Diaries of a bright genius. Leo Tolstoy - diaries
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich
Diaries
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Diaries
Diary - 1847
Diary - 1850
Diary - 1851
Diary - 1852
Diary - 1853
Diary - 1854
Diary - 1855
Diary - 1856
Diary - 1857
Diary - 1857 (Travel notes in Switzerland)
Diary - 1858
Diary - 1859
Diary - 1860
Diary - 1861
Diary - 1862
Diary - 1863
Diary - 1864
Diary - 1865
Diary - 1870
Diary - 1871
Diary - 1873
Diary - 1878
Diary - 1879
Diary - 1881
Diary - 1882
Diary - 1883
Diary - 1884
Diary - 1885
Diary - 1886
Diary - 1887
Diary - 1888
Diary - 1889
Diary - 1890
Diary - 1891
Diary - 1892
Diary - 1893
Diary - 1894
Diary - 1895
Diary - 1896
Diary - 1897
Diary - 1898
Diary - Dialogue
Diary - 1899
Diary - 1900
Diary - 1901
Diary - 1902
Diary - 1903
Diary - 1904
Diary - 1905
Diary - 1906
Diary - 1907
Diary - 1908
"Secret" diary of 1908
Diary - 1909
Diary - 1910
"Diary for oneself"
Diary - 1847
March 17.[Kazan.] It’s been six days since I entered the clinic, and it’s been six days since I’m almost satisfied with myself. [...] Here I am completely alone, no one bothers me, here I have no service, no one helps me, therefore, nothing extraneous has an influence on my mind and memory, and my activity must necessarily develop. The main benefit is that I clearly saw that the disorderly life that most of secular people are mistaken for a consequence of youth, is nothing more than a consequence of early depravity of the soul.
Solitude is as useful for a person living in society as society is for a person not living in it. Separate a person from society, if he ascends into himself, and how soon the glasses that showed him everything in a wrong way will be thrown off his mind, and how his view of things will become clearer, so that it will not even be clear to him how he did not see all this before . Leave your reason to act, it will show you your purpose, it will give you rules with which you can boldly go into society. Everything that is consistent with the primary ability of man - reason, will be equally consistent with everything that exists; intelligence individual person there is a part of everything that exists, and a part cannot upset the order of the whole. The whole can kill the part. To do this, form your mind so that it is consistent with the whole, with the source of everything, and not with a part, with the society of people; then your mind will merge into one with this whole, and then society, as a part, will have no influence on you.
It is easier to write ten volumes of philosophy than to apply any one principle to practice.
18th of March. I read Catherine’s “Instruction”, and since I generally gave myself the rule, when reading any serious work, to think about it and write out wonderful thoughts from it, I am writing here my opinion about the first six chapters of this wonderful work.
[...] The concepts of freedom under monarchical rule are the following: freedom, she says, is the ability of a person to do everything that he should do, and not be forced to do what he should not do. I would like to call out what she understands by the word should and should not; If by the word “what should be done” she means natural law, then it clearly follows that freedom can only exist in a state in whose legislation natural law does not differ in any way from positive law—a thought that is absolutely correct. [...]
March 19. A passion for science begins to emerge in me; Although this is the noblest of human passions, no less than that, I will never indulge in it one-sidedly, that is, completely killing the feeling and not engaging in application, solely striving to educate the mind and fill the memory. There is one-sidedness main reason human misfortunes. [...]
21 March. Chapter X sets out the basic rules and most dangerous mistakes related to criminal proceedings.
At the beginning of this chapter she asks herself a question. Where do punishments come from and where does the right to punish come from? She answers the first question: “Punishments arise from the need to protect the laws.” He also answers the second one quite wittily. She says: “The right to punish belongs to the laws alone, and only the monarch, as the representative of the entire state, can make laws.” In all this “Order” we are constantly presented with two heterogeneous elements that Catherine constantly wanted to agree on: namely, the consciousness of the need for constitutional government and pride, that is, the desire to be the unlimited ruler of Russia. For example, saying that in a monarchical government only the monarch can have legislative power, she takes the existence of this power as an axiom, without mentioning its origin. The lower government cannot impose punishments, because it is part of the whole, and the monarch has this right, because he is the representative of all citizens, says Catherine. But is the sovereign’s representation of the people in unlimited monarchies an expression of the totality of private, free wills of citizens? No, the expression of the general will in unlimited monarchies is the following: I tolerate a lesser evil, because if I did not tolerate it, I would be subjected to a greater evil.
