Leo Tolstoy

“ The Russian youth agreed with him entirely. To their logic, the struggle for universal welfare led to terrorism; to Tolstoi, to the absolute nonresistance to evil by violence. The youth said the will of God is being thwarted by a band of oppressors. If we do away with the oppressors we can get together in mutual love. Tolstoi said that he who thinks he can violate the will of God for an immediate good is only short-sighted. Never at any moment can the will of God be thwarted and the good attained. ”

“ The very formlessness of the phrases of this Journal helps toward a sincerity of thought which shows itself pure by its nakedness. Tolstoi himself knew the value of these documents, for one man was to him as another, and the sincere gropings of a man's reason toward the understanding of the meaning of life was of value even if they were his own, and especially if they were of one who had lived much and thought much as he did. ”

“ They went not only to serve them but to be one of them, to live by the sweat of their brow as the masses did, because it was the only moral thing to do, and because the greatest happiness lay in the spiritual values of life, and because, as Tolstoi himself says, "It is good with them, but with us it is shameful." ”

“ The ultimate meaning of the Russian Revolution which took place in March, 1917, can be best understood through the pages of the journal of Leo Tolstoi which is here printed. The spiritual qualities which make up the mind and personality of Tolstoi are the spiritual qualities which make up the new era among men which is being waged so painfully and so uncompromisingly at the present moment on the soil of Russia. One holds the key to the other, for no land but Russia could have produced a Tolstoi, and in no land but Russia could Tolstoi have been so embraced and so absorbed. ”

“ The world can be looked upon in this way: a world exists governed by certain, well-known laws, and within this world are beings subject to the same laws, but who at the same time bear in themselves another law not in accord with the former laws of the world, a higher law, and this law must inevitably triumph within these beings and defeat the lower law. And in this struggle and in the gradual victory of the higher law over the lower, in this only is life for man and the whole world. ”

“ It was only in What Is Art? that the Russian people and Tolstoi were unanimously at one. Art is to serve the people, to be of the people, to be something understandable by all people. There were to be no dogmas for art, no German metaphysics for art. ”

“ With the strength of his deep religiousness, Tolstoi invariably strove to use, in the best spiritual sense, all the trials which were given to him as his lot, physical as well as spiritual, and through intense inner labour he generally at the end succeeded in converting all his sufferings, to use his own language, to the joy of fulfilling the will of God. ”

“ Sometimes one finds thoughts in the Journal which appear in connection with the books that he was reading; for instance, there are several thoughts called forth by the reading of the philosophic works of Schopenhauer and Spier. The fact that there are few notes in the Journal about the books that had been read or were being read is, of course, no sign that Tolstoi read little. It is sufficient to open his book, What Is Art, to convince oneself as to the enormous amount of books that were read and studied by Tolstoi on the one theme of art alone for this work ”

“ Even Russia will have far and long to travel to come to that kingdom of God on earth, to that conception of the manifestation of the will of God on earth, which is the spiritual ideal of Tolstoi, and toward which, express it in any materialistic or naturalistic terms it may, the Russian nation has with one mind been working with such marvellous self-consciousness. ”

“ Of course, the description of only one feature of Tolstoi's inner life, cannot be an indication that he had not other kinds of spiritual states, not connected with his home life. The numerous and extensive entries in the Journal testify that Tolstoi often experienced states of high religious exaltation and of intimate spiritual union and fusion with God, as well as states of the earnest seeking of the path towards perfection, flowing from a sharp discontent with himself and a repentance for his errors and weaknesses (quite often the states were called forth by spiritual suffering) . ”

“ For he moved whole worlds at a step.
The only reason for life, he said, is the universal desire for well being, which in man, whose reason has awakened, is expanded into a desire for universal welfare ”

“ In 1899, Tolstoi felt himself spiritually improved and notwithstanding his severely undermined health, he occupied himself much and fruitfully with Resurrection. In the autumn of that year he made the entry in the Journal, "I have wrought for myself a calm which is not to be disturbed: not to speak and to know that this is necessary: that it is under these conditions one ought to live." [32]
Only ten years later, the circumstances arose which freed Tolstoi from the consciousness of the moral responsibility to remain in the conditions of his home life. ”

“ Although Tolstoi remained this time in Yasnaya Polyana, his life among master-class conditions did not cease to burden him even for a short time, and he felt himself alone, [24] he often experienced sorrow as before, and in spirit he felt "solemn," "gloomy." [25]
At the end of that year (1897) , he wrote the thought in his Journal, of the tragedy of the situation of "a man kindly disposed wishing only the good" but who in return meets only "hissing malice and the hatred of people." ”

“ The. confirmation of the fact, that reason liberates the latent love in man for justice is the proverb, "Comprendre c'est tout pardoner." If you forgive a man, you will love him. To forgive means to cease to condemn and to hate. ”

“ He even felt "hatred" for himself [10] and he was burdened by his part in the "unjust, idle, luxurious [11] life." But here the thought would come to him that he had to suffer humiliation, [12] and at times he created supplementary thoughts, which in fun he called "prescriptions" for his spiritual suffering. [13]
On December 2, 1896, Tolstoi wrote in his Journal: "This is my condition . . . oh, this luxury, this richness, this absence of care about the material life! ”

“ If a man believes something at the word of another, he will lose his belief in that which he would have inevitably believed in, had he not trusted the other one. He who believes in . . . etc., ceases to believe in reason. They even say straight out, one ought not to believe in reason. ”

