war enabled this state of mind to spread without difficulty through the rural districts. Refusals of military service became more and more general; and the more brutally they were punished the more stubborn the revolt grew in secret. In the provinces, moreover, whole races who knew nothing of Tolstoy had given the example of an absolute and passive refusal to obey the State—the Doukhobors of the Caucasus as early as 1898 and the Georgians of the Gouri towards 1905. Tolstoy influenced these movements far less than they influenced him; and the interest of his writings lies in the fact that in spite of the criticisms of those writers who were of the party of revolution, as was Gorky,[1] he was the mouthpiece of the Old Russian people.
The attitude which he preserved, in respect of men who at the peril of their lives were putting into practice the principles which he professed,[2] was one of extreme modesty and dignity. Neither to the
- ↑ After Tolstoy’s condemnation of the upheaval in the Zemstvos, Gorky, making himself the interpreter of the displeasure of his friends, wrote as follows: “This man has become the slave of his theory. For a long time he has isolated himself from the life of Russia, and he no longer listens to the voice of the people. He hovers over Russia at too great a height.”
- ↑ It was a bitter trial to him that he could not contrive to be persecuted. He had a thirst for martyrdom; but the Government very wisely took good care not to satisfy him.
“They are persecuting my friends all around me, and leaving me in peace, although if any one is dangerous it is I. Evidently I am not worth persecution, and I am ashamed of the fact.” (Letter to Teneromo, 1892, Further Letters.)
“Evidently I am not worthy of persecution, and I shall have to die like this, without having ever been able to testify to the truth by physical suffering.” (To Teneromo, May 16, 1892, ibid.)
“It hurts me to be at liberty.” (To Teneromo, June 1, 1894, ibid.)
That he was at liberty was, Heaven knows, no fault of his! He insults the Tsars, he attacks the fatherland, “that ghastly fetish to which men sacrifice their life and liberty and reason.” (The End of a World.) Then see, in War and Revolution, the summary of Russian history. It is a gallery of monsters: “The maniac Ivan the Terrible, the drunkard Peter I., the ignorant cook, Catherine I., the sensual and profligate Elizabeth, the degenerate Paul, the parricide Alexander I. [the only one of them for whom Tolstoy felt a secret liking], the cruel and ignorant Nikolas I.; Alexander II., unintelligent and evil rather than good; Alexander III., an undeniable sot, brutal and ignorant; Nikolas II., an innocent young officer of hussars, with an entourage of coxcombs, a young man who knows nothing and understands nothing.”