March 24. I have changed a lot; but I still have not reached the degree of perfection (in my studies) that I would like to achieve. I do not do what I prescribe to myself; What I do, I don’t do well, I don’t strain my memory. To do this, I am writing here some rules, which, it seems to me, will help me a lot if I follow them. 1) Whatever is assigned to be fulfilled, do it no matter what. 2) Whatever you do, do it well. 3) Never consult a book if you have forgotten something, but try to remember it yourself. 4) Constantly force your mind to act with all its possible strength. 5) Read and think always loudly. 6) Don’t be ashamed to tell people who bother you that they are bothering you; first let him feel it, and if he doesn’t understand, then apologize and tell him so. In accordance with the second rule, I definitely want to finish commenting on Catherine’s entire order.
[...] Chapter XIII talks about handicrafts and trade. Catherine rightly notes that agriculture is the beginning of all trade and that in a land where people do not have their own property, agriculture cannot flourish; for people usually care more about things that belong to them than about things that can always be taken away from them. This is the reason why agriculture and trade cannot flourish in our country as long as slavery continues; for a person, subject to another, not only cannot be sure of constantly owning his property, but cannot even be sure of his own fate. Then: “Skilled farmers and artisans should be given bonuses.” In my opinion, in a state it is equally necessary to punish evil as to reward good.
March 25. It is not enough to turn people away from evil; they must also be encouraged to do good. She further says that those peoples who are lazy due to climate must be accustomed to activity by taking away from them all means of subsistence, excluding labor; He also notes that these peoples are usually prone to pride, and that this very pride can serve as a weapon for the destruction of laziness. Peoples whose climate is lazy are always gifted with ardent feelings, and if they were active, the state would be more unhappy. Catherine would have done better if she had said: people, not nations. And in fact, applying her remarks to private individuals, we will find that they are extremely fair.
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich
Diaries
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Diaries
Diary - 1847
Diary - 1850
Diary - 1851
Diary - 1852
Diary - 1853
Diary - 1854
Diary - 1855
Diary - 1856
Diary - 1857
Diary - 1857 (Travel notes in Switzerland)
Diary - 1858
Diary - 1859
Diary - 1860
Diary - 1861
Diary - 1862
Diary - 1863
Diary - 1864
Diary - 1865
Diary - 1870
Diary - 1871
Diary - 1873
Diary - 1878
Diary - 1879
Diary - 1881
Diary - 1882
Diary - 1883
Diary - 1884
Diary - 1885
Diary - 1886
Diary - 1887
Diary - 1888
Diary - 1889
Diary - 1890
Diary - 1891
Diary - 1892
Diary - 1893
Diary - 1894
Diary - 1895
Diary - 1896
Diary - 1897
Diary - 1898
Diary - Dialogue
Diary - 1899
Diary - 1900
Diary - 1901
Diary - 1902
Diary - 1903
Diary - 1904
Diary - 1905
Diary - 1906
Diary - 1907
Diary - 1908
"Secret" diary of 1908
Diary - 1909
Diary - 1910
"Diary for oneself"
Diary - 1847
March 17.[Kazan.] It’s been six days since I entered the clinic, and it’s been six days since I’m almost satisfied with myself. [...] Here I am completely alone, no one bothers me, here I have no service, no one helps me, therefore, nothing extraneous has an influence on my mind and memory, and my activity must necessarily develop. The main benefit is that I clearly saw that a disordered life, which most secular people take as a consequence of youth, is nothing more than a consequence of early depravity of the soul.
