Astapovo Train Station, On the Right is the House in Which Lev Nikolayevich (Tolstoy) Died
Aleksey Ivanovich Saveliev Russian
Not on view
These six photo-postcards show various places and moments surrounding the death and burial of Leo Tolstoy. In November 1910 the eighty-two-year-old novelist walked away from his great wealth to devote himself to Christian charity and died in a stationmaster's house after falling ill on a train. Tolstoy's death was of tremendous national importance, and how he was to be mourned–whether to kneel or stand at the grave, for instance–signified a contrast between old and new that would be decided during the Russian Revolution seven years later.