Abstract
The tragedy of the disintegration of a marriage and the journey of an old man for unknown reasons to an unknown place combines with the grapho-maniacal comedy enacted by all the key players (Tolstoy, his wife Sonya, his many children, his doctor, his typist, his followers), all busily writing diaries - some secret - and letters. Flashlights, railroads, telegraphs, telephones, electric lights, film clips and phonograph recordings collide with the settled ways of life and the folkloric traditions of rural Russia.