Solitude is as useful for a person living in society as society is for a person not living in it. Separate a person from society, if he ascends into himself, and how soon the glasses that showed him everything in a wrong way will be thrown off his mind, and how his view of things will become clearer, so that it will not even be clear to him how he did not see all this before . Leave your reason to act, it will show you your purpose, it will give you rules with which you can boldly go into society. Everything that is consistent with the primary ability of man - reason, will be equally consistent with everything that exists; the mind of an individual person is a part of everything that exists, and a part cannot upset the order of the whole. The whole can kill the part. To do this, form your mind so that it is consistent with the whole, with the source of everything, and not with a part, with the society of people; then your mind will merge into one with this whole, and then society, as a part, will have no influence on you.
It is easier to write ten volumes of philosophy than to apply any one principle to practice.
18th of March. I read Catherine’s “Nakaz”, and since I generally gave myself the rule, when reading any serious work, to think about it and write out wonderful thoughts from it, I am writing here my opinion about the first six chapters of this wonderful work.
[...] The concepts of freedom under monarchical rule are the following: freedom, she says, is the ability of a person to do everything that he should do, and not be forced to do what he should not do. I would like to call out what she understands by the word should and should not; If by the word “what should be done” she means natural law, then it clearly follows that freedom can only exist in a state in whose legislation natural law does not differ in any way from positive law—a thought that is absolutely correct. [...]
March 19. A passion for science begins to emerge in me; Although this is the noblest of human passions, no less than that, I will never indulge in it one-sidedly, that is, completely killing the feeling and not engaging in application, solely striving to educate the mind and fill the memory. One-sidedness is the main cause of human misfortune. [...]
21 March. Chapter X sets out the basic rules and most dangerous mistakes related to criminal proceedings.
At the beginning of this chapter she asks herself a question. Where do punishments come from and where does the right to punish come from? She answers the first question: “Punishments arise from the need to protect the laws.” He also answers the second one quite wittily. She says: “The right to punish belongs to the laws alone, and only the monarch, as the representative of the entire state, can make laws.” In all this “Order” we are constantly presented with two heterogeneous elements that Catherine constantly wanted to agree on: namely, the consciousness of the need for constitutional government and pride, that is, the desire to be the unlimited ruler of Russia. For example, saying that in a monarchical government only the monarch can have legislative power, she takes the existence of this power as an axiom, without mentioning its origin. The lower government cannot impose punishments, because it is part of the whole, and the monarch has this right, because he is the representative of all citizens, says Catherine. But is the sovereign’s representation of the people in unlimited monarchies an expression of the totality of private, free wills of citizens? No, the expression of the general will in unlimited monarchies is the following: I tolerate a lesser evil, because if I did not tolerate it, I would be subjected to a greater evil.
March 24. I have changed a lot; but I still have not reached the degree of perfection (in my studies) that I would like to achieve. I do not do what I prescribe to myself; What I do, I don’t do well, I don’t strain my memory. To do this, I am writing here some rules, which, it seems to me, will help me a lot if I follow them. 1) Whatever is assigned to be fulfilled, do it no matter what. 2) Whatever you do, do it well. 3) Never consult a book if you have forgotten something, but try to remember it yourself. 4) Constantly force your mind to act with all its possible strength. 5) Read and think always loudly. 6) Don’t be ashamed to tell people who bother you that they are bothering you; first let him feel it, and if he doesn’t understand, then apologize and tell him so. In accordance with the second rule, I definitely want to finish commenting on Catherine’s entire order.
[...] Chapter XIII talks about handicrafts and trade. Catherine rightly notes that agriculture is the beginning of all trade and that in a land where people do not have their own property, agriculture cannot flourish; for people usually care more about things that belong to them than about things that can always be taken away from them. This is the reason why agriculture and trade cannot flourish in our country as long as slavery continues; for a person, subject to another, not only cannot be sure of constantly owning his property, but cannot even be sure of his own fate. Then: “Skilled farmers and artisans should be given bonuses.” In my opinion, in a state it is equally necessary to punish evil as to reward good.
