Intensity: medium
Date: 2026-06-08
Channels consulted: local primary-sources/images/, Wikimedia Commons API (categorymembers + search + imageinfo), tolstoy.ru, tolstoy-lit.ru, The Ted K Archive, RIA Novosti, ru.wikipedia.org, goskatalog (SSL failure — provenance recorded from prior API hits), archive.org (SSL failure — metadata recovered via web search)
Records
VIS-001
id: VIS-001
type: photograph
subject: Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana — iconic colour portrait
relatedEntity: Tolstoy, Leo Nikolaevich
holding: State Museum of L.N. Tolstoy, Moscow
archiveId: 0003600108 (culture.ru/gosudarstvennyy_muzey_tolstogo)
access: open
rights: Public domain (photographer d. 1944; 80+ years elapsed)
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L.N.Tolstoy_Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg
localPath: visuals/tolstoy-prokudin-gorsky-1908-colour.jpg
note: Prokudin-Gorsky colour photograph, 23 May 1908, Yasnaya Polyana.
One of the earliest colour photographic portraits made in Russia;
Tolstoy seated outdoors, full-length. Artist: Sergei Mikhailovich
Prokudin-Gorsky (1863–1944). Library of Congress also holds the
original glass-plate negatives (digital ID prok.01971). This is
the keystone image for the dive.
VIS-002
id: VIS-002
type: photograph
subject: Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana — colour portrait, 3×4 crop
relatedEntity: Tolstoy, Leo Nikolaevich
holding: State Museum of L.N. Tolstoy, Moscow
archiveId: 0003600108 (culture.ru/gosudarstvennyy_muzey_tolstogo)
access: open
rights: Public domain
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leo_Tolstoy_1908_Portrait_(3x4_cropped)
localPath: visuals/tolstoy-prokudin-gorsky-1908-portrait-cropped.jpg
note: Tighter 3×4 crop of the Prokudin-Gorsky session, 23 May 1908.
Same session as VIS-001; useful for portrait insets.
Artist: Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky.
VIS-003
id: VIS-003
type: photograph
subject: Leo Tolstoy — portrait with book, photographed by Chertkov
relatedEntity: Tolstoy, Leo Nikolaevich; Chertkov, Vladimir Grigoryevich
holding: State Museum of L.N. Tolstoy, Moscow
archiveId: 0003600128 (culture.ru/gosudarstvennyy_muzey_tolstogo)
access: open
rights: Public domain
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%B2_%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B9_(%D0%A7%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2,_1908)_-_0003600128.jpg
localPath: visuals/tolstoy-chertkov-photo-1908.jpg
note: Tolstoy facing forward in dark clothing, holding an open book,
dark background. Photographed by V.G. Chertkov, 1908.
Chertkov maintained a systematic photographic record of Tolstoy
during the period when he was compiling the treatise.
VIS-004
id: VIS-004
type: photograph
subject: Leo Tolstoy on horseback at Yasnaya Polyana
relatedEntity: Tolstoy, Leo Nikolaevich
holding: State Museum of L.N. Tolstoy, Moscow (credited via tolstoymuseum.ru)
archiveId: unknown
access: open
rights: Public domain (photographer d. 1929)
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leo_Tolstoy_riding_a_horse_(K._Bulla,_1908).jpg
localPath: visuals/tolstoy-bulla-horseback-1908.jpg
note: Tolstoy on horseback near Yasnaya Polyana, 1908.
Photographer Karl Karlovich Bulla (1855–1929), German-Russian
press photographer. Bulla documented Tolstoy in his jubilee year.
VIS-005
id: VIS-005
type: photograph
subject: Leo Tolstoy with grandchildren Vanya and Tanya at Yasnaya Polyana
relatedEntity: Tolstoy, Leo Nikolaevich
holding: russiainphoto.ru / Yasnaya Polyana archive
archiveId: unknown
access: open
rights: Public domain (photographer d. 1929)
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Russia._%D0%AF%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B0._%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%B2_%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D1%81_%D0%B2%D0%BD%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B8_%D0%92%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%B8_%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE_%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0._1908_%D0%9A.%D0%91%D1%83%D0%BB%D0%BB%D0%B0_6ewcqch3c.jpg
localPath: visuals/tolstoy-bulla-grandchildren-yasnaya-1908.jpg
note: К. Булла photograph, 1908. Tolstoy outside the main house at
Yasnaya Polyana with grandchildren. Contextual image for the
jubilee-year domestic milieu.
VIS-006
id: VIS-006
type: photograph
subject: Leo Tolstoy seated in garden with daughter Alexandra Tolstaya
relatedEntity: Tolstoy, Leo Nikolaevich; Tolstaya, Alexandra Lvovna
holding: State Museum of L.N. Tolstoy, Moscow
archiveId: unknown
access: open
rights: Public domain
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leo_Tolstoy_and_Alexandra_Tolstaya_in_1908.jpg
localPath: visuals/tolstoy-alexandra-1908.jpg
note: 1908, Yasnaya Polyana. Alexandra Tolstaya (1884–1979) was
close to her father during the composition of the treatise;
she assisted with copying and correspondence.
Photographer unknown.
VIS-007
id: VIS-007
type: photograph
subject: Leo Tolstoy on horseback — jubilee-year press portrait
relatedEntity: Tolstoy, Leo Nikolaevich
holding: The World's Work, November 1908 (press); Wikimedia Commons
archiveId: unknown
access: open
rights: Public domain
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Count_Leo_Tolstoy.jpg
localPath: visuals/tolstoy-underwood-1908-horse.jpg
note: Published in The World's Work, November 1908.
