Preston Lee RUSS 342, Prof. Purves Writing Assignment 1 According to Tolstoy, how ought we to be in relation to the truth? As evidenced by his, closing remarks in Sevastopol in May, Tolstoy esteems the truth perhaps above all else. Yet even he recognizes that it’s mere importance does not totally answer the question of how we should act with respect to it. To state his view simply, we ought to conform to the truth as much as possible. So the question then becomes, “What are the constraints on such possibility?” and “What mitigating circumstances might violate those constraints?” Tolstoy does not answer these question completely, but he does present situations in his stories where characters have good reason (if not overriding reason) to stray from the truth in its totality. Three such examples can be found in the short stories The Raid, The Woodfelling, and Three Deaths. ‘The common thread between these three stories (and thus what I would argue is Tolstoy's position on the matter) is this: though there are times to not speak the truth, at the very least don’t lie. Don’t use your words to instantiate falsehood into the world. The first character we meet in The Raid, even before the protagonist, is Captain Khlopov, a man who, “...[does] not see why he should appear other than his normal self.” Clearly the captain is an exemplar of how to handle the truth. Yet we learn early on that even this man has found occasion to deceive: despite his dangerous occupation and four severe woundings, he allows his mother to believe he has never seriously been in harm’s way. It is a different thing for Khlopov to not communicate with his mother about the danger of his post than it would be for him to write to her saying he is not in harm’s way. Omitting truths with are not useful seems to be less harmful than replacing them with untrue statements. This same principle applies in the interactions of the members of the artillery unit in in The Woodfelling. After the wounding of young Velenchuk, the remaining soldiers avoid speaking about it and instead busy themselves with some trivial story about somewhere far away. Here there is no deception or pretense, but rather a, “...peculiar tact shown by the Russian soldier, who, in times of danger, passes over in silence anything that could have a bad effect on his comrades’ morale.” As beautiful and rich as the truth is to Tolstoy, he recognizes that in our weakness it is sometimes too much to bear. And the harshest truth of all to bear is death, the eponymous subject of Three Deaths. In contrast to the neurotic and pretentious aristocratic woman stands the dying peasant driver. He faces his death much more forthrightly than the delusional lady, though in spite of this he is still attached to the idea of existing in the world - even if only through a headstone. Only the tree can fully accept the reality of non-existence. Across these three characters it is clear that, the optimum is to make every effort to totally accept the truth. Neglecting a truth, especially one of gravity like death, is a consideration only for others. More nuanced in this respect are the characters who interact with the dying lady. Most make no effort to contradict her fantasies of traveling abroad, for they know the truth can do no good at this point. On the contrary, it is clear the truth will only incite conflict and cause unnecessary suffering. The priest goes further and feeds her delusion by making mention of a distant tradesman with healing herbs. This is, one step too far and a move which unilaterally makes everyone worse off: the woman on her deathbed finds a reason to resent those who care for her while those same people are now forced to watch the tragedy of someone deluding themselves. Those family members who do their best to avoid lying to her while still entertaining her delusions probably do the right thing. Again the moral of at least avoiding falsehood bears itself out. There may be no need to force feed a dying lady the truth, but don’t reinforce her story with fantasies of a folk healer.