March 25. It is not enough to turn people away from evil; they must also be encouraged to do good. She further says that those peoples who are lazy due to climate must be accustomed to activity by taking away from them all means of subsistence, excluding labor; He also notes that these peoples are usually prone to pride, and that this very pride can serve as a weapon for the destruction of laziness. Peoples whose climate is lazy are always gifted with ardent feelings, and if they were active, the state would be more unhappy. Catherine would have done better if she had said: people, not nations. And in fact, applying her remarks to private individuals, we will find that they are extremely fair.
Then she says that in populous countries, machines that replace the hands of workers are often unnecessary and harmful, and that for exported handicrafts it is extremely necessary to use machines, because the peoples to whom we sell them can buy the same goods from neighboring peoples.
I think quite the opposite, machines for handicrafts that circulate within the state are infinitely more useful than machines for handicrafts of exported goods. For machines for generally useful handicrafts, by making these handicrafts much cheaper, would improve the condition of citizens in general; while the exported goods bring benefits only to one private individual. It seems to me that the reason for the poverty of the lower class in England is that: firstly, they do not have land property, and, secondly, because there all attention is exclusively directed to foreign trade.
Catherine very rightly says that monopolies are a great evil for trade. In my opinion, monopoly is an evil and oppression to trade, merchants and the citizens themselves. For trade this is an evil because if the monopoly did not exist, then instead of one person or company engaged in this part of trade, they would be engaged in it larger number trading. For the merchants because they are deprived of participation in this part of trade. And for citizens because each monopoly gives its own laws to citizens. Unfortunately, this evil has taken deep roots in our fatherland.
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich
Diaries
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Diaries
Diary - 1847
Diary - 1850
Diary - 1851
Diary - 1852
Diary - 1853
Diary - 1854
Diary - 1855
Diary - 1856
Diary - 1857
Diary - 1857 (Travel notes in Switzerland)
Diary - 1858
Diary - 1859
Diary - 1860
Diary - 1861
Diary - 1862
Diary - 1863
Diary - 1864
Diary - 1865
Diary - 1870
Diary - 1871
Diary - 1873
Diary - 1878
Diary - 1879
Diary - 1881
Diary - 1882
Diary - 1883
Diary - 1884
Diary - 1885
Diary - 1886
Diary - 1887
Diary - 1888
Diary - 1889
Diary - 1890
Diary - 1891
Diary - 1892
Diary - 1893
Diary - 1894
Diary - 1895
Diary - 1896
Diary - 1897
Diary - 1898
Diary - Dialogue
Diary - 1899
Diary - 1900
Diary - 1901
Diary - 1902
Diary - 1903
Diary - 1904
Diary - 1905
Diary - 1906
Diary - 1907
Diary - 1908
"Secret" diary of 1908
Diary - 1909
Diary - 1910
"Diary for oneself"
Diary - 1847
March 17.[Kazan.] It’s been six days since I entered the clinic, and it’s been six days since I’m almost satisfied with myself. [...] Here I am completely alone, no one bothers me, here I have no service, no one helps me, therefore, nothing extraneous has an influence on my mind and memory, and my activity must necessarily develop. The main benefit is that I clearly saw that a disordered life, which most secular people take as a consequence of youth, is nothing more than a consequence of early depravity of the soul.
Solitude is as useful for a person living in society as society is for a person not living in it. Separate a person from society, if he ascends into himself, and how soon the glasses that showed him everything in a wrong way will be thrown off his mind, and how his view of things will become clearer, so that it will not even be clear to him how he did not see all this before . Leave your reason to act, it will show you your purpose, it will give you rules with which you can boldly go into society. Everything that is consistent with the primary ability of man - reason, will be equally consistent with everything that exists; the mind of an individual person is a part of everything that exists, and a part cannot upset the order of the whole. The whole can kill the part. To do this, form your mind so that it is consistent with the whole, with the source of everything, and not with a part, with the society of people; then your mind will merge into one with this whole, and then society, as a part, will have no influence on you.
It is easier to write ten volumes of philosophy than to apply any one principle to practice.
18th of March. I read Catherine’s “Nakaz”, and since I generally gave myself the rule, when reading any serious work, to think about it and write out wonderful thoughts from it, I am writing here my opinion about the first six chapters of this wonderful work.