“ In this sketch are emphasised and brought forth the logical connection of at least one most torturing feature of his inner life, which is reflected in disconnected brilliant entries in his Journal—features which show the cross that he bore for the last thirty years of his life. The time has not yet come for a full description of all the sides and conditions of Tolstoi's life, and therefore the intimate places have been omitted in the present edition of the Journal. ”

“ The problem of disposing of these documents after his death according to his principles against copyrights, occupied Tolstoi for many years. The Russian law nullified any such disposal of property, for legally the inheritor had to be a fixed person "and works to be disposed of free to all" meant nothing. He therefore wrote many wills, defining and modifying his position in all possible ways so that his ideas might be carried out, and in such a form that they could not be frustrated by any one. ”

“ For he knows that he is not a separate being, but a part of a whole, and therefore it is meaningless to think that he can obtain anything for himself alone. It is only in struggling and attaining for the Whole that he can find his true life. ”

“ In the first two months of 1896, Tolstoi notes in his Journal and in private letters the death of several people more or less near to him: his relative, N. M. Nagornov; the well-known philosopher, N. N. Strahkov, to whom he was bound by an old friendship; an old woman, Agatha Michailovna, a former maid of his grandmother, who lived all her life in Yasnaya Polyana; the Yasnaya Polyana peasant, Phillip Egorov, who had been a coachman for many years at the Tolstois', and the steward, at one time ”

“ Between 1896-1899 Tolstoi lived principally in Yasnaya Polyana. There he generally not only spent most of the summer, but often all of autumn and sometimes even up to January. In Moscow, he generally spent the winter months—from November or December until April and sometimes until May. Besides this, for short periods, Tolstoi would go to other places. Thus, in August, 1896, he visited his sister, the nun, Countess M. N. Tolstoi, living in the convent of Shamordino. ”

“ That the estate of Yasnaya Polyana should be given over to the peasants.
Tolstoi's first idea was that Chertkov should be one of the legal inheritors, together with the Countess Tolstoi, his wife. But Chertkov refused for various personal reasons, he says, but mainly because he thought that the arrangement for the transfer of property could be best facilitated and could be more delicately managed if some one member of the Tolstoi family was designated instead of an outsider. ”

“ From 1895 to 1899 Tolstoi lived through much spiritual suffering and struggle, and during this time he was ill quite often. If one carefully followed all the entries in the Journal, then it would clearly be seen that almost all his severe illnesses came after depressing inner experiences. ”

“ In this state he often wants to cry, [30] and only in time does his condition become less agitated and sometimes even entirely calm.
In the summer of 1898, Tolstoi was twice seriously ill. After these illnesses he entered in his Journal the joy of getting well and a clearness of thinking. Soon after this he underwent new spiritual experiences and in July, 1898, he again considered going away from the conditions of life in Yasnaya Polyana which were depressing and which were against his philosophy. ”

“ Thus Tolstoi would often finish what he had written during the day with I. I L. (If I live) , marking ahead in this fashion the date of the following day.
3. Countess Sophia Andreevna Tolstoi, born Behrs, 1844, wife of Tolstoi. In the Journal, Tolstoi calls her S., S. A., or Sonya.
4. "Catechism" Tolstoi called that systematic exposition of his philosophy in the form of questions and answers which he had begun about this time. In the text, he calls this work, The Declaration of Faith, or simply, The Declaration. ”

“ Tolstoi begins a new note-book of the Journal; this note-book presupposes another which the editors have only in separate fragments. The previous note-book ended with the following note:
"October 8, 1895, Y. P.
" (I am beginning an entry to-day with just what I finished two days ago.)
"I have only a short time left to live and I feel terribly like saying so much: I feel like saying what we can and must and cannot help believing about the cruelty of deception which people impose upon themselves ”

“ Rode horseback. Posha [2] arrived. . . . A wonderful French pamphlet about war. [3] Yes, 20 years are needed for that thought to become a general one. My head aches and seems to crackle and rumble. Father, help me when I am most weak that I may not fall morally. It is possible.
Nov. 11. Y.P. If I live.
I write and think: it is possible that I won't be. Every day I make attempts, and I get more accustomed to it.
To-day November 75.
I have been so weak all the time I could write nothing except a few letters. A letter to Schkarvan. There have been here, Dunaiev, Posha, Maria Vasilievna. ”

“ At the end of October the noted American writer, Henry George, died, whose works and whose personality Tolstoi valued very highly.
In November Dr. D. P. Makovitsky, a follower of Tolstoi, came for a short visit from Hungary; later becoming a close friend, he remained with Tolstoi uninterruptedly until the latter's death. ”

“ Cossacks were sent against them and after some executions, two hundred were put in prison, many were exiled from their native land and forced to live in Armenian, Georgian and Tartar villages in the Province of Tiflis ”

“ Preface to the essay by Edward Carpenter, Contemporary Science (October, 1897-February, 1898) .
11. Preface to the English edition of What Is Art? (April, 1898) .
12. Carthago delenda est (April, 1898) .
13. Is There Famine or No Famine? ”

“ The substitution of a child in an orphan asylum " (September 14, 1896) .
7. "A wife’s deception of her passionate, jealous husband: his suffering, struggle and the enjoyment of forgiveness" (November 22, 1896) .
8. "A description o the oppression of the serfs and later the same oppression through land ownership, or rather, the being deprived of it" (November 22, 1896) .
9. "Notes of a madman" (December 26, 1896) .
10. "The theme: A passionate young man in love with a mentally diseased woman" (July 16, 1897) . ”