---
id: vasily-alekseev
recordStatus: draft
liveStatus: new
type: person
title: Vasily Alekseev
titleEn: Vasily Alekseev
titleRu: Василий Иванович Алексеев
nameAlternatives:
  - name: "V. I. Alekseev"
    type: variant
    language: en
description: "Tutor to the Tolstoy children and an early sharer of the new faith; recipient of a November 1881 letter about the first hard months in Moscow."
birthDate: ""
birthDateOldStyle: ""
birthDateApproximate: false
deathDate: ""
deathDateOldStyle: ""
deathDateApproximate: false
roles:
  - correspondent
occupation:
  - tutor
relationToTolstoy: friend
relationshipDescription: "Tutor to the Tolstoy children; a correspondent during the years of A Confession, later credited by Tolstoy as the first educated person he knew to hold his new faith at heart."
periodOfContact:
  from: "1881"
  to: "1884"
  notes: "Only as attested in this dive's sources (letters of 1881 and 1884); the contact itself was longer. Dates of birth and death not in this dive."
relatedWorks:
  -
    id: confession
    role: correspondent
relatedArticles:
  - leo-tolstoy
  - nikolai-fyodorov
  - vasily-sutaev
themes:
  - Tolstoy's circle in the early 1880s
identifiers:
  wikidata: ""
  viaf: ""
  lccn: ""
  bnf: ""
fieldSources:
  occupation:
    -
      sourceId: ""
      volume: ""
      page: ""
      notes: "Tutor: from the dive's dossier and letters sweep note, not from a primary extract."
---

Vasily Ivanovich Alekseev (<span lang="ru">Василий Иванович Алексеев</span>) was tutor to the Tolstoy children.[^1] He was a correspondent in the years when [[A Confession]] (1879–82) was written, and the recipient of a letter of November 1881 that describes the first months in Moscow and the people met there.

## The letter of November 1881

The editors of the <abbr title="Полное собрание сочинений — the 90-volume Jubilee edition of the complete works">PSS</abbr> date the letter to 15–30 November 1881, from Moscow, with a query.[^2] It opens: "Things are very hard for me in Moscow."[^3] The letter compares Alekseev's own experience: he had known Kansas from geography but came to know it only on arrival there.[^4]

The letter weighs ways out: preaching by word and print, or doing good to people. The only way it sees is "to live well — always to turn one's good side to everyone", and it adds that this is not yet within reach, as it is for Alekseev.[^5] It then names the people met in Moscow: Orlov, and above all [[Nikolai Fyodorov]], librarian of the Rumyantsev library. A visit to [[Vasily Sutaev]] is reported. Orlov and Fyodorov had read the *Brief Exposition* (the gospel synthesis), and "we are of one mind"; with Sutaev, "in everything".[^6] The letter closes with greetings to Lizaveta Aleksandrovna, Liza and Kolya.[^7]

## Later letters

The dive's sweep of PSS volume 63 lists further letters to Alekseev, which were not extracted. A joint letter to A. A. Bibikov and Alekseev of 1–5 September 1881 marks the arrival in Moscow.[^8] A letter of July 1884 calls Alekseev the first person "touched by education" whom Tolstoy knew to profess the new faith "not in words, but in the heart".[^9]

## Open questions

- The tutor role and the years of tutoring rest on the dossier and sweep note, not on an extract; needs a primary citation.
- Who Lizaveta Aleksandrovna, Liza and Kolya are (presumably Alekseev's family) is in the PSS notes to the letter, which were not extracted.
- The 1884 letter (PSS 63, no. 238) is quoted only from the sweep note; byte-check against the TEI before relying on it.
- Dates of birth and death are not in this dive.

## Dive provenance

- [1879-1882-a-confession](../works/non-fiction/personal-papers/1879-1882-a-confession/index.md) — the November 1881 letter (PSS 63:80–83), the dossier entity and the PSS 63 letters sweep, 2026-10-02.

[^1]: From the dive's dossier and its sweep of PSS 63 letters (secondary note), not from a primary extract.

[^2]: <span lang="ru">«1881 г. Ноября 15—30? Москва.»</span> (PSS 63:80–83, letter no. 79). Old style is not stated in the extract.

[^3]: <span lang="ru">«Мне очень тяжело в Москве.»</span> (PSS 63:80–83, letter to V. I. Alekseev, 15–30 November 1881). English: ours.

[^4]: <span lang="ru">«как вы знали, что есть Канзас… по географии, но узнали его только когда приехали в него»</span> (PSS 63:80–83, letter to V. I. Alekseev, 15–30 November 1881). English: ours.

[^5]: <span lang="ru">«Единственный выход, который я вижу — это жить хорошо — всегда ко всем поварачиваться доброй стороной. Но этого все еще не умею…»</span> (PSS 63:80–83, letter to V. I. Alekseev, 15–30 November 1881). English: ours.

[^6]: <span lang="ru">«Книгу мою — Краткое изложение… читали и Орлов, и Федоров и мы единомышленны. С Сютаевым во всем до малейших подробностей.»</span> (PSS 63:80–83, letter to V. I. Alekseev, 15–30 November 1881). English: ours.

[^7]: <span lang="ru">«Поцелуйте за меня Лизавету Александровну… Лизу… Колю.»</span> (PSS 63:80–83, letter to V. I. Alekseev, 15–30 November 1881).

[^8]: PSS 63, letter no. 76, to A. A. Bibikov and V. I. Alekseev, 1–5 September 1881; known here only from the dive's letters sweep (secondary note).

[^9]: <span lang="ru">«Я вас узнал первого человека (тронутого образованием), не на словах, но в сердце исповедующего ту веру, которая стала ясным и непоколебимым для меня светом»</span> (PSS 63, letter no. 238, to V. I. Alekseev, July 1884; quoted from the dive's letters sweep, not from an extract). English: ours.