Nevada Appeal at 150: Nov. 21, 1910: Count Tolstoy’s life is ended

Astauova, Russia, Nov. 20 — Count Tolstoy died peacefully here this morning. Dr. Matovestky and the other attending physicians and Countess Tolstoy were at this side when the end came.

It was realized long before that his case was hopeless and at 5 o’clock in the morning after the countess had been summoned and other members of the family had gathered in an adjoining room the physicians issued a bulletin citing the activity of the heart had almost ceased and Tolstoy’s condition was extremely dangerous.

Tolstoy, accompanied only by Dr. Matovestky, left his home at Yasnaya Polinana, with the purpose of ending his days in solitude, to which he more and more inclined in his latter years. His pilgrimage led him to the monastery at Shamardine, in the province of Kaluga, where he remained the guest of his sister Marie, who is a nun in the cloister.

Learning his retreat had been discovered, he insisted upon proceeding on his journey to the Caucasus, where he hoped his last days might close at the Tolstonian colony on the shores of the Black Sea.

But on the railroad journey hew was overcome with exhaustion and the cold, and Dr. Matovestky was compelled to have him transferred to the flag station at Astapoya, where he was made as comfortable as possible in the rude wooden building.

Countess Tolstoy was admitted to the sick room for the first time last night, but her husband failed to recognize her.

This continues the Appeal’s review of news stories and headlines during its Sesquicentennial year.