Resurrection (Voskreseniye)

'Resurrection' is Tolstoy's last novel, reflecting the spiritual and creative quests of the writer's final years. Begun in 1889, the novel was completed and published ten years later, in 1899. Many scenes and even chapters were banned from publication in the Russian press. 'Resurrection' was among those works by Tolstoy that led to his excommunication. After the 1917 Revolution, the situation changed dramatically: the novel, which criticized the clergy and depicted exiled revolutionaries, was readily published in large editions. In Soviet interpretations, it became little more than political propaganda, and the story of the resurrection of Prince Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova was presented as didactically implausible. Today, the novel reads differently. It conveys Tolstoy's insightful and ambiguous attitude toward the coming changes, his desire to avoid any kind of tendentiousness, and his gravitation toward a comprehensive and profound coverage of Russian reality in the last third of the 19th century.