Tolstoy and sport

[Michael A. Denner]

Dear Mr. Boele:

You requested some examples of "models of physical (and simultaneously
spiritual) well-being in Tolstoy" for a student's thesis. I think your
student's idea is excellent -- it's a sort of motif in Tolstoy's thought
that stretches from his earliest diary entries to his latest works. Here are
the texts that struck me as particularly important. (You didn't mention
whether he or she read Russian -- I assume this is the case, but I've
included some English references that I know off the top of my head.)

Try looking through the articles in his pedagogy journal "Yasnaya Polyana"
-- Tolstoy discusses repeatedly and at length the need for learning to have
a physical component when dealing with children. See esp. "O narodnom
obrazovanii" (where he critiques the contemporary school experience on the
grounds that it forces children to sit quietly when students are, in fact,
active and physical and noisy learners) and his descriptions of how peasant
children learn (very physically) and of rough-housing as pedagogical
technique in "O metodax obuceniia gramote" and in "Komu u kogo..." (Murphy's
book _Tolstoy and Education_ is a good place to look if your student doesn't
read Russian or wants a quick overview.)

Elsewhere, Tolstoy gives a reasoned explanation in "V cem moia vera" for the
need to do one's own chores (carrying water, cleaning, etc.) on the grounds
of health -- he finds his contemporaries' reliance on others for physical
labor demeaning to the other & simultaneously injurious to the health of the
passive, "privileged" class. Wilson, in his biography of Tolstoy, cites some
great examples, if memory serves me right.

Finally, if you're simply looking for some examples of Tolstoy's own
prowess, there are great examples in Goldenveizer's (very fawning but
charming) "Conversations with Tolstoy." G., who is I think 18 at the time,
relates an anecdote about how Tolstoy, who was 80, would regularly beat him
in foot races, etc. (Virginia Wolf's translation (which is, by the way,
excellent) of the book has several of these anecdotes, but there are more in
the full-length original text.)

Best,
Michael A. Denner
Northwestern University