The creation and textual editing of L. N. Tolstoy’s novella “Kholstomer” in 1885-1886: the problem of dating

<jats:p>The purpose of the study is to substantiate the chronological sequence in the history of the creation and first publication of L. N. Tolstoy’s novella “Kholstomer” (“Strider”) in 1885-1886. The article examines the specific features of Tolstoy finishing the novella “Kholstomer” for Part 3 of the “Works of Count L. N. Tolstoy” (fifth edition, 1885-1886) and clarifies the details of the participation of S. A. Tolstaya and the critic N. N. Strakhov in preparing the “Works” for print. The scientific originality of the paper is determined by dating the writer’s creative process from the summer of 1885 to the spring of 1886 (revising the novella “Kholstomer”, publishing the booklets of “Posrednik”, completing the essay “What Then Must We Do?”, the novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, and “The Tale of Ivan the Fool…”) on the basis of biographical materials (unpublished family correspondence of the Tolstoys and Kuzminskys, correspondence of S. A. and L. N. Tolstoy with each other and their correspondence with N. N. Strakhov, letters from L. N. Tolstoy to L. D. Urusov, V. G. Chertkov, and N. N. Ge, and letters from N. N. Strakhov to N. Y. Danilevsky) and historical-literary sources (memoirs of A. A. and S. A. Stakhovich, A. K. Chertkova, S. A. Tolstaya, the “Notes” of I. M. Ivakin, and the chronicle of the newspaper “Pravitelstvenny Vestnik”). As a result of the study, new stages in the chronology of Tolstoy’s work on the novella “Kholstomer” and its first publication in 1885-1886 have been classified: 1) the summer of 1885 – the editing of the “Works” by S. A. Tolstaya and N. N. Strakhov; 2) the second half of September 1885 – Tolstoy’s revision of the novella in Yasnaya Polyana; 3) October-November 1885 – the correction of proof sheets of Part 3 by S. A. Tolstaya and, possibly, L. N. Tolstoy in Moscow. The testimony of A. K. Chertkova regarding the reading of proof sheets of the novella “Kholstomer” in March 1886 in Khamovniki leaves open the question of the exact time of the completion of the author’s work on the novella: the publication of not only Part 12 but also Part 3 of the “Works” can be dated to early April 1886.</jats:p>