Medical and Tolstoyan Practices among Peasants at Yasnaia Polyana

• In Event: Eldercare and Its Impossibilities

Abstract

This paper examines the family practice of the Tolstoys in caring for elderly peasants in the villages surrounding Yasnaia Polyana. It draws from the diaries that were kept in the household, focusing on those of Dushan Makovitskii, the physician/Tolstoyan who attended to Tolstoy’s health, but also practiced medicine and Tolstoyanism in the villages. Close attention will be given to the intersections of these two practices, particularly in end-of-life care, where Tolstoyan ideals about peasant indifference to death could make a significant philosophical intervention.

Author

• William Scott Nickell, U of Chicago