and also by reading his diaries and correspondence, for which privilege I am deeply grateful to Countess S. Tolstoy. She gave me access to the valuable collections of biographical materials collected by her and placed in the Historical Museum of Moscow, in the room called after Tolstoy's name.
Had my work been begun under more favorable circumstances, it would probably appear in a different and less imperfect shape. But it is impossible to go back and begin again from the beginning; I therefore leave it in its original form, introducing only such changes as are rendered necessary by the additional material newly collected in Russia. I also leave unchanged the Introduction to the work, as it truly represents the conditions under which I have done it.
Two more words. I hope the reader will understand under what peculiar conditions I had to labor and still am laboring. I am writing the biography not only of a living man, but also of one who leads a strenuous and energetic life, and hence, as a biographer, I am unable to say the last word or give my judgment on the stream of life which is still flowing so forcibly.
I must therefore be content simply to call my work, as I most sincerely do, a Collection of those materials for the biography of Leo Tolstoy which are accessible to me. I desired not to delay the publication of this volume, which is more or less complete in itself, as I thought that its publication might indicate to everyone a center to which information and reminiscences, as well as any documents concerning Tolstoy, could be forwarded, and for all help and advice I shall be very grateful.
P. Biryukov August 23, 1905
Footnotes
My friend, Paul Biryukov, having undertaken to write my biography (for the complete edition of my works), has asked me to furnish him with some particulars of my life.
I very much wished to fulfill his desire, and in my imagination I began to compose my autobiography. At first, I involuntarily began in the most natural way with only that which was good in my life, merely adding to this good side, like shade on a picture, its dark, repulsive features. But upon examining the events of my life more seriously I saw that such an autobiography, though it might not be a direct lie, would yet be a