# Run-report — `1882-1884-what-i-believe`

Work-dive on Tolstoy's *What I Believe* (В чём моя вера?), the doctrinal sequel to *A Confession*
and third panel of the Prophet-period project. Run 2026-06-06, in-session unattended (the
A-Confession-pilot model), interactive scope confirmation, medium visual intensity.

## Scope contract (Phase 0)

- **Subject (work dive):** *What I Believe* (В чём моя вера? / *My Religion*). Slug
  `1882-1884-what-i-believe` — year-prefixed, slots after `1879-1882-a-confession`.
- **Corpus surface:** PSS Tom 23 — work text pp. 304–465 (`v23_304_465_V_chem_moja_vera.xml`);
  plans & variants p. 512; commentary (V. F. Savodnik) pp. 548–560. Composition-window **diaries**
  Tom 49 (1883; 190 entries — no 1884 diaries in the corpus); **letters** Tom 63 (1882–84). Echo:
  *О верах* (Tom 26, 1886). Composition window **1882–1884** (writing concentrated 1883 → finished
  Jan 1884).
- **Works record:** missing — the dive is the source-grounded basis to create it.
- **Mode:** in-session unattended; no `AskUserQuestion` gating; judgment calls → `needsReview`;
  note `draft: true`; medium visual intensity.

## What was covered

- **Deep read** of all 12 chapters; keystone passages extracted byte-faithful (the «не противься
  злу» key, the five commandments, courts/oaths/state, the «Я верю…» credo, the «малое стадо» close).
- **Genesis doubly grounded:** the late-1882 Engelhardt letter (five commandments stated outright,
  «смыкающее звено») + Chertkov's 9 Mar 1883 diary catalyst; the 1883 composition strain.
- **Ban history** from Tolstoy's own letters (Buturlin, Ge «период распинания», Pypin) + the PSS
  censorship chain (Fyodorov → Bogolyubsky → Feoktistov, art. 239; seizure 18 Feb 1884; dispersal).
- **Redaction / title history**, **translation lineage** (French *Ma religion* 1885 first; German;
  English; Geneva/Elpidine Russian; legal Russia 1906).
- **Reception** (church-refutation literature; John of Kronstadt; the cautious 1901-edict reading)
  and **scholarship triangulation** (5 entries; Medzhibovskaya/Gustafson continuity vs Simmons/Wilson
  break; Christoyannopoulos on the label; Wilson's "counsel of craziness" flagged and answered).
- **Visuals:** 11 PD images cached (keystone = Ge's 1884 Tolstoy-writing portrait; the 1885
  French/English title pages; the circle).

## Coverage ledger

| Surface | Status |
|---|---|
| Genesis & composition | covered |
| What the work says | covered |
| Redactions & textual history | covered |
| Publication, censorship & translation | covered |
| Reception & afterlife (society + Church) | covered (refutations named, not read in original) |
| Place in the cluster | covered |
| The author's later verdict | not-covered (Dec-1884 turn to «Так что же нам делать?» is the nearest marker) |
| Visual & manuscript record | covered (Moscow-1884 / Geneva-Elpidine / manuscripts not openly scanned) |

## Entity work-order (ingestion priority → dependency)

**Priority 1 (central; write first):** Non-resistance to evil (concept); The five commandments
(concept, after non-resistance); M. A. Engelhardt (person); V. G. Chertkov (EXISTS — add the
genesis-catalyst role). Leo Tolstoy EXISTS.
**Priority 2:** Christian anarchism (EXISTS — link, don't duplicate); S. A. Minor (rabbi); I. S.
Aksakov; V. K. Sutaev (+ son I. V.); N. N. Ge; the cousin A. A. Tolstaya (MISSING — distinct from
the daughter's existing page); L. D. Urusov; N. N. Strakhov; K. P. Pobedonostsev; M. K. Elpidine;
Holy Synod, Russkaya Mysl (institutions); S. A. Tolstaya EXISTS.
**Priority 3:** A. M. Kuzminsky; N. V. Davydov; E. M. Feoktistov; A. S. Buturlin; A. N. Pypin;
Yasnaya Polyana EXISTS.

