February 08, 2021

Christopher Plummer's Last Station


Christopher Plummer's Last Station
Christopher Plummer, we raise a podstakannik to you. Flickr user yolandajabonillo

Sound of Music star Christopher Plummer died last week at 91, and he did not pass unnoticed in Russia. After all, the Canadian actor played one of Russia's best-known novelists, Lev (Leo) Tolstoy, in The Last Station, a German-Russian-British collaboration called The Last Sunday in Russian (Poslednee voskresenie). Tolstoy indeed died on a Sunday – November 7, 1910, on the old calendar. The Russian word for Sunday also means revival or resurrection.

Don't watch The Last Station with your spouse if your marriage is on the rocks; it is a brutal picture of a marriage with no trust left. Only the 2014 Swedish film Force Majeure might be a more awkward choice for date night with an estranged spouse.

Helen Mirren played Tolstoy's wife, Sofya, dramatically capturing a dependent who is about to lose her rights to her husband's complete writings right before his death. The first Tolstoyan, Tolstoy promoted vegetarianism, celibacy even within marriage, and taking nobles like himself down a peg, and he wanted the rights to his work to belong to "the people." Sofya wholeheartedly disagreed with the principles of Tolstoyanism – including that little bit about marriage.

In the film, Plummer as Tolstoy escapes his wife by train, leaving his lifelong estate of Yasnaya Polyana (near Tula) forever and dying at Astapovo Station to the south at age 82.

The film has a few tender moments, like when Mirren as Tolstaya declares: "I am the work of your life, you are the work of mine. That's what love is." But otherwise, it is an emotional slog. One Russian article calls the film a "marathon of love."

If you have the energy for an emotional marathon, you can scratch your Christopher Plummer and Russia itches at the same time and check out The Last Station. And don't forget that all of this was based on a very fine book, by the Vermont author Jay Parini.

You Might Also Like

Lev Tolstoy's Unhappy Family
  • January 01, 2010

Lev Tolstoy's Unhappy Family

Lev Tolstoy's family was unhappy in its own peculiar way, split by a three-decade-long disagreement between the writer and his wife about money.
Cooking With Sofia
  • September 01, 2017

Cooking With Sofia

A great writer lives on his stomach. And Sofia Tolstoya had a way in the kitchen.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors
  • September 01, 2009

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Movie: The Last Station

Movie: The Last Station

New movie based on Jay Parini's fine book on Tolstoy's final days and the familial disorder. Just released in Dec. 2009.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Best of Russian Life

The Best of Russian Life

We culled through 15 years of Russian Life to select readers’ and editors’ favorite stories and biographies for inclusion in a special two-volume collection. Totalling over 1100 pages, these two volumes encompass some of the best writing we have published over the last two decades, and include the most timeless stories and biographies – those that can be read again and again.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
22 Russian Crosswords

22 Russian Crosswords

Test your knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and society with these 22 challenging puzzles taken from the pages of Russian Life magazine. Most all the clues are in English, but you must fill in the answers in Russian. If you get stumped, of course all the puzzles have answers printed at the back of the book.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
At the Circus

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
PO Box 567
Montpelier VT 05601-0567

802-223-4955