Tolstoy

Tolstoy Kin Want Church Forgiveness

MOSCOW (AP) - One hundred years after the Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated Leo Tolstoy, the writer's great-great-grandson has asked it to bring him back into the fold - much to the horror of some scholars, who say Tolstoy would never have asked forgiveness from the church he scorned.

Tolstoy rejected the authority of the Orthodox Church and developed his own version of Christianity, which held that people can affirm the good in themselves through self-examination and reformation. His philosophy contradicted official church doctrine and was deemed heretical.

But Vladimir Tolstoy said Monday that his great-great-grandfather should be forgiven in the name of national reconciliation. Vladimir Tolstoy said he wrote to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II last week requesting that the church reconsider its Feb. 24, 1901, excommunication decision.

"Russian people are forced to choose between a national genius and the national religion,'' he said. "This is a very complex contradiction in society and within every person.'' Vladimir Tolstoy, who runs a museum at Yasnaya Polyana, Leo Tolstoy's country estate, said he had not yet received an answer from the patriarch but had been told he could expect one this week.

Church spokesman Viktor Malukhin said he did not know what Alexy's answer would be but that many of Tolstoy's writings remained unacceptable to the church.

"They remain just as heretical as they were during his lifetime. He doesn't have the power to correct those texts now and, of course, nobody is going to establish censorship and cut out the anti-Christian motifs from his works,'' Malukhin said.

"People who read it must be firm in their faith because for those who are not, these 'teachings' of Leo Tolstoy could tempt them,'' Malukhin said. He claimed that Tolstoy received absolution before his death in 1910, even though the Holy Synod never reversed its decision.

"If memory does not deceive me, he confessed to a priest before his death, repented and received absolution from his sins from that priest,'' Malukhin said. "His personal problem in relation to the church was resolved.''

But Berta Shumova, deputy director of the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, said Malukhin's version of history runs counter to everything Tolstoy stood for. Tolstoy never repented, nor would he have approved of his descendant's drive to reunite him with the church, she said.

"I think the best thing is to ask Tolstoy himself,'' she said before reading aloud from the author's published diary. In the entry from Jan. 22, 1909, the elderly Tolstoy complains about a conversation his wife had with a bishop.

"It's especially unpleasant that he asked to let him know when I am going to die. As if they have thought of something to assure people that I 'repented' before death,'' he writes. "And that's why I am declaring: I cannot return to the church and repent, just as I cannot before death say obscene words and look at obscene pictures. And so whatever they may say about my repenting and taking communion before death will be a lie.''

Tolstoy, who lived from 1828 to 1910, is considered one of the most important figures in Russian literature and is best known for his novel "Anna Karenina'' and the epic "War and Peace.'' He was also a committed pacifist and social reformer.

my french onion soup didn't work

In the paper today, I read an article about the murders that happened across the street from me right before Christmas. A man stabbed his wife and son to death, and then set the house on fire. I remember coming home that morning at 4am, seeing the fire trucks on the street. There is just something that chills me about it. I grew up in this neighborhood, I knew the girl Dana who lived right next door to that family. The boy's cousin survived. How do you get up every day with the image of your uncle murdering your cousin?

I wanted to write about going to Mass at St. Austin's this afternoon. I've never been inside the church before; it's beautiful. I love old cathedrals and churches with stained glass and creaking wooden pews. I like the feeling of connection to all of the other people in the Mass, and all of the people who celebrated it here before. The ashes get on my glasses. I like seeing all the others in my classes. We nod to each other silently.

Professor P. is furious because there are plans to build a giant aquarium on the base where the Stalin statue once stood. They want to tear down the Metronome! To build a guady tourist trap in the center of Prague?! Who goes to Prague to see tropical fish?? You go to the Bahamas for that! Bah! I can't believe this. Perhaps our Czech class will write perturbed letters to the Mayor of Prague. Aquarium. How ridiculous.