The Life that Lies behind the Death of Ivan Ilych:

The Death of Ivan Ilych as a Protest against the Excesses of 19th Century Russia

“The anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion
that without Authority, there could not be worse than that of Authority under existing conditions. They
are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. But it will be instituted only
by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power…There
can be only one permanent revolution—a moral one: the regeneration of inner man.” (Excerpt, Tolstoy’s
On Anarchy 1900)

Thus, the effect of witnessing a public execution in 1857 in Paris to Leo Tolstoy, who on the last
years of his life began questioning his existence, his ‘conversion’ to Christian-Anarchism and his
disenchantment towards Russian social institutions.

This paper aims to explore Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych, as a protest
against the excesses of 19th century Russia and its effects in moulding its generation’s attitude towards
Life and Death.

Nineteenth century Russia was characterized by drastic changes as the empire’s government
transition went from tsars, autocrats, communists to leaders who believed in democracy as started by Tsar
Alexander I who led the Russians into their victory on the Napoleonic Wars; ending when the last tsar,
Nicholas II, was overthrown by the Bolsheviks. Another major changes are the social and economic
reforms such as the abolishment of serfdom, the emergence of revolutionaries, plunging of Russia into
industrialization marked by the establishment of the Trans-Siberia Railway and the Golden Age of Arts as
writers such as Dostoevsky and musical genius Tchaikovsky flourished.

Following the tradition of Russian Realists, Tolstoy’s depiction of 1884 Russia in The Death of
Ivan Ilych, is faithful to what was actually taking place during that era as depicted in Ivan Ilych’s several
job promotions (five to be exact) from a mere assistant to a government official in the province to a man
who worry over his insufficient salary and low position at work to one of the men who holds the power in
the Russian Department of Justice which reflects the changing and unstable politics and economics in
Russia as several power-hungry revolutionaries tried to overthrow the government through any means
which was mirrored in the novel as seen on the attitude of Ivan Ilych’s colleagues such as Peter Ivanovich
towards his death:

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 “…on receiving the news of Ivan Ilych’s death the first thought of each of the gentlemen in that private
room was the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves or their acquaintances.”
(Chapter I, pp 4)

“Now I must apply for my brother in law’s transfer from Kaluga,” thought Peter Ivanovich. “My wife
will be very glad, and then she won’t be able to say that I never do anything for her relations.”” (Chapter
1, pp 4)

Aside from these attitudes of his colleagues towards Ilych, even his own family seemed to
participate in this power play even before he died:

“She began to wish he would die; yet she did not want him to die because then his salary would
cease. And this irritated her against him still more…because not even his death could save her.”
(Chapter 4, pp 26)

This indifference towards death and individualistic pursuit of power, pleasure and frivolity as
exhibited in the inhumane treatment towards serfs resulted in the Serf Revolts until 1861, the assassination
of Alexander II in 1881 and the censorship of the government towards freedom of speech which
ultimately resulted into the formation of several radical oppositions such as the Mensheviks and the
Bolsheviks were also mirrored in the text sustained from the beginning towards the end as seen in these
parts:

“…it is he who is dead and not I.” (Chapter 1, pp 4)

“Well, he’s dead but I’m alive!” (Chapter 1, pp 4)

“…they would now have to fulfil the very tiresome demands of propriety by attending the funeral
service and paying a visit of condolence to the widow.” (Chapter 1, pp 4)

“Ivan Ilych has made a mess of things—not like you and me.” (Chapter 1, pp 5)

“In the province he had an affair with a lady who made advances to the elegant young lawyer,
and there was also a milliner; and there were carousals with aides-de-camp who visited the district, and
after-suffer visits to certain outlying street of doubtful reputation…” (Chapter 2, pp 13)

“Their daughter came in in full evening dress, her fresh young flesh exposed, strong, healthy,
evidently in love, and impatient with illness, suffering, and death, because they interfered with her
happiness.” (Chapter 8, pp 47-48)

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 Writing and publishing this novella as the fictional adaptation of his autobiographical work The
Confession and a few years after his “existential crisis” and conversion towards Christianity during 1870s,
the readers could see traces of Leo Tolstoy in the protagonist Ivan Ilych Golovin. One could even say that
Ivan Ilych is the embodiment of Leo Tolstoy’s fear of dying without having the chance to justify his
existence.

Both came from good families: Tolstoy as the fourth child of a Count and Countess, while Ilych
was the perfect middle child of a government employee. Both experienced death at some point of their
lives: Tolstoy with his parents at such a young age and an aunt and Ilych with two of his children. Both of
them were alienated in the era they live in: Tolstoy was characterized as too much by his former teachers
and professors—he was a non-conformist dissatisfied by what they taught in school. Moreover, he urged
non-resistance during the time when Europe (Russia in particular) was at war left and right, whereas Ivan
Ilych felt isolated most of the time more evidently during his illness when he felt isolated from the
indifference of his surroundings and deceit of the doctors who could not heal him.

Yet ironically enough, both men were key players in their respective societies: Tolstoy as a writer
and Ivan Ilych as a government employee both on the last years of their lives abhor the institutions they
belong to; with Tolstoy being excommunicated by the Church and for gravitating towards his anarchistic
views and with Ilych who held several significant positions in the government. Both of them married
women, who at some point, resented them and/or their ideals and in turn whom they despised: Tolstoy’s
wife resented him for devoting so much of his time and wealth to his “followers” in the Tolstoyan
movement so much that all his children except his youngest daughter begrudged him, whereas Praskovya
Golovina hated how work stole Ivan Ilych from his family, hated how his illness seemed to permeate in
their home and how even his death cannot save them.

Also Tolstoy revealed that “he criticized himself for his egotistical family cares…concern for the
increase of wealth, attainment of literary success and the enjoyment of every kind of
pleasure.”(Merriman, 2007) .Ilych resented how everyone around him seemed either indifferent to his
situation when all he needed was someone who would understand that he was dying.

But most importantly, it took these men most of trying to understand the true meaning of life and
death: with Tolstoy, it was during his conversion to be a Christian-anarchist wherein he believed in the
teachings of Jesus particularly on his Sermon at the Mount and to advocate non-resistance. Armed with
this philosophy, Tolstoy began to question his existence: “The last period of my awakening to the truth
which has given me the highest well-being in life and joyous peace in view of approaching death.” (The
Confession, 1879). Ivan Ilych Golovin, on the other hand, took forty-five years to understand it all:

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 “When I am not, what will there be? There will be nothing. Then where shall I be when I am no
more? Can this be dying? No, I don’t want to!” (Chapter 5, pp 34)

“…and I am leaving this life with the consciousness that I have lost all that was given to me and
it is impossible to rectify it—what then?” (Chapter 11, pp 55)

Harking from the fact that this novella was published after Leo Tolstoy’s conversion as a
Christian-anarchist, one can claim that The Death of Ivan Ilych is a protest against the State he vowed
never to serve, as Tolstoy told his friend Vasily Botkin in a letter: “never to serve my government
anywhere” and to the Church that excommunicated him regarding his criticisms about its teachings.
Tolstoy’s philosophy which adheres non-resistance urged his followers to practice non-resistance in all
their endeavours as opposed to the brutal wars and resistance that Russia was practicing during the 19th
century, and directly influenced Mahatma Gandhi’s passive resistance in India.

With this philosophy, Leo Tolstoy turned the negative connotation of “passiveness” into
something good—religious, even—as reflected in the text in the sense that towards the end when Ivan
Ilych had finally come to terms with his imminent death by allowing himself to feel the excruciating pain
of dying which made his senses sharper, he was able to live. And by depicting how Ivan Ilych lived in
excess during his earlier years against the teaching of Jesus and based on the philosophy that Tolstoy
followed wherein bad living is tantamount to the death of the soul, Ivan Ilych died before he even begin
to live.

It is also interesting how Tolstoy could inject his outcry on the disenchantment of a generation
due to the effects of wars through the seemingly uncomplicated structure of the text by passively
establishing the death of Ivan Ilych early in the novella, it seemed to symbolized that he is already dead
before he even began to live. Each chapter begins by stating the time left for Ilych to live: starting from
the seventeen years after his marriage, to months of his illness to weeks when death was absolutely
looming in the corners, to days of intense pain and screeching until the final hours of acceptance which
significantly falls into the twelfth and last chapter which symbolically means completion—and that
during these final hours wherein he was able to see that “in place of death there was light” (Chapter 12,
pp 58) which could be attributed to God’s light thus Ivan Ilych dying into a new life.

The Death of Ivan Ilych is Tolstoy’s protest in urging his people to combat the deceit and
alienation of 19th century Russia not with sword, but with the teachings of Life.

Prepared by:

Korina Marie P. Espadilla

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 IV-14 AB/BSE Literature

SOURCES:

Alston, Charlotte (2010). Tolstoy’s Guiding Light. Retrieved from:

<http://www.historytoday.com/charlotte-alston/tolstoys-guiding-light>

Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (n.d.). Tolstoy the peculiar Christian anarchist. Retrieved from:
<http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/tolstoy/chrisanar.htm>

Erofeyev, Victor (2010, 19 November). The Secrets of Leo Tolstoy. Retrieved from:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/opinion/20iht-ederofeyev.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>

Merri, K. (2000). Nineteenth Century Russia. Retrieved from:

<http://www2.needham.k12.ma.us/nhs/cur/Baker_00/2001_p6/baker_ew_mk_ms_p6/russia.htm>

Morris, Brian (1999, 1 January). Tolstoy and Anarchism. Retrieved from:

<http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/brian-morris-tolstoy-and-anarchism>

History World. History of Russia. Retrieved from:

<http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=mjr>

NCBI. The death of Ivan Ilych: A blueprint for intervention at the end of life. Retrieved from:
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249844/>

Russia. The Transformation of Russia in the 19th Century. Retrieved from:

<http://countrystudies.us/russia/6.htm>
Survivingbaenglish (n.d.). Nineteenth Century Russian Realism. Retrieved from:
<http://survivingbaenglish.wordpress.com/nineteenth-century-russian-realism/>

The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. Ivan Ilych. Retrieved from: <http://www.deathreference.com/Ho-
Ka/Ivan-Ilych.html>

The Literature Network. Leo Tolstoy Biography. Retrieved from:

<http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/>

CRITERIA

CONCEPT /50
COMPREHENSIBILITY /30
CONSTRUCTION /20

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