Tolstoy wrote to the pianist in one of his last letters:

The last days of Leo Tolstoy’s life were very hard for not only his relatives, but also for Goldenweiser, who arrived at the Astapovo station as soon as he learned that Tolstoy was ill. Goldenweiser shared his impressions of his last meetings with the writer with his wife Anna Alekseyevna in letters,

It was very important for Tolstoy to know that his closest friend was next to him at such a difficult time and even canceled his concert. When Leo Tolstoy died, it was Goldenweiser who announced this sad news to everyone. He helped the writer’s family with the funeral, and then returned to Moscow.

The writer’s belongings were not just objects for the musician — they helped him create the effect of Tolstoy’s presence with the power of artistic imagination. In 1955, when a museum of the history of piano art was created in the apartment of Alexander Goldenweiser, an important place was given to the so-called Tolstoy Corner, where some of the writer’s personal belongings, that had been donated by the writer’s family after the funeral, were put on display. Each item had its own interesting story. Tolstoy used the pen with a steel nib to write down his last words in his diary at the railway station in Astapovo on November 5, 1910: