Father Sergius

L. N. Tolstoy worked on the work “Father Sergius” for a total of eight years, in several stages—sometimes interrupting the writing of the story, then returning to it again. As a result, both the original plan of the book and the character of the main hero underwent enormous changes.

In St. Petersburg in the 1840s, a surprising event occurred: a handsome prince, commander of the Leib- Cuirassier regiment, whose future was predicted to be brilliant—an officer who would become a flügel-adjutant and enjoy a brilliant career at Emperor Nicholas I’s court—one month before his wedding to a lady-in-waiting, a beauty who enjoyed special favor from the empress, resigned. He broke off his relationship with his fiancée, gave a small estate to his sister, and went to a monastery, intending to become a monk there. The event seemed extraordinary and inexplicable to people who didn’t know the inner reasons; but for Prince Stepan Kassatский himself, all of this became so natural that he couldn’t even imagine how he could have acted any differently…

“Father Sergius” is a controversial and uncharacteristic work for L. N. Tolstoy—especially considering it was written during the period of the writer’s negative attitude toward Orthodoxy. But one thing is indisputable: this book will be useful and interesting for everyone, because the main character Stepan Kassatский contains traits of each of us.