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TALKS WITH TOLSTOI
TALKS
WITH TOLSTOI
BY
A. B. GOLDENVEIZER
TRANSLATED BY
S. S. KOTELIANSKY AND VIRGINIA WOOLF
PUBLISHED BY LEONARD & VIRGINIA WOOLF AT
THE HOGARTH PRESS, PARADISE ROAD, RICHMOND
1923
TRANSLATORS’ NOTE
In the following pages we have made a selection from vol. i. of thediary of the well-known Russian musician, A. B. Goldenveizer, whichwas published at the end of 1922 in Moscow under the title VbliziTolstovo (literally Near Tolstoi).
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
In publishing the diary devoted to my friendship of nearly fifteenyears with Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi, I think it best to state first whatmy aim was in making notes, and the method I pursued in doing so.
I put down chiefly Tolstoi’s words, and to some extent the events ofhis private life, making no attempt to select what would be interestingfrom some special point of view, but adopting no method and attemptingto supply no connection between one entry and another.
My diary, therefore, is in no sense “literature.” Its aim is to be adocument.
Unfortunately, I did not always make notes and was far from writingdown everything. After 1908 my records were fuller; in 1909-1910, thelast year of Tolstoi’s life, my reports were voluminous; but it wasonly in 1910 that my records were as complete as they could[Pg viii] possiblybe. This is the cause of a great disproportion between the parts. Thefirst volume of my diary contains the long period from January 1896 toJanuary 1st, 1910, the second volume records and materials for the year1910 only, yet vol. ii. is considerably larger than vol. i.
My notes from 1896 to 1904 are now published for the first time. Thenotes from 1904 to 1908 were published in Russ. Prop. vol. ii.,and the notes from the end of 1908 to January 1st, 1910, appearedin Tolstoi: Pamyatniki Zhizni i Tvorchestva. The parts of thediary which have been previously published are here published in aconsiderably enlarged form.
A. GOLDENVEIZER.
1896
My first visit to the house of Leo Nikolaevich was on January 20th,1896. I was not then twenty-one years old. I was almost a boy. I wastaken to the Tolstois’ by a well-known Moscow lady singer who used tovisit the Tolstois. She took me there in my capacity as pianist, ofcourse. If one is so unlucky as to play some instrument, or to sing orrecite, one has a constant impediment in one’s relations with people.People do not