[...] The concepts of freedom under monarchical rule are the following: freedom, she says, is the ability of a person to do everything that he should do, and not be forced to do what he should not do. I would like to call out what she understands by the word should and should not; If by the word “what should be done” she means natural law, then it clearly follows that freedom can only exist in a state in whose legislation natural law does not differ in any way from positive law—a thought that is absolutely correct. [...]
March 19. A passion for science begins to emerge in me; Although this is the noblest of human passions, no less than that, I will never indulge in it one-sidedly, that is, completely killing the feeling and not engaging in application, solely striving to educate the mind and fill the memory. One-sidedness is the main cause of human misfortune. [...]
21 March. Chapter X sets out the basic rules and most dangerous mistakes related to criminal proceedings.
At the beginning of this chapter she asks herself a question. Where do punishments come from and where does the right to punish come from? She answers the first question: “Punishments arise from the need to protect the laws.” He also answers the second one quite wittily. She says: “The right to punish belongs to the laws alone, and only the monarch, as the representative of the entire state, can make laws.” In all this “Order” we are constantly presented with two heterogeneous elements that Catherine constantly wanted to agree on: namely, the consciousness of the need for constitutional government and pride, that is, the desire to be the unlimited ruler of Russia. For example, saying that in a monarchical government only the monarch can have legislative power, she takes the existence of this power as an axiom, without mentioning its origin. The lower government cannot impose punishments, because it is part of the whole, and the monarch has this right, because he is the representative of all citizens, says Catherine. But is the sovereign’s representation of the people in unlimited monarchies an expression of the totality of private, free wills of citizens? No, the expression of the general will in unlimited monarchies is the following: I tolerate a lesser evil, because if I did not tolerate it, I would be subjected to a greater evil.
March 24. I have changed a lot; but I still have not reached the degree of perfection (in my studies) that I would like to achieve. I do not do what I prescribe to myself; What I do, I don’t do well, I don’t strain my memory. To do this, I am writing here some rules, which, it seems to me, will help me a lot if I follow them. 1) Whatever is assigned to be fulfilled, do it no matter what. 2) Whatever you do, do it well. 3) Never consult a book if you have forgotten something, but try to remember it yourself. 4) Constantly force your mind to act with all its possible strength. 5) Read and think always loudly. 6) Don’t be ashamed to tell people who bother you that they are bothering you; first let him feel it, and if he doesn’t understand, then apologize and tell him so. In accordance with the second rule, I definitely want to finish commenting on Catherine’s entire order.
[...] Chapter XIII talks about handicrafts and trade. Catherine rightly notes that agriculture is the beginning of all trade and that in a land where people do not have their own property, agriculture cannot flourish; for people usually care more about things that belong to them than about things that can always be taken away from them. This is the reason why agriculture and trade cannot flourish in our country as long as slavery continues; for a person, subject to another, not only cannot be sure of constantly owning his property, but cannot even be sure of his own fate. Then: “Skilled farmers and artisans should be given bonuses.” In my opinion, in a state it is equally necessary to punish evil as to reward good.
March 25. It is not enough to turn people away from evil; they must also be encouraged to do good. She further says that those peoples who are lazy due to climate must be accustomed to activity by taking away from them all means of subsistence, excluding labor; He also notes that these peoples are usually prone to pride, and that this very pride can serve as a weapon for the destruction of laziness. Peoples whose climate is lazy are always gifted with ardent feelings, and if they were active, the state would be more unhappy. Catherine would have done better if she had said: people, not nations. And in fact, applying her remarks to private individuals, we will find that they are extremely fair.
Then she says that in populous countries, machines that replace the hands of workers are often unnecessary and harmful, and that for exported handicrafts it is extremely necessary to use machines, because the peoples to whom we sell them can buy the same goods from neighboring peoples.
I think quite the opposite, machines for handicrafts that circulate within the state are infinitely more useful than machines for handicrafts of exported goods. For machines for generally useful handicrafts, by making these handicrafts much cheaper, would improve the condition of citizens in general; while the exported goods bring benefits only to one private individual. It seems to me that the reason for the poverty of the lower class in England is that: firstly, they do not have land property, and, secondly, because there all attention is exclusively directed to foreign trade.
