Why Did Tolstoy Challenge Turgenev to a Duel?

Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev first met in person in 1855 in St. Petersburg.

Before that, they had already known each other in absentia through friendly letters to each other and through published works.

Ivan Sergeevich was 10 years older than Leo Nikolayevich and, at the time of their first meeting, was the most famous writer in Russia.

He highly valued the talent of the aspiring writer Tolstoy and gave him every support.

The young count, in turn, admired Turgenev’s work, dedicating his story “Felling the Forest” to him.

The quarrel between them occurred in May 1861, in Stepanovo, the estate of the poet Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet. It almost ended in a duel.

The writers came to the Fet couple together, but the next day, during morning tea, unexpectedly for the hosts, they quarreled almost to the point of a fight.

The formal reason for the quarrel was a dispute about the methods of raising Turgenev’s illegitimate daughter Pelageya.

Turgenev proudly told how his daughter’s English governess taught the girl to mend clothes for the poor. Tolstoy, known for his directness, called it “an insincere theatrical scene.”

Turgenev, irritated, asked him to be more careful with his words. But Tolstoy, not used to backing down, declared that he had the right to say what he thought.

The passions reached their limit. After a short squabble, as Tolstoy’s wife, Sofya Andreyevna, recalled, Turgenev shouted: “And if you talk like that, I’ll punch you in the face!”

After that, the writers no longer spoke, hurrying to leave the estate separately from each other. Their correspondence about what had happened began immediately.

Most likely, the reason for the quarrel was Tolstoy’s hidden three-year-old resentment related to the unsuccessful personal relationship between his younger sister Maria and Turgenev.

Masha was the standard of a “Turgenev woman”: she was pleasant to talk to, educated, musical. Of course, Ivan Sergeyevich was seriously carried away by her, despite the fact that Maria Nikolaevna had a husband and three children.

Turgenev even secretly dedicated his story “Faust” to Masha, in which she was the prototype of the main character Verochka.

They often met (fortunately, their estates were nearby), conducting an active personal correspondence.

Maria, who was 12 years younger than Turgenev, truly fell in love with him. And after breaking up with her cheating husband, she naively believed that the writer would marry her.

But the confirmed bachelor and monogamist (who had loved only Pauline Viardot all his life) did not dare to tie the knot. This plunged the young countess into a deep depression, which was only alleviated by the care of her older brothers Sergei and Lev, as well as her departure abroad.

Incidentally, Maria’s fate later turned out to be very unhappy, and she ended her life as a nun at the Shamordino Monastery.

And in 1861, Lev Nikolayevich clearly believed that Turgenev had treated his sister badly. And this, ultimately, inevitably resulted in a quarrel between the writers.

After leaving Stepanovo, immediately following Turgenev, the angry Tolstoy stops in the village of Novosyolki. From there he sends a note to Turgenev’s estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, demanding an immediate written apology from his offender for the insult.

Having cooled down from the quarrel, Ivan Sergeyevich, in response to this, writes a letter to Tolstoy with the necessary apologies, in which, however, he notes that “this letter is probably the last manifestation of any kind of relationship between us.”

If the Count had received this answer immediately, the conflict would have ended there.

But the stupid servant, not finding the addressee in Novosyolki in the evening, did not think to go after him to Boguslav, where Tolstoy had moved by that time. And, having spent the night in Novosyolki, in the morning he returned with the package back to Spasskoye.

Turgenev had to urgently forward the letter to Boguslav, adding a note about the courier’s mistake.

Tolstoy, having not received the apology he was supposed to receive in time, wrote a furious letter to his former comrade challenging him to a duel. And not just with pistols, but with hunting rifles with cast bullets.

But soon after sending the challenge, Lev Nikolayevich received a belated letter of apology. And after some time, another note in which Turgenev declined the offer with rifles and wrote that he wanted to shoot according to all dueling rules with pistols.

Because of the incident with the letters, the writers found themselves in a rather difficult situation.

To the great happiness of Russian literature, reason prevailed and their duel did not take place.

Still angry, Tolstoy wrote to Turgenev that he was a despicable coward. And to the Fet couple he wrote that he no longer wished to read their letters about possible mediation in ending the feud between the writers.

In September of the same year, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev left for France.

The former friends once again exchanged angry letters. And that was the end of their relationship for 17 years.

Suddenly, in April 1878, Lev Nikolayevich sent Turgenev in Paris a warm, sincere message asking for forgiveness and offering to renew their friendship, having forgotten their past quarrels forever.

Ivan Sergeevich was moved to tears, and with great joy agreed to reconcile with Tolstoy.

That same year, the great writers met twice in Yasnaya Polyana. And there were no more quarrels between them.