Countess Alexandra Andreyevna Tolstaya (Александра Андреевна Толстая, 1817–1904), called Alexandrine, was Tolstoy’s cousin and a lady-in-waiting at the court. She is not his daughter Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya (1884–1979). In the years of A Confession (1879–82) she was the Orthodox believer to whom he wrote most directly about his break with the Church’s faith.
Letters in the years of A Confession
In 1878 and 1879 he wrote to her about a work in progress without naming it. On 25 March 1879: “Your cross is the court, mine is the work of thought … If God wills what I am planning, you will read it.”1 On 2–3 February 1880 he set his faith against hers: “your confession of faith is the confession of faith of our Church. I know it and do not share it.”2
The unsent letter of March 1882
A letter dated 3 March 1882 (old style) is marked in the PSS as unsent.3 The envelope is addressed to her at the Winter Palace in Petersburg.4 In it he says he has studied her faith with all his strength and found it “not a faith but a vile deception”, and that he has “written a book exposing the deceivers”.5 He adds: “Those exposed have hidden behind censorship and bayonets.”6 Which book he means is not stated.
Later
In 1884 he wrote to her that his writing alienated people of every kind, and also his family and friends.7
The PSS commentary to A Confession cites her memoirs, printed with the correspondence in 1911, for his first journey abroad in 1857 (chapter III).8
Open questions
- Degree of kinship: the sources here say only “cousin” (кузина). Check the exact relation.
- Which book the March 1882 letter means: A Confession, or the larger theological work. The dive leaves this open.
- The dossier speaks of “two key (unsent) confessional letters” to her; only one unsent letter (3 March 1882) is extracted in this dive. Identify the second, or correct the dossier.
- The 1878–1880 and 1884 letters are quoted here from the dive’s letter sweeps, not from extracted letter texts. Verify against PSS 62 and 63 before treating the wording as final.
- Full birth and death dates are not in these sources.
Dive provenance
- 1879-1882-a-confession — the unsent letter of 3 March 1882 (PSS 63), the letter sweeps of PSS 62–63, the dossier’s entity entry and the PSS 23 commentary, 2026-10-02.
-
«Ваш крест — двор, мой — работа мысли — скверная, горделивая, полная соблазнов... Если богу угодно будет то, что я задумываю, вы прочтете» (PSS 62, letter to A. A. Tolstaya, 25 March 1879). Quoted from the dive’s letter sweep, not from an extracted text. English: ours. ↩
-
«ваше исповедание веры есть исповедание веры нашей церкви. Я его знаю и не разделяю» (PSS 63, letter to A. A. Tolstaya, 2–3 February 1880). Quoted from the dive’s letter sweep, not from an extracted text. English: ours. ↩
-
«Неотправленное» (PSS 63:90–91, no. 94, letter to A. A. Tolstaya, 3 March 1882, the date queried by the editors). ↩
-
«Петербургъ. Зимній дворецъ» (PSS 63:91, envelope). ↩
-
«убедился, что это не вера, а мерзкой обман»; «я написал книгу, обличающую обманщиков» (PSS 63:90–91, letter to A. A. Tolstaya, 3 March 1882, unsent). The extracted text reads «обманщпков», a misprint. English: ours. ↩
-
«Обличаемые спрятались за цензуру и штыки» (PSS 63:90–91, letter to A. A. Tolstaya, 3 March 1882, unsent). English: ours. ↩
-
«мое писанье нетолько отталкивает от меня и вызывает презрение всякого рода людей, но и охлаждает, отвращает от меня семью и друзей» (PSS 63, letter to A. A. Tolstaya, 7 May 1884). Quoted from the dive’s letter sweep, not from an extracted text. English: ours. ↩
-
«Переписка Л. Н. Толстого с А. А. Толстой», St Petersburg, 1911, pp. 4–12, cited for her memoirs (PSS 23, commentary, note to ch. III). ↩