Love and Hatred

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This book seeks to answer the question of why the long and fruitful life of Leo Tolstoy ended in a strange, irrational, and tragic manner, as he spent his final days very alone in a remote location. This book is not merely a biography of the great writer and moralist of Russia, nor is it solely about his remarkable life. Aside from two English translations by Russian writers written seventy-five years ago, there has been no book in English that addresses the suffering of the final years of this outstanding literary genius and his talented, troubled wife, and the tragic ending of their lives. All historians and biographers have written based on the works of their predecessors, but this book is primarily based on the memories, notes, and letters of Leo Tolstoy and his wife, their daughter Tanya, and Dr. Dushan P. Makovitsky - their family doctor and resident of their home, - Valentin Bulgakov - the last young secretary of the great writer - and firsthand testimonies from Tolstoy's children - Sergei, Ilya, Tanya, and Alexandra - as well as the unreliable memories left by Vladimir Chertkov, an old friend and cunning adversary of Lady Tolstoy during the last twenty-seven years of Tolstoy's life.