Myths about Great Leo

Nikita, 7th grade
– Thanks to my grandmother, from the very early age I knew that
Tolstoy was a bit crazy because he wrote his own gospel.

Maria, 9th grade
– Tolstoy puts too many descriptions in his books, which is rather
boring. I remember that in the novel “anna Karenina” there was a
page long description of some forest!

Alexander, 9th grade
– His life was very interesting, but his books are not so much.

Tolstoy about himself:
“I believe in one, incomprehensible, good god, the immortality of the
soul and the eternal reward for our deeds. I do not understand the
enigma of the Holly Trinity and of the Son of god, but I respect and
do not reject the faith of my fathers.” (1852)
“Talking about god and faith led me to a tremendous idea, the re-
alization of which I am ready to dedicate my life. This idea is the basis
of a new religion corresponding to the development of mankind, the
religion of Christ, but cleared off any faith and mystery; it’s a practical
belief, promising not future bliss in heaven, but present bliss on earth.
I realize that the only way to execute this idea is to have an entire ge-
neration devotedly working on it. one generation will bequeath this
idea to the next, and one day fanaticism or reason will prevail. To deli-
berately seduce men by religion – that's the basis of the thought, which
entices me.” (1855)
“oh, if only I could answer when asked, and be silent, be silent. If
only it wasn’t controversial to write about the importance of being
silent, then I would write: I can be silent. I can’t be otherwise.” (1909)
“I keep falling down the hill of death and barely feel the strength
to stop. I do not want to die, I love and seek immortality. But I cannot
choose. The choice had been made long time ago. literature – art, edu-
cation and family. Inconsistency, timidity, laziness and weakness –
these are my enemies.” (1862)
“I will clean my soul. I clean it, I get to the mainland – I see an oppo-
rtunity to live for good and not for glory. Help me, father. father, help
me. I know that there is no face of father, but such a form expresses the
most passionate desire.” (1891)
“I have all the vices of the highest degree in me: envy, greed and
avarice, voluptuous, vanity, ambition, pride and hate. no, not hate but
there is anger, deceit, hypocrisy. I have it all, all that everyone else has
and more. But my only salvation is that I am aware of it - I know it and
I fight it, I fight it all my life.” (1905)

Contemporaries about Tolstoy:
Konstantin Leontiev
“Tolstoy loves to humiliate his characters, he wants to see them ridiculed
even when they try to be serious. Interesting are the consequences:
ragged, plucked out by their own creator characters come out to be
regular people as god created them – and if under these circumstances
we manage to find some heroic traits in them, then we can be sure that
this heroism is pure and true”.

George Florovsky
“There is a striking discrepancy between the aggressive maximalism of
Tolstoy’s denying of all social and ethical principles and the extreme
poverty of his positive moral teaching. His morality is reduced to
common sense and worldly prudence. “Christ teaches us how to get rid
of our troubles, and live happy” and that is the main thought in entire
gospel! Here onTolstoy’s insensibility becomes creepy and “common
sense” turns into madness…”

Nikolai Berdyaev
“Tolstoy, as no one else was eager to fulfill the will of the father. all his
life he was tormented by his devouring hunger to fulfill the law of life
of the Master, who sent him to live on this earth (he had a tremendous
sense of guilt and a tremendous thirst for truth.) Such thirst to fulfill
commandments of (moral) law can’t be found anywhere but in Tolstoy.
This is fundamental, huge.”

Dmitry Merezhkovsky
“after all, he himself  was a heartfelt “spiritual” person, neither pagan
nor truly Christian but eternally resurrecting, trying but failing to turn
to Christianity – half-Christian, half-pagan.”

Vladimir Lenin
“…any attempt to idealize Tolstoy’s teachings, to justify or mitigate his
“non-resistance”, his appeals to the “Spirit” and “moral self-improve-
ment”, his doctrine on “conscience” and “universal love”, his preaching
asceticism and quietism brings most immediate and profound harm”.

Translated from Russian by Anastassia Pronsky-Stojanovic