Source: photograph supplied by Johan, 2026-05-28. Physical book in Johan’s possession. Captures: the closing of Birukoff’s “Slutord” (Afterword), page 453, including the closing date and signature. Photograph orientation: the left-hand page (recto on the spread, p. 452 or earlier) is partially visible in the gutter — only the right-hand page 453 is transcribed below. Some text in the gutter of p. 453 is partially obscured by the binding curl.
Transcription (verbatim, with line breaks following the printed page)
The transcription opens mid-paragraph (the paragraph began on p. 452 or earlier). Photographic readability is good except near the gutter, where letters at the start of some lines are softened by the binding curl; readings in such places were originally marked [?] where uncertain. The single gutter-uncertain line (“kommer del III [??]tt i litterärt hänseende”) was confirmed by Johan on 2026-05-28 to read “att i litterärt hänseende” — the two-character unclear position is the Swedish particle att (“to” / infinitive marker, here standing as the future-tense complement of kommer). Updated in this revision; the transcription block and the prose-quote below now read att in place of [??]tt.
SLUTORD. 453
ende vackra, poetiska skildring, hvarmed vi tillåta oss att
afsluta denna del af biografien:
»Den 8 december 1884.
I går, när jag satte mig i släden och åkte genom
den halfalnsdjupa, lösa, nyfallna snön i den tysta vinter-
natten med den stjärnbeströdda himlen därofvan och min
kära Mischa vid min sida, erfor jag en obeskrifligt hän-
förande känsla. Jag kom direkt ur vaggongen, där jag säll-
skapat med en rökande och i armband ståtande fru, med
en doktor, som outtröttligt bevisade dödsstraffets nödvän-
dighet, med en drucken, på soffan medvetslös liggande
kvinna — en ryslig varelse, höljd i en sönderrifven salopp
—, vidare med en herre, som i kappsäckens djup härbär-
gerade sin vän buteljen, med en student i pincenez och med
en konduktör, som gaf mig en knuff i ryggen, emedan jag
var klädd i halfpäls. — Efter allt detta Orion och Sirius
där ofvan skogen, den dunmjuka, ljudlösa snön, den fri-
ska luften, min goda häst, min goda Mischa och — den
gode Guden.»*
Alltifrån denna dag förändras mitt förhållande
till Leo Nikolajevitsch. Han är ej längre för mig blott
det litterära geniet och den högt öfver mig stående och
fjärran boende läraren. Han är mig vorden en nära förtro-
gen och varmt afhållen vän.
Och härmed afslutar jag nu denna del af Leo Tol-
stojs lefnadssaga. För den följande, tredje delen af bio-
grafien komma äfven mina egna personliga minnen att
ligga till grund, kompletterade och jämförda med annat
biografiskt material och berörande de viktigaste tilldra-
gelserna i Leo Tolstojs lif, i hvilka det förunnats äfven
mig att taga en stor och verksam del.
På grund af dessa omständigheter kommer del III
att i litterärt hänseende få en något afvikande karaktär.
Men för denna lefnadstecknings samtliga trenne delar
skall och måste samma grundval alltid vara gällande:
Sanning och kärlek till honom, hvars lifsgärning jag
skildrar.
Kostroma.
Byn Ivanskoje, den 27 augusti 1908.
P. Birukoff.
────────────────
*S. A. Tolstojs arkiv.
Reading
The embedded letter (8 December 1884)
The block in guillemets (»…«*) is a letter from Birukoff to S. A. Tolstoj (Sofya Andreyevna Tolstaya), dated Den 8 december 1884. Working English translation of the verbatim Swedish:
“8 December 1884.
Yesterday, when I sat down in the sleigh and drove through the half-aln-deep [≈ 30 cm], loose, newly-fallen snow in the silent winter night, with the star-strewn sky overhead and my dear Mischa at my side, I felt an indescribably enrapturing feeling. I came straight out of the railway carriage, where I had kept company with a smoking lady decked out in bracelets, with a doctor who tirelessly proved the necessity of capital punishment, with a drunken woman lying senseless on the bench — a hideous creature, wrapped in a torn cloak — , then with a gentleman who in the depths of his travelling-bag harboured his friend the bottle, with a student in pince-nez, and with a conductor who gave me a shove in the back because I was dressed in a half-fur coat. — And after all this, Orion and Sirius up above the forest, the down-soft, soundless snow, the fresh air, my good horse, my good Mischa, and — the good God.”
* S. A. Tolstoj’s archive.
The letter recounts a sledge ride home through fresh snow with a friend (“min kära Mischa”), contrasted with the train journey that preceded it — a smoking lady in jewellery, a doctor defending capital punishment, an unconscious drunken woman, a man with a bottle, a student, a rude conductor. The arrival in the silent winter night, with Orion and Sirius above the forest, becomes the closing image: snow, fresh air, good horse, good Mischa, and the good God. The footnote *S. A. Tolstojs arkiv (“S. A. Tolstoj’s archive”) identifies the source as Sofya Andreyevna’s papers — meaning the letter was preserved in her archive, not Birukoff’s.
