"Posthumous Notes of the Hermit Fëdor Kuzmich" (''"Посмертные записки старца Федора Кузьмича"'') (AKA: ''"Posthumous Notes of the Elder Fëdor Kuzmich"'') is a short story by

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

written in December, 1905, and then only published in 1912, over the ferocious objections of the tsarist censors and two years after Tolstoy's death. It was never completed. The preface of the work indicates that it is the fictional notes of the real hermit Feodor Kuzmich. Its translators were

Louise Maude Aylmer Maude (28 March 1858 – 25 August 1938) and Louise Maude (1855–1939) were English translators of Leo Tolstoy's works, and Aylmer Maude also wrote his friend Tolstoy's biography, ''The Life of Tolstoy''. After living many years in Russi ...

and Nigel J. Cooper. It is narrated from the point of view of

Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome * Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...

, who suddenly has a religious awakening and discovers that living the lavish, decadent lifestyle of an emperor was wrong and that it was time to live among the common people. According to

Solomon Volkov Solomon Moiseyevich Volkov (russian: Соломон Моисеевич Волков; born 17 April 1944) is a Russian journalist and musicologist. He is best known for ''Testimony'', which was published in 1979 following his emigration from the So ...

, the theme here is a fictional death (the religious conversion) as a means of escaping one's former life.

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* Original Text *
''Posthumous Notes of the Hermit Fëdor Kuzmich''
from RevoltLib.com *

from Marxists.org Short stories by Leo Tolstoy 1905 short stories {{1900s-story-stub

See also

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