Vladimir Grigoryevich Chertkov (russian: Влади́мир Григо́рьевич Чертко́в; also transliterated as Chertkoff, Tchertkoff, or Tschertkow ( – November 9, 1936) was the editor of the works of
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 ...
, and one of the most prominent
Tolstoyan
The Tolstoyan movement is a social movement based on the philosophical and religious views of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). Tolstoy's views were formed by rigorous study of the ministry of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the Mo ...
s. After the
revolutions
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
of 1917, Chertkov was instrumental in creating the
United Council of Religious Communities and Groups, which eventually came to administer the
Russian SFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
's
conscientious objection
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objecti ...
program.
Life and career
Family and childhood
Chertkov was born in 1854 in
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia into a wealthy and aristocratic family. His mother (to whom he felt especially close), Elizaveta Ivanovna, born Countess Chernysheva-Kruglikova, was known among her circle in St. Petersburg society for her beauty, intellect, authoritativeness and tact. His father, Grigorii Ivanovich, was aide-de-camp under
Nikolai I, Adjutant-General under
Alexander II and
Alexander III, known in military circles for his front-line service and military bearing. The couple enjoyed imperial favour so much that Alexander II and Alexander III visited their home.
Describing his parents in one of his diary entries, he wrote: “That's how I grew up, assured of my own innate advantage over other people, proud of the dignity of my parents, their relatives and friends, entourage of servants, rising from their seats in the ante-room when I passed from my rooms into my parents’ part of the house, swimming in all kinds of luxury and almost not knowing rejection in satisfaction of my desires.”
The young Chertkov was considered very handsome – slender, tall, with big gray eyes under beaked brows – and had a talent for witty paradox.
Military service
Nineteen-year-old Chertkov voluntarily joined the
Life Guards of the Cavalry. Yet while yielding to all the enjoyment that was offered by life in the circle of golden youth, unaware of either external or internal obstacles for the realization of his desires, Chertkov from time to time felt that there was something wrong in his life and strove to find some moral law that would subordinate his behavior. In order to understand these doubts, to look closer at other ways of life and remain alone with himself, he decided for a time to abandon his accustomed life, take a vacation for several months and go to England.
At the end of December 1879, Chertkov wrote his mother a letter from England:
:"I can tell you a few fragments of my last thoughts:
# In order to be useful, a person must define his position in the world around him;
# He must therefore look at himself not subjectively but objectively; and
# He can only reach such a view when the strength of all his aspirations is concentrated not upon himself, but on some kind of high goal, located outside himself.”
And he wrote further that concentrating all his thought on Christian study could be useful to deal with the problems of his life.
Lizinovka
In 1880, he resigned from military service, left Petersburg, and settled in his family's estate in Lizinovka, where he planned to help the peasants at whose expense he lived, although he had an unclear understanding of their needs.
Scrutinizing the work of the
zemstvo
A ''zemstvo'' ( rus, земство, p=ˈzʲɛmstvə, plural ''zemstva'' – rus, земства) was an institution of local government set up during the great emancipation reform of 1861 carried out in Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexander ...
and finding weaknesses, he conceived the idea of implementing on his parents' estate some measures disregarded by the zemstvo. He organized a trade school for peasant children.
Influence of Tolstoy
In October 1883 his first meeting with Leo Tolstoy took place in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, changing the entire course of his life. It would be said of him that he was more Tolstoy than Tolstoy himself.
Fulfilling the ideal of moral self-improvement, Chertkov gave all his heart and soul to educational activity. Following Tolstoy's initiative, in 1885 Chertkov organized and financed a publishing house called Intermediary (russian: Посредник) which specialized in the release of art and moralizing literature for people. Intermediary succeeded in publishing works aimed at the education of the Russian people, despite the pressure of the Imperial censorship and the hostile attitude of the
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...
. The new publishing house was supported by many of the most outstanding writers of the country: Tolstoy,
Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...
