The Closing Days of Leo Tolstoy Captured in Uncommon Footage from 1910

114 years in the past as we speak (Novem­ber 20, 1910), Leo Tol­stoy—the writer who gave us two main Russ­ian clas­sics Anna Karen­i­na and Warfare & Peace—died at Astapo­vo, a small, distant practice sta­tion within the coronary heart of Rus­sia. Pneu­mo­nia was the offi­cial trigger. His dying got here simply weeks after Tol­stoy, then 82 years outdated, made a slightly dra­mat­ic deci­sion. He left his spouse, his com­fort­in a position property, and his wealth, then trav­eled 26 hours to Shar­mardi­no, the place Tolstoy’s sis­ter Marya lived, and the place he deliberate to spend the stay­der of his life in a small, lease­ed hut. (Elif Batu­man has extra on this.) However then he pushed on, board­ing a practice to the Cau­ca­sus. And it proved to be greater than his already weak­ened con­sti­tu­tion might han­dle. Reasonably amaz­ing­ly, the footage above brings you again to Tol­stoy’s last days, and proper to his deathbed itself. This clip comes from a 1969 BBC collection Civil­i­sa­tion: A Per­son­al View by Ken­neth Clark, and today you possibly can nonetheless discover copies of Clark’s accom­pa­ny­ing ebook kick­ing round on-line.

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