Prototypes of the Characters of L. N. Tolstoy’s Resurrection (Based of Archival Sources)

Resurrection, the novel by L. N. Tolstoy, is based on a true story provided by A. F. Koni. It took place in 1875 and involved two real characters, Ivan Trushinskii and Rosalia Onni. After the trial, Trushinskii (a member of the jury) proposed to Onni. Koni was involved in this case as the prosecutor in charge of the prison, and several years later related the story to Tolstoy. Using archival data, the author tries to reconstruct the lives of both characters and to verify the factual basis of the key issue in the story: whether Onni was seduced by Trushinskii. Three formerly unknown letters of Trushinskii to Koni are cited and analyzed in the article.