,
Korolenko,
Garshin, and
Leskov all wrote for Intermediary.
Books were sold unusually cheaply. Reasonable prices and good publicity, in which
Repin,
Surikov
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (Russian: Василий Иванович Суриков; 24 January 1848 – 19 March 1916) was a Russian Realist history painter. Many of his works have become familiar to the general public through their use as illu ...
,
Kivshenko and other Russian artists were engaged, helped distribution.
Conflict with Tolstoy family
Chertkov had a troubled relationship with most of the Tolstoy family, and tried actively to destroy the relationship between Tolstoy and his wife
Sophia. Tolstoy's final flight, for example, is described as having been greatly influenced by Chertkov. Sophia was especially troubled by what she felt was his hypocritical philosophy: he decried wealth, but had his own fancy estate. His associates lay about her house and ate free and paid no rent and criticized her materialism, while she raised several children and ran the entire business side of Tolstoy's writing (at Tolstoy's wish), which provided a major source of income for Yasnaya Polyana and enabled their lifestyle.
Additionally, Chertkov convinced Tolstoy to sign a secret will and give control of his works to Chertkov instead of Sophia. He then used this control to publish versions of Tolstoy's collected works as he wanted. He also criticized Sophia, discredited her diaries and her own writing, and played up his own relationship with the Count. Chertkov also fostered a positive relationship with the newly formed Soviet state, which he used to suppress Sophia's version of Tolstoy's life story and his relationship with her.
Rossosh
Chertkov’s closest employees were often engaged in editing and drawing up his plans on his farmstead in
Rossosh Rossosh (russian: Россошь) is the name of several types of inhabited localities in Russia, inhabited localities in Russia.
;Urban localities
*Rossosh, Rossoshansky District, Voronezh Oblast, a town in Rossoshansky District of Voronezh Oblast ...
, located in the
Ostrogozhsk
Ostrogozhsk (russian: Острого́жск) is a town and the administrative center of Ostrogozhsky District in Voronezh Oblast, Russia, located on the Tikhaya Sosna River (a tributary of the Don), south of Voronezh, the administrative center o ...
District. Rossosh had a manor house on top of a hill, as well as an extensive courtyard and subsidiary buildings; at the base of this mountain were three ponds in succession, and behind them 20
desyatina A dessiatin or desyatina (russian: десятина) is an archaic, rudimentary land measurement used in tsarist Russia. A dessiatin is equal to 2,400 square sazhens and is approximately equivalent to 2.702 English acres or 10,926.512 square metres ...
of forest. Soon the small village of Rossosh turned into a large publishing center. From here Chertkov conducted extensive correspondence on the affairs of Intermediary with Russian writers and artists. Tolstoy came to visit his friend here in the spring of 1894.
Life in exile
![Tchertkov, Count Vladimir (Borough of Bournemouth)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Tchertkov%2C_Count_Vladimir_%28Borough_of_Bournemouth%29.jpg)
Since the autocracy considered
Tolstoyism an enemy, Chertkov left for England in 1897. He was an avid
Anglophile
An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents.
Etymology
The word is derived from the Latin word ''Anglii'' and Ancient Greek word φίλος ''philos'', meaning "frien ...
like his mother, admired the English tradition of free speech, and was already corresponding with a small collective based at
Purleigh
Purleigh is a village on the Dengie peninsula about south of Maldon in the English county of Essex. The village is part of the Purleigh ward of the Maldon district.
The place-name 'Purleigh' is first attested in a charter of 998, where it app ...
in Essex, who were looking to put Tolstoy's ideas into practice. It was to Purleigh, therefore, that Chertkov initially gravitated and it was here that he set up a publishing company, the Free Word Press (russian: Свободное слово), producing Russian-language versions of Tolstoy's works and kindred literature, much of which was smuggled back into Russia. A separate branch of this business, the Free Age Press, producing English-language texts, was set up in 1900. Chertkov's wife, Anna Konstantinovna, born Dieterichs (1859–1927), was trustee of the Free Word Press and produced several texts for both arms of the business.
