Tolstoy in Soviet Criticism

Abstract

OVIET literature about Tolstoy is voluminous. There is no denying that much has been done for the study of Tolstoy since the Revolution.' The new complete edition of Tolstoy's Works and Letters, in ninety volumes, begun in 1928 in connection with the centenary of his birth and recently completed, is in itself a lasting monument. To this must be added the publication of new biographical materials and of drafts and variants of Tolstoy's manuscripts in Literaturnoe Nasledstvo and elsewhere, of his letters, of various memoirs, and of several biographies, including the monumental one by N. Gusev. Post-revolutionary critical literature proper has also been enormous. No attempt is made in the present article to survey it, albeit briefly, in its entirety, for such a task would require an entire volume.2 Some of the most worthwhile post-revolutionary studies of Tolstoy came from the pen of the so-called Formalist scholars who, however, after 1928 were forced to abandon many of their positions and adjust themselves to the prevalent sociological approach to literature. Of all the Formalists, most active in Tolstoyan studies was Boris Eichenbaum (1886-1959). His The Young Tolstoy (1923) was a good specimen of pure, unadulterated Formalism, almost completely free from biographical or