The memoirs of the writer Ivan Zakharin, a member of the State Council and former director of the branches of the Peasant Bank, mention a conversation between Tsar Alexander III and Countess Alexandra Andreyevna Tolstaya, Leo Tolstoy's esteemed aunt, better known as Alexandrine—the maid of honor and tutor of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. Alexandrine was known at court not only for her impeccable piety and philanthropy, but also for her exceptional intelligence, literary taste, and independent character—a hallmark of the Tolstoy dynasty in general. The Tsar had an independent passage to the maid of honor's room through a suspended glass gallery that connected the Winter Palace and the Hermitage Museum. He went to her to consult on the possibility of publishing Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata," which had been banned by the Spiritual Censorship Board. “I allowed myself to express my opinion in a positive sense and explained to His Eminence that all of Russia had read it and was, in fact, still reading it, and that, therefore, allowing its publication would only reduce the scope of the public, which is a great hunter for every forbidden fruit.” Women in Russia were often wiser than their husbands. The Kreutzer Sonata was allowed to be published, but only as part of the next volume of Tolstoy’s Collected Works. They then began to talk about Leo Tolstoy’s extraordinary popularity in Russia. It was 1891.