---
id: alexander-buturlin
recordStatus: draft
liveStatus: new
type: person
title: Alexander Buturlin
titleEn: Alexander Buturlin
titleRu: Александр Сергеевич Бутурлин
nameAlternatives:
  - name: "А. С. Бутурлин"
    type: transliteration
    language: ru
description: "Physician who was present on 20 April 1905 when a peasant reproached Tolstoy for buying land, as The Great Sin was begun."
birthDate: ""
birthDateOldStyle: ""
birthDateApproximate: false
deathDate: ""
deathDateOldStyle: ""
deathDateApproximate: false
birthPlace: ""
deathPlace: ""
causeOfDeath: ""
nationality: Russian
religion: ""
politicalViews: ""
roles: []
occupation:
  - physician
relationToTolstoy: ""
relationshipDescription: "Went with Tolstoy to the peasant Pyotr Osipov on 20 April 1905, as recorded in the diary. The longer acquaintance is not detailed in this corpus."
periodOfContact:
  from: ""
  to: ""
  notes: "Attested here only for 20 April 1905. The wider acquaintance is not established in this corpus."
authorityTier: 3
synopsis: ""
worksAuthored: []
worksTranslated: []
worksEdited: []
worksTranscribed: []
relatedWorks:
  -
    id: the-great-sin
    role: witness
relatedArticles:
  - leo-tolstoy
themes:
  - private property in land
identifiers:
  wikidata: ""
  viaf: ""
  lccn: ""
  bnf: ""
fieldSources: {}
---

<!-- NEEDS PRIMARY SOURCE: no biography beyond the 1905 episode; dates, career and the acquaintance are not attested in this corpus — do not fill the empty fields from general reference without a source. -->

Alexander Sergeevich Buturlin (<span lang="ru">Александр Сергеевич Бутурлин</span>) was a physician and an old acquaintance. He appears in the record of [[The Great Sin]] once, in the diary entry that also notes the start of its writing.

## The visit of 20 April 1905

On 20 April 1905 Buturlin went with Tolstoy to the peasant Pyotr Osipov (<span lang="ru">Пётр Осипов</span>). The diary for 21 April records it: "Yesterday, with Buturlin, I was at Pyotr Osipov's, and he harshly reproached me for the fact that I speak [against it] yet buy up land. It was both painful and good."[^1] The same entry begins "Began writing: The People's Defenders. Not bad. And Henry George", the two pieces that became the essay.[^2]

Buturlin was the companion on the visit, not the one who reproached. The dive links the reproach to the essay's close, which speaks in the first person: "we, Russian parasites, nourished and given leisure for mental work by the labours of the people, shall understand our sin".[^3]

## Open questions

- His biography entirely: dates, career, and how the acquaintance stood.
- "Physician" and "old acquaintance" come from the dive's dossier; the diary names him only as Buturlin, and the <abbr title="Полное собрание сочинений — the 90-volume Jubilee edition of the complete works">PSS</abbr> 55 note on him is not among the dive's extracts.
- Whether he recurs elsewhere in the 1905 record around this essay.

## Dive provenance

- [1905-the-great-sin](../works/non-fiction/essays-and-criticism/1905-the-great-sin/index.md) (2026-06-30) — Buturlin as the companion on the 20 April 1905 visit to Osipov (E23). Routed to a page of his own in the entity steer, 2026-08-12; converted to the footnote style 2026-10-02.

[^1]: <span lang="ru">«Вчера с Бутурлиным был у Петра Осипова, и он жестко упрекал меня за то, что я говорю, а скупаю землю. Было и больно и хорошо»</span> (Diary, 21 April 1905; PSS 55:135–137). English: ours.

[^2]: <span lang="ru">«Начал писать: Народные Заступники. Недурно. И Генри Джоржа»</span> (PSS 55:135–137). English: ours.

[^3]: <span lang="ru">«мы, русские паразиты, вскормленные и получившие досуг для умственной работы трудами народа, поймем наш грех»</span> (PSS 36:230). English: ours.