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We often think of the “greats” of the past as something almost legendary, something we can only access through their books and memoirs. However, we are lucky to have some recordings of a few\u00a0Russians writers and poets reading their own work. Listening to their voices reminded me that they were living people and somehow turned down their “deity” status and brought them closer to us.<\/p>\n
We think of Leo Tolstoy<\/a> as a 19-century writer, however, he lived until 1910 and tried out multiple then-cutting-edge technologies. He was the subject of a color photograph and appeared on film. According to Open Culture<\/a>,<\/p>\n […]Tolstoy made several audio recordings of his voice, on a phonograph sent to him personally by Thomas Edison.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The recording below is of The Power Of Childhood (\u0421\u0438\u043b\u0430 \u0434\u0435\u0442\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0430) — a story loosely based on Victor Hugo’s poem “Guerre civile<\/a>.” It appears that the recording is a bit more free-form and does not follow the story as published<\/a> verbatim. However, it is close enough to follow along.<\/p>\n I was not able to find an English translation. In a nutshell, the story tells of a man dragged by a mob to be executed for his part in the violence against them. The man’s son runs up to him and refuses to leave fearing the mob will hurt his father. The crowd is moved by this scene and lets the man go.<\/p>\n