## Visuals work-order

Cached (PD, usable): Ge 1884 Tolstoy-writing (keystone); Tolstoy photos 1880–86 & 1885; *Ma
religion* 1885 (FR); *What I Believe* 1885 (EN, Stock) & *My Religion* 1885 (EN, Crowell); Chertkov
(Kramskoy 1881); Strakhov 1885; cousin A. A. Tolstaya 1860s; Ge self-portrait 1892.
**To acquire (request from holdings):** the 1884 Moscow first printing (ГМТ holds a photocopy); the
Geneva/Elpidine first Russian edition (try BGE / vtoraya-literatura / Hoover); a manuscript
facsimile (ОР РГБ / ГМТ).

## Work-record work-order (proposed fills for a NEW record)

**High confidence:** titleRu «В чём моя вера?»; titleEn "What I Believe" (alt "My Religion");
dateWritingCompleted 1884-01-22 (OS colophon); dateFirstPublishedInRussia 1906;
publishedDuringLifetime / publishedInRussiaDuringLifetime = true; bans[] (schema-clean:
authorityType imperial-state, scope complete-ban, banDate 1884-02-26 NS / 1884-02-14 OS);
samizdatCirculation true; jubileeEdition.volumes 23.
**Medium/low:** dateWritingStarted ~1883 (approximate); genre essay (mirror Confession);
dateFirstPublished (which event — see needsReview); excommunicationRelated false (see needsReview);
titleAlternatives (FR/DE/EN). Folder (treatises vs personal-papers) → human decision.

## needsReview (deferred human judgment)

1. `excommunicationRelated` value (proposed false — 1901 edict names no works).
2. `dateFirstPublished` — which event the field carries (suppressed 1884 Moscow vs French 1885 vs
   full Russian Geneva/Elpidine).
3. New record folder (treatises vs personal-papers).
4. Parsing of the «Маракуев / архимандрит Амфилохий» censorship aside in S. A. Tolstaya's 29 Jan
   1884 letter.

## Verification

- `verify_quotes.py` → **24/24 verbatim PASS** (pre-reform forms «Воть»/«естетики»/«диаволом»/«чтò»
  and a Latin-a in believe-let-05 all confirmed against the extracts).
- Phase-5 verifier (opus, fresh context) → **PASS-WITH-NITS (2)**; both fixed: the `bans[]`
  controlled-vocab/date split and the Engelhardt-date prose. Report: `_verifier-report.md`.

## Evaluation self-assessment (work-dive gate)

- Interlocutor sweep yielded people? **Yes** — 33 diary persons + the letter network; Chertkov as
  catalyst, Ge, Urusov, Strakhov, the cousin, Engelhardt all carried into `entities`.
- Russian society/Church reception covered? **Yes** — full censorship chain + refutation literature
  + the cautious 1901 reading (Phase-3 pass).
- `workRecord` fill accurate & provenanced? **Yes** — every field evidence/commentary-anchored;
  schema-clean after the nit fix; uncertain fields → `needsReview`.
- `coverage` honest? **Yes** — "later verdict" honestly not-covered; Reception self-flags its limit.
- `--choice=reg` extracted cleanly? **Yes** — no dropped pre-reform pairs; diary/letter bodies
  needed `--notes=auto` (the `<note type="comments">` quirk).
- Spine stayed bare? **Yes** — verifier confirmed attribute-don't-assert across all standing
  sections; contested labels cross-linked, not adopted.

## Models & rough cost

Main loop: Opus (in-session). Subagents: 3× Sonnet sweeps (diaries / letters / visuals) + 1× Sonnet
scholarship + 1× Opus verifier. Subagent tokens ≈ 514k total (diaries 118k, letters 82k, visuals
80k, scholarship 100k, verifier 135k). Five web-tool sweeps (visuals + scholarship); no licence-gated
downloads to `website/src/`.

## Output paths

- `docs/research/1882-1884-what-i-believe/index.md` (+ rendered `index.html`, git-ignored)
- `docs/research/1882-1884-what-i-believe/dossier.yaml`
- `docs/research/1882-1884-what-i-believe/extracts/` (PD extracts + working syntheses kept as provenance)
- `docs/research/1882-1884-what-i-believe/visuals/` (git-ignored cache; 11 PD images)
- `website/src/posts/notes/2026-06-06-what-i-believe.md` (draft)
- `session-log.md`, `_verifier-report.md`, this `run-report.md`

Wiki ingestion is a separate, human-in-the-loop step — this dossier is the pointer, not the writer.