The Kreutzer Sonata, 1990

“According to Tolstoy's wife Sophia, the idea for The Kreutzer Sonata was given to Tolstoy by the actor VN Andreev-Burlak during his visit at Yasnaya Polyana in June 1887. In the spring of 1888 an amateur performance of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata took place in Tolstoy's home and it made the author return to an idea he had had in the 1860s. The Kreutzer Sonata is framed by a discussion about the institution of marriage among the passengers on a train. Pozdnyshev, the chief character, tells of his youth and his first visits to brothels, and his subsequent remorse and self-disgust. He decides to get married and after a brief engagement, he and his wife spend a disastrous honeymoon in Paris. Back in Russia the marriage develops into mutual hatred. Pozdnyshev believes that his wife is having an affair with a musician and he tries to strangle her, and then stabs her to death with a dagger. He accuses society and women of inflaming, with the aid of dressmakers and cosmeticians, men's animal instincts. After writing the novel Tolstoy was accused of preaching immorality. The Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod wrote to the Tsar, and this marked the beginning of the process that led ultimately to Tolstoy's excommunication” (www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ltolstoi.htm).