Publications in the Literature section
Be lazy like Leo Tolstoy
Do you cherish the dream of literary fame, but can’t start writing? Self-admiration gets in the way, bad habits and laziness? We re-read the diaries of Leo Tolstoy, remember how he struggled with procrastination, and begin to move towards a great goal.
Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of L.N. Tolstoy (fragment). 1873. State Tretyakov Gallery
Keep yourself a diary
Leo Tolstoy kept diaries for most of his life. In them, he not only described events, but also talked about his own moral qualities, literature and the high purpose of a writer. If you decide to keep a diary like Leo Tolstoy, you will have to talk to yourself in it - first of all, set goals for the future:
Reproach yourself for doing nothing and immediately be inspired by other people’s examples:
March 21, 1855. Did not do anything. I received a delightful letter from Masha, in which she describes to me her acquaintance with Turgenev. Sweet, glorious letter, which elevated me to own opinion and stimulating activity.
Write down various obscenities and feel nostalgic for your early works:
June 4, 1856. I got up at 5, walked, I admit, with terribly erotic thoughts. I read Pushkin's first poems. Then I sorted out my old notebooks, incomprehensible, but cute game.
Be sure to write down in your diary the rules you intend to live by.
December 1853 - January 1854
“Is it bad or good to always work”, “Get up before sunrise”,
“Always write everything clearly and clearly”, “In the morning, determine the activities for the day and try to fulfill them”.
The rules may apply not only to work, but also to your moral character in general:
Just record them, even if you feel in your gut that you won’t always be able to follow the rules.
Confess to yourself your worst vices
Be honest with yourself: you need to know your own vices, like your enemies, by sight. Set your priorities and begin to eradicate character flaws:
September 6, 1854. The most important thing for me in life is correction from laziness, irritability and lack of character. Love for everyone and contempt for yourself!
At the same time, no one forbids you to later rethink your vices and accept yourself for who you are. Or at least separate relative disadvantages from absolute ones.
July 14, 1855. Perhaps I will not rework my character, but will do only one and important stupidity out of a desire to rework it. Is indecisiveness a major flaw—one that needs to be corrected?<...>There are absolute shortcomings, such as: laziness, lies, irritability, selfishness, which are always shortcomings.
Practice your vices constantly. Take a break from your main task
You sat down to work, but your friend Gorchakov came? Enjoy it! Do you like your mustache? Look at them in the mirror, and then write it all down in your diary.
July 11, 1854... Just before the evening I wrote very little. Why? Laziness, indecision and passion to look at your mustache and fistulas. For which I reproach myself twice.
Get up late, get irritated. Take it out on your loved ones. In winter you can afford to mope, especially critical situations- even tell fortunes. Break your own rules. And don’t forget to write about it in your diary - for yourself and your future biographers.
January 9, 1854. 1) Got up late. 2) Got excited, beat Alyoshka. 3) I was lazy. 4) Was disorderly. 5) Was sad.
January 10 and 11, 1854. I got up very late and couldn’t do anything because of the cold.<...>After dinner he went to Zhukevich and spent the entire evening and night carelessly.
<...>
1) Lying around. 2) Lost spirit. 3) I got angry - I hit the cat and 4) I completely forgot about the rules. 5) Fortune teller.
Lose your last money at cards. Always tell yourself what it is last time. Trust that God will save you from troubles. Although it is possible that by this moment you have already lost your house in Yasnaya Polyana.
January 28, 1855. I played Stoss for two days and two nights. The result is clear - the loss of everything - the Yasnaya Polyana house. It seems there is nothing to write - I am so disgusted with myself that I would like to forget about my existence.
February 6, 7, 8, 1855. I played cards again and lost another 200 rubles in silver. I can’t promise myself to stop, I want to get even, but together I can get terribly confused... Tomorrow I’ll invite Odakhovsky to play, and this will be the last time.
February 12, 1855. Again I lost 75 rubles. God still has mercy on me so that there will be no troubles; but what happens next? There is only hope for him!