Photographer: Underwood & Underwood. Western press portrait
circulated internationally during the 80th-birthday coverage.
VIS-008
id: VIS-008
type: portrait
subject: Vladimir Grigoryevich Chertkov — portrait by Ilya Repin
relatedEntity: Chertkov, Vladimir Grigoryevich
holding: Wikimedia Commons (credited pl.pinterest.com; original location unknown)
archiveId: unknown
access: open
rights: Public domain (Repin d. 1930; 90+ years elapsed)
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Repin_Vladimir_Chertkov.jpg
localPath: visuals/chertkov-repin-portrait.jpg
note: Oil portrait of Chertkov by Ilya Repin, 1890s. Chertkov was
the primary publisher of the treatise abroad via Svobodnoe Slovo
(Christchurch, England) and remained Tolstoy's chief literary
executor. Best-known painted likeness of Chertkov.
VIS-009
id: VIS-009
type: portrait
subject: Vladimir Grigoryevich Chertkov — early photographic portrait
relatedEntity: Chertkov, Vladimir Grigoryevich
holding: Wikimedia Commons
archiveId: unknown
access: open
rights: Public domain (1883 photograph; 140+ years elapsed)
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vladimir_Chertkov.jpg
localPath: visuals/chertkov-eikhenwald-portrait-1883.jpg
note: Photograph by А.Ф. Эйхенвальд (A.F. Eikhenwald), 1883.
Early portrait of Chertkov; predates his editorship of
Svobodnoe Slovo but establishes his likeness.
VIS-010
id: VIS-010
type: photograph
subject: Leo Tolstoy and V.G. Chertkov together at Yasnaya Polyana
relatedEntity: Tolstoy, Leo Nikolaevich; Chertkov, Vladimir Grigoryevich
holding: Wikimedia Commons (credited babs71.livejournal.com)
archiveId: unknown
access: open
rights: Public domain
licence: PD
usable: true
url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chertkov_%26_Tolstoy_(cropped).jpg
localPath: visuals/chertkov-tolstoy-yasnaya-1909.jpg
note: Dated 29 March 1909, Yasnaya Polyana. Photographer: V.G. Chertkov
(self-described; likely by a third party in his entourage).
Documents the working relationship between author and publisher
immediately after the treatise was completed and dispatched for
publication. Marginally post-composition but directly relevant.
Not openly available / where to request
N.N. Gusev — portrait photograph (period, 1907–1909)
Nikolai Nikolaevich Gusev (1882–1967) was Tolstoy’s personal secretary
1907–1909 and the diary-witness to the composition of «Закон насилия и
закон любви». A period photograph of Tolstoy with Gusev at Yasnaya
Polyana (1909) is referenced in secondary sources and on Pinterest
(pin/442619469650448306) but no freely-licensed version was located on
Wikimedia Commons. The Commons file File:Gusevnn.jpg (CC-BY-SA 4.0,
credited “Durmanov”, dated 1950) depicts the chess player of the same
name, not the literary scholar/secretary.
Where to request: State Museum of L.N. Tolstoy, Moscow (tolstoymuseum.ru / photo archive); Yasnaya Polyana estate archive. The tolstoy-manuscript.ru site has a Gusev biographical entry (id=48, catid=3) but the page returned HTTP 401 — may require institutional login.
Manuscript facsimile — «Закон насилия и закон любви» рук. № 58
The final manuscript (рук. № 58) is one of 1,536 pages held in the State Museum of L.N. Tolstoy, Moscow. The «Все Толстой в один клик» digitisation project (State Tolstoy Museum + Yasnaya Polyana + ABBYY) covers many manuscripts, but no openly-licensed facsimile page for this specific work was located via Wikimedia Commons or public search.
Where to request: State Museum of L.N. Tolstoy, Moscow — рукописный отдел; also queryable via Goskatalog (web.goskatalog.ru — SSL errors prevented direct access on 2026-06-08; retry via browser). The ABBYY “All of Tolstoy” portal may hold digitised manuscript pages behind an institutional gate.
«Свободное слово» (Christchurch, 1909) — title page
The first complete Russian-language edition, published by V.G. Chertkov’s Svobodnoe Slovo press in Christchurch, England, 1909. Translator/editor: V. Tchertkoff. An Internet Archive item (details/LawOfLoveAndLawOfViolence_LevTolstoy) exists but was inaccessible due to SSL errors on 2026-06-08; the item likely contains a title-page scan.
Where to retry: https://archive.org/details/LawOfLoveAndLawOfViolence_LevTolstoy (access directly in browser; the SSL error was tool-side, not site-wide). Also: imwerden.de and vtoraya-literatura.com — neither returned a direct hit for this title in the 2026-06-08 sweep; a manual search on both sites for “закон насилия” is warranted.
«Киевские вести», 1909, №№ 47, 49, 52 — title page / masthead
First partial/censored Russian-language newspaper printing. No digitised copies located via Wikimedia Commons or general search.
Where to request: National Library of Ukraine (Vernadsky), Kyiv; also Российская государственная библиотека (РГБ), Moscow, newspaper holdings.
Library of Congress — Prokudin-Gorsky glass-plate originals
The LOC holds the original glass-plate negatives for the 23 May 1908 Tolstoy colour session (digital ID prok.01971). Higher-resolution scans than currently on Wikimedia may be available via the LOC Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (loc.gov/pictures/).