Adela and Albert: A Tolstoyan Love Story

Abstract

Albert Škarvan (1869–1926) is regarded today as a figure of some importance in Slovak literature. Though he played no part in political life, he was an enthusiastic cultural nationalist and an advocate of the use of the Slovak vernacular for literature. His Memoirs of an Army Doctor (1920), republished in 1992, reveal the mindset of a Tolstoyan antimilitarist. They also present a unique picture of conditions prevailing in military prisons of the Habsburg Empire at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1895 Š karvan, who was then near the completion of his conscript service, had, largely under the influence of Tolstoy’s writings, refused to serve any longer—to the surprise of his fellow officers. He remained firmly behind his decision and, as a result, he was eventually sentenced to a term of imprisonment in a military jail. His stand was warmly supported by Tolstoy, with whom Š karvan had started to correspond. Before being sentenced Š karvan spent some time in the psychiatric ward of a Viennese hospital, to which the army authorities had sent him for examination. There he met a charming Austrian aristocrat, a widow of Polish origin, Adela von Mazzuchelli, who was visiting another patient in the psychiatric ward. The two fell in love. After he was released from jail, Albert, however, broke off the relationship, even though Adela wished to continue it. The romance came to an end for various reasons, among these the chief perhaps were the difference in social status of the couple in a class-bound society and Š karvan’s desire not to become emotionally entangled. Tolstoy was fascinated by their story; so, in a long letter, now preserved in the manuscript collection of the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, Škarvan related in detail the course of his romance. The letter forms the main source for the present article.