Leo Tolstoy, political prophet and evangelical anarchist

36 Pages·2014·1.23 MB·English

by  Antoni Blanch

LEO TOLSTOY, POLITICAL PROPHET
AND EVANGELICAL ANARCHIST
Antoni Blanch, sj.
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 3
1. THESOCIO-POLITICALSITUATIONOFRUSSIA
INTHESECONDHALFOFTHE19THCENTURY................................................... 5
2. REFORMISTTHOUGHTINPRE-REVOLUTIONARYRUSSIA...................................... 7
3. THETHOUGHTOFTOLSTOYBEFOREHISCONVERSION........................................ 9
4. THENEWLIFEAFTERCONVERSION........................................................................... 12
5. ANOFFICIALOFTHECZARWHOREPUDIATESWAR................................................ 15
6. A POPULIST, UTOPIANSOCIALIST................................................................................ 18
7. TOLSTOYTHEPROPHET................................................................................................. 22
8. MORAL, POLITICAL, ANDEVANGELICALPROPHESYING......................................... 24
NOTES.................................................................................................................................... 29
QUESTIONSFORREFLECTION........................................................................................... 31
Antoni Blanch, sj., was professor emeritus of comparative literature at Comillas Pontifical
University (Madrid). His two most recent works are El hombre imaginario: una antropología
literaria [Imaginary Man: A Literary Anthropology] (1995) and El espíritu de la letra.
Acercamiento creyente en la Literatura[The Spirit of the Letter: Approaching Literature with
Belief] (2002). He is also the author of Longing for a Greater Justice (Cristianisme i Justícia,
Booklet 120). He was a member of Cristianisme i Justícia until his death at the end of 2013.
We publish this booklet posthumously as a homage to our great friend and collaborator.
CRISTIANISME I JUSTÍCIAEdition - Roger de Llúria, 13 - 08010 Barcelona
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Printed by: Edicions Rondas S.L. - Legal deposit: B-4738-2014
ISBN: 978-84-9730-330-9 - ISSN: 2014-6566 - ISSN (virtual edition): 2014-6574
Translated by Joseph Owens - Cover illustration: Roger Torres
Printed on ecological paper and recycled cardboard
February 2014
The Fundació Lluís Espinal lets it be known that its data are registered in a file under the name BDGACIJ,
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INTRODUCTION
The great Russian known as Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is today univer -
sally known for his two monumental novels, War and Peace (1869) and
Anna Karenina (1878), which he wrote before the age of 50. His later
work, however, is not well known even though it is also very important
and has an orientation notably different from his earlier literary work. It
consists of more than a hundred essays and several short novels
which he published between 1878 and his death at age 82.
Our interest in this essay is to understand radically renewed life in general terms
how this great change in Tolstoy came by saying that his spirit was consumed
about and what consequences it had. To with a passion to rectify the unjust
that end we will have to delve, first of situation of the Russian workers and
all, into the meaning of the severe peasants and to struggle against the
personal crisis that Tolstoy experienced royal powers that caused the situation.
precisely at the height of his literary In undergoing this transformation he
success. How and why did he undergo felt especially inspired, for the first time
a dramatic mental and moral depression in life, by a dramatic awareness of the
that sunk him into nihilistic darkness? person of Jesus and the revolutionary
Fortunately the crisis did not last long; proclamations of his Gospel. Both these
he soon recovered from it and was factors, the rebelliousness of the social
transformed into what might be called revolutionary and the evangelical spirit
«a new man». Anticipating the analysis of the prophet, converged so forcefully
of this study, we can describe Tolstoy’s in this gifted writer and teacher that we
3
do well to apply to the radically leftists and helped to organize popular
renewed Tolstoy the title «social and movements for reform. What is even
evangelical prophet». more surprising in this evolution of
Indeed, when perusing some of the Tolstoy is that everything he did and
hundred or so essays and newspaper wrote from that moment on was pro -
articles published by Tolstoy in his later foundly inspired by some of the boldest
years, the reader encounters an author proposals of Jesus as recounted in the
very different from the earlier artist who Gospels, which Tolstoy himself trans -
described so magnificently the great lated directly from Greek into Russian.
