George Kennan as a Prototype of the Englishman in the Novel Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

Abstract

This article is based on the hypothesis that George Kennan, the American journalist, traveler, and writer, who visited Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana in summer of 1886, was one of the prototypes of the Englishman in Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection. The book Siberia and the Exile System by George Kennan was one of the sources of Resurrection. We can trace the certain parallels in the description of the Siberian prison stage, some exiles whom Kennan met, the hotels in Irkutsk where he used to stay. Though earlier there were some speculations about the missionary F.W. Baedeker and the journalist Harry de Windt as the possible models of the Englishman in Resurrection. Yet the research of the draft versions of Resurrection, archival and other sources testify to the fact that still Kennan, if not the only one, but one of the most feasible prototypes of the Englishman in Resurrection.