Tolstoy, Sofia ___ 1844-1919 ___ Russian ___ n/a

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
There is not much information about Tolstoy's wife (variously called Sofia, Sophia, Sofya and Sonya) on the internet, other than that which is linked directly to Tolstoy. Her diaries are only important because of the light they shed on Tolstoy himself. She married him when still young, and - so the story goes - he gave her his youthful diaries (complete with details of his sexual conquests of serving girls) before the marriage. She bore him many children. She also acted as his secretary, and helped edit his writing.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - He was my diary

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1860-1919 ___ domestic family health society

WEB TEXT LINKS
a few pages
about
several extracts

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
State Historical Museum, Moscow - possibly

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Diary of Tolstoy's Wife, 1860-1891
The Countess Tolstoy's Later Diary, 1891-1897
The Final Struggle; Being Countess Tolstoy's Diary for 1910
 

May 2005, August 2008, April 2013
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments, or if you've found the site useful. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.