The Purleigh group began to split up towards the end of 1900, at which point Chertkov moved with his family and followers to Tuckton House, at
Tuckton
Tuckton is a suburb of Bournemouth, situated on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour in the eastern part of the borough. First recorded in 1271, this was a hamlet in the tithing of Tuckton and Wick until 1894, when the Local Government Act repla ...
in
Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
, purchased for him by his mother. The group used the defunct waterworks in nearby Iford Lane as their printing works, and continued to churn out Free Word and Free Age Press texts until July 1908, when most of the colony returned with Chertkov to Russia. (The Tsar had granted a pardon to all political exiles three years previously.) The Free Age Press continued to flourish, with a single member of the Tolstoy colony based at Tuckton House as translator and editor, until 1916.
[A. McKinstry, ''The Village of Tuckton, 35,000 BC - 1926'' (Christchurch: Natula Publications, 2015), p. 119.] There was, of course, less and less appetite for Tolstoy's mainly pacifist writings as Britain drifted into war. Chertkov remained in Russia where, as Tolstoy's literary executor, he was editor-in-chief of one last project: a complete edition of Tolstoy's works in Russian, which ultimately extended to ninety volumes, and was still in motion when Chertkov died in Moscow, after a series of strokes, in 1936. He is buried in
Vvedenskoye Cemetery
Vvedenskoye Cemetery ( rus, Введенское кладбище, p=vʲːɪˈdʲenskəjə) is a historic cemetery in the Lefortovo District of Moscow in Russia.
Until 1918 it was mainly a burial ground for the Catholic and Protestant communitie ...
.
Film
Actor
Aleksey Petrenko
Aleksei Vasilyevich Petrenko (russian: Алексей Васильевич Петренко; 26 March 1938 – 22 February 2017) was a Soviet and Russian film and stage actor. He played Grigori Rasputin in Elem Klimov's historical drama
'' Agony ...
portrayed Chertkov in the 1984 film ''
Lev 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 ...
''. Actor
Paul Giamatti
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (; born June 6, 1967) is an American actor and film producer. He first garnered attention for his breakout role in '' Private Parts'' as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton, leading to supporting roles in ''Saving Private R ...
portrayed Chertkov in the 2009 film ''
The Last Station
''The Last Station'' is a 2009 English-language German biographical drama film written and directed by Michael Hoffman, and based on Jay Parini's 1990 biographical novel of the same name, which chronicled the final months of Leo Tolstoy's life. ...
''.
See also
*
Tolstoyan
The Tolstoyan movement is a social movement based on the philosophical and religious views of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). Tolstoy's views were formed by rigorous study of the ministry of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the Mo ...
*
Nonresistance Nonresistance (or non-resistance) is "the practice or principle of not resisting authority, even when it is unjustly exercised". At its core is discouragement of, even opposition to, physical resistance to an enemy. It is considered as a form of pri ...
*
Christian pacifism
Christian pacifism is the theological and ethical position according to which pacifism and non-violence have both a scriptural and rational basis for Christians, and affirms that any form of violence is incompatible with the Christian faith. Chr ...
*
Christian anarchism
Christian anarchism is a Christian movement in political theology that claims anarchism is inherent in Christianity and the Gospels. It is grounded in the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answ ...
*
Christian vegetarianism
Christian vegetarianism is the practice of keeping to a vegetarian lifestyle for reasons connected to or derived from the Christian faith. The three primary reasons are spiritual, nutritional, and ethical. The ethical reasons may include a con ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chertkov, Vladimir
Russian male essayists
1854 births
1936 deaths
Nobility from Saint Petersburg
Tolstoyans
Russian Christian pacifists
Russian male novelists
Businesspeople from Bournemouth
Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom