First trip to Europe

After a clumsy courtship with a neighbour, Leo Tolstoy heads to Europe to escape the indignation and gossip about his behaviour. He travels the 290 kilometres to Warsaw by stage coach and then catches the train to Paris, arriving in February 1857. He goes to the theatre and opera, attends lectures by the thinkers of the day, visits art galleries and museums, and takes English and Italian lessons. A month after arriving he gets up early to see a man executed in a public square by guillotine. The experience haunts him and he concludes that there is little admirable about a government that uses capital punishment to control people. He complains to friends about the debauchery of the French.

He travels to Geneva and other Swiss cities. As in Paris, he socialises only with Russians. He explores the countryside and spends a lot of time with a relative, Alexandra Alexandrovna Tolstoy, who is 10 years older than him and visiting from St Petersburg. Her father is Tolstoy’s grandfather’s brother and she is a maid of honour to Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, daughter of Nicholas I and sister of Alexander II.

In Lucerne, Tolstoy encourages a street musician to serenade guests at his hotel, Hotel Schweizerhof. The guests flock to their balconies to listen but don’t tip him. Indignant, Tolstoy insists the man comes into the hotel to drink with him, against the wishes of the staff. The incident becomes the subject of the short story Lucerne. Tolstoy’s writing often focuses on how different classes treat each other. What Then Must We Do? is another example.

Tolstoy plans to visit all the great cities of Europe but is waylaid at Baden-Baden, near Zurich, which is known for its gambling tables. As happens repeatedly, he is to be bailed out by friends and family, including Ivan Turgenev who travels from Paris to assist (it is before their heated dispute). Turgenev is appalled when his irrepressible friend immediately loses the money he has just given to him on the roulette tables. Tolstoy heads back to Russia.

Back home as the country squire he works the land alongside his serfs and embarks on a reafforestation program. In 1958, Tolstoy has a narrow escape from a bear.

Another brother dies