If you are too lazy to do something, be sure to write about it in your diary. Celebrate this fact as often as possible. Perhaps in the end you’ll just get tired of being lazy and you’ll get down to business.
July 12, 1855. I didn’t write anything all day, read Balzac, and only occupied myself with the new box. 1) Laziness, 2) Laziness, 3) Laziness...
Make Your Weaknesses Serve Your Purpose
Do you remember how you once lamented the fact that pride and vanity are one of your main vices? Look at them with different eyes. If your constant enemies are laziness and irritability, then vanity will help you overcome them.
Compare yourself with one of your colleagues. First of all, with someone who writes a lot and productively and, perhaps, has already bought himself old castle in France for royalties.
Constantly remind yourself of how much you want to become famous. If you have both a healthy writer's vanity and high goal- this is a huge plus.
September 17, 1855. Still, the only thing, the main thing and prevailing over all other inclinations and activities should be literature. My goal - literary fame. The good that I can do with my writings...
Quit your job and get married
Be more decisive. Resign to focus on your literary career.
September 17, 1855. ...Tomorrow I’m going to Koroles and asking to resign, and in the morning I’m writing “Youth”.
At some point, admit to yourself: you will be lost if you don’t start doing something. And start at least small.
Get married. Even if you think that it is not necessary at all, and you will be distracted even more. You will write about this in your diary later.
August 28, 1862. I am 34 years old. I got up with the habit of sadness... I worked, wrote in vain in letters to Sonya... Nasty face, don’t think about marriage, your calling is different, and you’ve been given a lot.
Love and marriage can help you get your life in order.
February 8, 1863. We are in Yasnaya... I feel so good, so good, I love her so much. The management and business of the magazine are good... How everything is clear to me now... All of it. She does not know and will not understand how she transforms me, without comparison, more than I transform her.
And when you start writing your most famous novel, your wife may even be helping you. For example, rewriting complete drafts while you write new chapters. Isn't this luck for a writer?
Diary - 1847
Diary - 1850
Diary - 1851
Diary - 1852
Diary - 1853
Diary - 1854
Diary - 1855
Diary - 1856
Diary - 1857
Diary - 1857 (Travel notes in Switzerland)
Diary - 1858
Diary - 1859
Diary - 1860
Diary - 1861
Diary - 1862
Diary - 1863
Diary - 1864
Diary - 1865
Diary - 1870
Diary - 1871
Diary - 1873
Diary - 1878
Diary - 1879
Diary - 1881
Diary - 1882
Diary - 1883
Diary - 1884
Diary - 1885
Diary - 1886
Diary - 1887
Diary - 1888
Diary - 1889
Diary - 1890
Diary - 1891
Diary - 1892
Diary - 1893
Diary - 1894
Diary - 1895
Diary - 1896
Diary - 1897
Diary - 1898
Diary - Dialogue
Diary - 1899
Diary - 1900
Diary - 1901
Diary - 1902
Diary - 1903
Diary - 1904
Diary - 1905
Diary - 1906
Diary - 1907
Diary - 1908
"Secret" diary of 1908
Diary - 1909
Diary - 1910
"Diary for oneself"
Diary - 1847
March 17.[Kazan.] It’s been six days since I entered the clinic, and it’s been six days since I’m almost satisfied with myself. [...] Here I am completely alone, no one bothers me, here I have no service, no one helps me, therefore, nothing extraneous has an influence on my mind and memory, and my activity must necessarily develop. The main benefit is that I clearly saw that a disordered life, which most secular people take as a consequence of youth, is nothing more than a consequence of early depravity of the soul.
Solitude is as useful for a person living in society as society is for a person not living in it. Separate a person from society, if he ascends into himself, and how soon the glasses that showed him everything in a wrong way will be thrown off his mind, and how his view of things will become clearer, so that it will not even be clear to him how he did not see all this before . Leave your reason to act, it will show you your purpose, it will give you rules with which you can boldly go into society. Everything that is consistent with the primary ability of man - reason, will be equally consistent with everything that exists; the mind of an individual person is a part of everything that exists, and a part cannot upset the order of the whole. The whole can kill the part. To do this, form your mind so that it is consistent with the whole, with the source of everything, and not with a part, with the society of people; then your mind will merge into one with this whole, and then society, as a part, will have no influence on you.