Napoleonic wars in Russia and the su - Motivated by this surprising prophetic
percilious customs of the Czarist aris - vocation, he wanted to make the Good
tocracy to which he himself belonged. News known to the general public
In this second phase of his life he has Our objective in these pages is to
become a didactic, polemical author recover the essence of this teaching of
who writes with the anguished intensity the later Tolstoy so as to make it availa -
of a social and political reformer. He is ble to our own cultural and political
also much more inclined to take action epoch in Spain and Europe, a time when
by getting involved in concrete educa - blatant mediocrity and self-absorbed
tional projects with uneducated peasants individualism seem to prevail. I hope
and installing health clinics in the vast that this portrait of a more revolutionary
properties he owned. He studied with and spiritual Tolstoy will serve as a
intense interest the modern social re - stimulus to our present generation of
formers of Europe as well as the rele - perplexed, indignant, and rebellious
vant Russian thinkers, many of whom citizens. Tolstoy deserves to be number -
had been exiled for their revolutionary ed among the great moral teachers, who
ideas. He surrounded himself with unfortunately are scarce in our times.
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1. THE SOCIO-POLITICAL SITUATION OF RUSSIA IN THE
SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY
Under the despotic regime of the czars the conditions prevailing in
Russian society were still almost feudal. A scandalous distance
separated the aristocracy and a small class of well-off landlords and
merchants from the enormous mass of workers and peasants. We
should not forget that these rural workers (mujiks) were still subject to a
feudal system, which was legally abolished in 1861 but existed in fact
until the revolution of 1917.
1.1. An unsustainable social After the long, drawn-out victory of
situation Russia over Napoleon in 1812, which
left the coun try in a calamitous state,
Russia had not developed industrially
Russian mili tarism suffered humiliation
and so had not experienced the bour -
in two other conflicts: the war against
geois revolution that transformed so -
the Turks in Crimea (1858) –in which
ciety in western Europe at the end of
Leo Tolstoy took part, along with his
the 18th century. In Russia the profes - brother Nicholas– and the naval defeat
sional middle class was quite small and at the hands of distant Japan (1905).
lived mainly in the large cities of the This socio-political situation was
country. As grossly unjust as Russia’s already precarious and disastrous for
social inequality was, it was made even the peo ple, but it was made still worse
worse by the countless wars that the by the increasingly frequent demonstra -
czars waged to defend their borders or tions of popular resistance to the regime,
to conquer new territories. which the police repressed ruthlessly.
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The first public rebellion with wide 1.2. The restlessness of a
support was that of the «Decembrists» sensitive and lucid spirit
of 1825 in Saint Petersburg, in which
Given such a situation, it is easy to
some nobles took part for the first time.
imagine the dismay that would be felt
The revolt was quickly squelched by
by a spirit as sensitive and lucid as that
the czar, who a few days later staged
of Leo Tolstoy as he witnessed the great
the execution of its main leaders in the
abuse of power and the widespread
main plaza. Nevertheless, the rebels did
misery of the people. It is true that
not disappear. Clandestine groups
when he was quite young he had par -
continued to be formed, many inspired
ticipated in some of Russia’s wars as an
by the short-lived French revolution of
officer, but he had been so affected by
1848 (the same year in which the Com -
the monstrous cruelty of the violence
munist Manifesto of Marx and Engels
he saw that he developed a decidedly
appeared in England). The Russian
pacifist posture in his later years. He
revolutionary movement was also
also became ever more concerned
invigorated in the years following by
about trying the alleviate the terrible
the removal from power of the second
injustice that weighed heavily on the
French emperor, Napoleon III, and by
lives of so many millions of poor Rus -
the revolutionary struggles of the Paris
sian workers. After he emerged from
Commune in 1871. In fact, this defeat
his profound personal crisis, he was
of another French emperor was partly
determined to dedicate his life to a two -
the result of the effective intervention
fold political struggle: against physical
of the powerful Russian army. All these
violence and against social injustice.