The choice of this letter as the closing image of Andra delen is deliberate: Birukoff identifies the moment (8 December 1884) as the one when his relationship to Tolstoy turned from disciple-to-distant-master into close friendship. The biography’s first two volumes therefore close exactly where Birukoff’s personal involvement opens.
Birukoff’s closing afterword
After the letter:
“Alltifrån denna dag förändras mitt förhållande till Leo Nikolajevitsch. Han är ej längre för mig blott det litterära geniet och den högt öfver mig stående och fjärran boende läraren. Han är mig vorden en nära förtrogen och varmt afhållen vän.”
(“From that day on my relationship with Leo Nikolayevich changes. He is no longer for me merely the literary genius and the teacher far above me and dwelling at a distance. He has become for me a close confidant and warmly cherished friend.”)
And the forward-flag to Volume III:
“Och härmed afslutar jag nu denna del af Leo Tolstojs lefnadssaga. För den följande, tredje delen af biografien komma äfven mina egna personliga minnen att ligga till grund, kompletterade och jämförda med annat biografiskt material och berörande de viktigaste tilldragelserna i Leo Tolstojs lif, i hvilka det förunnats äfven mig att taga en stor och verksam del. På grund af dessa omständigheter kommer del III att i litterärt hänseende få en något afvikande karaktär.”
(“And with this I now close this part of Leo Tolstoy’s life-saga. For the following, third part of the biography my own personal memories will also lie at the foundation, supplemented and compared with other biographical material and touching on the most important events in Leo Tolstoy’s life, in which it has been granted to me also to take a great and active part. On account of these circumstances Vol III will, from a literary standpoint, take on a somewhat differing character.”)
Closing invariant for the trilogy:
“Men för denna lefnadstecknings samtliga trenne delar skall och måste samma grundval alltid vara gällande: Sanning och kärlek till honom, hvars lifsgärning jag skildrar.”
(“But for all three parts of this life-portrait the same foundation must always hold: Truth and love for him whose life-work I depict.”)
Place and date
“Kostroma. Byn Ivanskoje, den 27 augusti 1908. P. Birukoff.”
(Kostroma [oblast]. The village of Ivanskoye, 27 August 1908.) — The Russian original of Andra delen corresponds to the Russian Vol II first edition, published in 1908. Birukoff’s village retreat at Ivanskoye in Kostroma oblast is where he wrote from in the late 1900s.
Why this page matters for the project
Five things this page anchors:
- The Swedish edition’s Slutord is Birukoff’s own Russian Slutord, translated. The wording matches Russian Vol II’s closing in structure and date (27 August 1908 / Byn Ivanskoje — a Birukoff dating that should be checked against the Russian Vol II’s closing). The Swedish edition therefore reproduces Birukoff’s authorial close, not a translator’s editorial close.
- The biography’s three-volume conception is documented in 1908. Before Tolstoy’s death (November 1910), Birukoff had already publicly framed the project as three volumes, with Vol III to be based on personal memory. The Vol IV that we actually have (1922 Berlin) was therefore not part of the original design — a finding that bears on the §5 verdict (Vol IV’s standing relative to the three-volume “biographic” core).
- The shift in Birukoff’s relationship to Tolstoy is dated to 8 December 1884. Any Vol III content drawn from “personal memory” — the criterion Birukoff himself names — applies from this date forward. Material before 8 December 1884 in Vol III is, by Birukoff’s own definition, reconstructed from sources, not memory.
- The closing invariant — “Sanning och kärlek till honom” / “truth and love for him” — is Birukoff’s authorial method statement for the whole biography. Worth carrying through verbatim into the §5 verdict if the verdict needs a frame for what Birukoff’s biographical project was.
- The Russian source of the 8 December 1884 letter is named: S. A. Tolstoj’s archive — Sofya Andreyevna’s papers. The same letter, in Russian, should be locatable in PSS or in the published S. A. Tolstaya correspondence; if it is, that’s a check on Nordenström’s translation against Birukoff’s Russian against the original Russian letter.
What this page does not yet tell us
- The corresponding page in the Russian Vol II (1908) — does Birukoff close with the same letter, the same dating, the same forward-flag to Vol III?
- Whether the Slutord runs longer than the photographed page; the closing signature suggests this is the end, but the preceding paragraphs that lead into the “vackra, poetiska skildring” (beautiful, poetic depiction) are off-camera.
- The Andra delen’s preface, if any (likely a foreword by Birukoff or by the publisher) — would clarify the “granskade af Leo Tolstoj” claim.
- Whether the Swedish Tredje delen Birukoff promises was ever actually published in Swedish (it would have been a post-Tolstoy-death translation).
Cross-reference
- Title page of the same volume:
swedish-andra-delen-titlepage.md. - Handoff orientation:
../handoff-2026-05-28.md.