It is easier to write ten volumes of philosophy than to apply any one principle to practice.
18th of March. I read Catherine’s “Nakaz”, and since I generally gave myself the rule, when reading any serious work, to think about it and write out wonderful thoughts from it, I am writing here my opinion about the first six chapters of this wonderful work.
[...] The concepts of freedom under monarchical rule are the following: freedom, she says, is the ability of a person to do everything that he should do, and not be forced to do what he should not do. I would like to call out what she understands by the word should and should not; If by the word “what should be done” she means natural law, then it clearly follows that freedom can only exist in a state in whose legislation natural law does not differ in any way from positive law—a thought that is absolutely correct. [...]
March 19. A passion for science begins to emerge in me; Although this is the noblest of human passions, no less than that, I will never indulge in it one-sidedly, that is, completely killing the feeling and not engaging in application, solely striving to educate the mind and fill the memory. One-sidedness is the main cause of human misfortune. [...]
21 March. Chapter X sets out the basic rules and most dangerous mistakes related to criminal proceedings.
At the beginning of this chapter she asks herself a question. Where do punishments come from and where does the right to punish come from? She answers the first question: “Punishments arise from the need to protect the laws.” He also answers the second one quite wittily. She says: “The right to punish belongs to the laws alone, and only the monarch, as the representative of the entire state, can make laws.” In all this “Order” we are constantly presented with two heterogeneous elements that Catherine constantly wanted to agree on: namely, the consciousness of the need for constitutional government and pride, that is, the desire to be the unlimited ruler of Russia. For example, saying that in a monarchical government only the monarch can have legislative power, she takes the existence of this power as an axiom, without mentioning its origin. The lower government cannot impose punishments, because it is part of the whole, and the monarch has this right, because he is the representative of all citizens, says Catherine. But is the sovereign’s representation of the people in unlimited monarchies an expression of the totality of private, free wills of citizens? No, the expression of the general will in unlimited monarchies is the following: I tolerate a lesser evil, because if I did not tolerate it, I would be subjected to a greater evil.
March 24. I have changed a lot; but I still have not reached the degree of perfection (in my studies) that I would like to achieve. I do not do what I prescribe to myself; What I do, I don’t do well, I don’t strain my memory. To do this, I am writing here some rules, which, it seems to me, will help me a lot if I follow them. 1) Whatever is assigned to be fulfilled, do it no matter what. 2) Whatever you do, do it well. 3) Never consult a book if you have forgotten something, but try to remember it yourself. 4) Constantly force your mind to act with all its possible strength. 5) Read and think always loudly. 6) Don’t be ashamed to tell people who bother you that they are bothering you; first let him feel it, and if he doesn’t understand, then apologize and tell him so. In accordance with the second rule, I definitely want to finish commenting on Catherine’s entire order.
[...] Chapter XIII talks about handicrafts and trade. Catherine rightly notes that agriculture is the beginning of all trade and that in a land where people do not have their own property, agriculture cannot flourish; for people usually care more about things that belong to them than about things that can always be taken away from them. This is the reason why agriculture and trade cannot flourish in our country as long as slavery continues; for a person, subject to another, not only cannot be sure of constantly owning his property, but cannot even be sure of his own fate. Then: “Skilled farmers and artisans should be given bonuses.” In my opinion, in a state it is equally necessary to punish evil as to reward good.
March 25. It is not enough to turn people away from evil; they must also be encouraged to do good. She further says that those peoples who are lazy due to climate must be accustomed to activity by taking away from them all means of subsistence, excluding labor; He also notes that these peoples are usually prone to pride, and that this very pride can serve as a weapon for the destruction of laziness. Peoples whose climate is lazy are always gifted with ardent feelings, and if they were active, the state would be more unhappy. Catherine would have done better if she had said: people, not nations. And in fact, applying her remarks to private individuals, we will find that they are extremely fair.
