According to the letter left by Tolstoy, it is easy for people to connect his departure with his wife Sophia (hereafter called Sophia). Sophia, because of her personality, because of the actual conflict with her husband in life, she has received more and more accusations.
In the 1880s, when Tolstoy faced the disparity between the rich and the poor in Russia, he suffered from mental pain. He was extremely disturbed by his prosperous life. He not only began to experiment with civilian lifestyles: quit smoking, quit drinking, vegetarianism, but also participated in various manual labor: chopping wood, making stoves, repairing shoes, plowing the land... Not only that, he also asked to give up his land, which can be very big. The copyright of the income of the work... these, in Tolstoy, may be able to do. But he has a very large family, and the members of this family depend almost entirely on these incomes. The manager of this family life is Mrs. Tolstoy-this caused the most basic conflict between Tolstoy and Sophia.
When Tolstoy promoted his ideas in words, he formed a group of followers in society. A Russian nobleman named Chertkov was a particularly fanatical among these followers. Chertkov, because of his views and similar interests, became attached to Tolstoy. After that, Chertkov participated in Tolstoy's propaganda and other work, and even "helped" Tolstoy to practice his own propositions. Naturally, he also got involved in the conflict between Tolstoy and Sophia. Sophia disgusted him very much and regarded him as an enemy. He was also very rude to Sophia, even threatening to face: "As long as I want, I can completely disrupt you and your family..."
Soon after Sophia's death, a booklet called "Tolstoy's Exodus" was published. The author of the book is Chertkov. The attitude towards Sophia in the book can be imagined. It should be said that in the atmosphere at the time, such writings would get some people's response. However, someone finally came out to refute the defense. This person is a writer from a real civilian background and a famous writer Gorky who graduated from "Human" university. "After I read Chertkov's pamphlet "Tolstoy's Exodus", I thought to myself: Someone must come out and indicate in the newspaper that the only and direct purpose of this work is to slander the deceased. • Mrs. Ann Tolstoy.” This is the first sentence of the article "About Mrs. Sophia Andrevna Tolstoy" written by Gorky.
People may have questions. Why did you Gorky stand up to defend people who are accused by many? Did Sophia treat you well and make you write an article because of emotional factors? But the fact is just the opposite. Tolstoy was often surrounded by many people, and Sophia was disgusted with most of them, including Gorky.
In January 1900, Gorky visited Tolstoy for the first time. In October of the same year, he went to the Tolstoy Manor in Poliana for a few days. At the end of 1901, he was in Crimea and had many meetings and conversations with Tolstoy who was recuperating there. Based on Tolstoy's observations, Gorky wrote a literary portrait "Remembering Tolstoy". However, in this article praised by many people, Gorky did not mention Sophia. "Because I don't like her at all, and she has no affection for me..." Sophia thinks that most of the people who surround her great husband are small flies and mosquitoes-in short, they are "parasites." Gorky is unfortunately seen as such a character. Although this caused displeasure in Gorky's heart, he still believes that Sophia thinks so for a good reason. Because there are indeed a group of people who are very "appropriate" and "smart" eating Tolstoy's spirit and trying their best to leave a mark in the life and memory of the great writer.
This is not all. Gorky believes that because of the soul’s unswerving search, “Leo Tolstoy is the most complicated one among the great figures of the 19th century.” He often disregards the level of secular life, and the burden of secular life is caused by it. The wife took it. For his own ideas, Tolstoy wanted to abandon the manor and the copyright of all his works, but this is the source of their family’s life, including the food, drink, and housing of his followers... Sometimes, maybe Tolstoy Tai didn't realize that if Sophia hadn't insisted on using these sources to maintain his livelihood, it would be impossible for Tolstoy to sit down and complete his great and brilliant novels. From this point of view, “Being Leo Tolstoy’s only close friend, his wife, the mother of many of his children, and his housewife is indeed a very difficult and burdensome task. "In Gorky's impression, Tolstoy's family is mostly weak and sickly, almost entirely due to Sophia's struggle in "the whirlpool of trivial things". Gorky sighed and said: "That woman lived with a great artist who was very original and extremely irritable for fifty years in embarrassing years... But now, people only slander her when they are happy. Remember her.”
Tolstoy and Sophia did have many conflicts in the course of their long lives, which caused harm to each other. But we should note that Gorky said several times in the article that Sophia was the only wife of the amorous Tolstoy for decades. In other words, between them, there is still a thread involved. This thread should be love. In Tolstoy's diary, there are often words of understanding for Sophia's various behaviors, and he also believes that Sophia's behavior is because of love. And Sophia, after she became the target of many people's accusations, after she also thought she was responsible for Tolstoy's departure, when she was dying, she still said to the children: "I want to tell you...I love him , I have loved him all my life, and I have always been his loyal wife."
Great people often receive admiration for their brilliant spirit and career, while those around them are very easy to be ignored, and they are often even blamed—the faults of the great men. Gorky is a writer who started struggling from the bottom. He has a more profound understanding of human nature and the nature of marriage than those who have always lived in aristocratic circles. So, when someone attacked Sophia, he stood up to defend the person he didn't like, which indeed showed his vision and mind. Gorky’s article, placed today, is still a good reference for understanding human nature and marriage.
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