political movements in Europe aroused
keen interest in Russia not only among Fortunately, little effort is required
politicians but also among university to find confirmation of this new direc -
intellectuals and the writers in literary tion in Tolstoy’s life. In one of the most
circles. They boldly expressed their interesting books he wrote in this pe -
concerns and their hopes, some in more riod, My Confession(1882), he gives us
conservative fashion (such as the direct access to the personal itinerary
nationalists, Slavophiles, and Orthodox he took in pursuing his vocation of
Christians) and others more progres - altruism and transcendence. Before
sively by demanding civil liberties citing from this confession, however,
similar to those existing in the demo - we will provide more information
cratic republics of the West. There also about the intellectual setting in which
existed a third, minority tendency that Tolstoy found himself, for he was
was nihilist, anarchist, and revolu- assuredly part of a reformist and even
tionary; terrorist commandos from this revolutionary movement that included
sector committed assaults and went so many contemporary Russian thinkers
far as to assassinate Czar Alexander II and writers who dissented from the
in 1881. official doctrine.
6
2. REFORMIST THOUGHT IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY
RUSSIA
Among the European Enlightenment authors who were most read in
Russia at that time were Rousseau, Diderot, Kant, and Hegel, all of whom
proposed new forms of common life for humanity. They did so quite
rationally but also with a decidedly utopian spirit. The models of society
they proposed featured freedom and solidarity and therefore were directly
opposed to the political tyranny of the feudal regime.
2.1. The intellectuals who for the most genuine values of the
influenced Tolstoy Russian people. He had an evident in -
fluence on the «populism» of Nicholas
Tolstoy was influenced by Russian
Chernichevski, who insisted with his
intellectuals living in exile or clandes -
followers on the primordial importance
tinely. One of these was Visarion
of religious compassion. These three
Bielinski, an ethics professor and
authors, therefore, had a great influence
socialist of the Hegelian left who from
on Tolstoy’s thought.
London actively criticized the existing
system. Tolstoy was perhaps even more The Russian anarchist authors
influenced by a liberal anti-Hegelian Bakunin and Kropotkin were of a more
exile named Alexander Herzen whose revolutionary bent; they were disciples
utopian socialism condemned the of the French thinker Proudhon, who
western bourgeoisie. Herzen advocated proposed radical libertarian approaches
radical and urgent changes, but he to social change. His followers included
insisted that they always be undertaken the most extremist Russians, such as
with moderation and with full respect the nihilists and terrorists Nekrasov,
7
Pisarev, and Netxayev, who were appro - order to awaken compassion among the
priately described as «demons» by better off.
Dostoyevsky in his novel, The Possess - Among the earliest of them, writing
ed (1871). To be sure, both terrorismand in the 1840s, was Nicholas Gogol, whose
nihilist thought were prevalent among famous stories include Dead Souls and
progressive young Russians during the The Overcoat. The following genera -
1830s and 1840s when Nicholas I ruled tion (in the 1860s and 1870s) was more
with an iron fist. Frustrated in their conscious of Russia’s tragic situation,
romantic attempts to live with a free - and they created works of great value
dom that was beyond their reach, those that cogently portrayed the dramatic
young men surrendered to the futility of tension that resulted when desperate
existence; rejecting traditional values, individuals rose up in opposition to the
they ended up committing suicide or established social system. In this regard,
engaging in terrorist crime. three great authors contemporaneous
with Tolstoy are worthy of mention:
Ivan Turgenev with his Fathers and
2.2. Committed literature Sons (1862), Fyodor Dostoyevsky with
It is interesting to note that all these his Notes from Underground (1864)
various ideological types were repro - and The Possessed (1871), and Anton
duced as literary characters in a number Chekhov with his Aunt Vanya (1902).
of the novels and dramatic works pro - The turn of the century saw the start of
duced by the great Russian authors of the official Marxist strain of «socialist
the epoch. The writers of the school of realism» in works of Maxim Gorki
«socialist realism» described graphi - such as The Mother (1902) and The
cally the misery of the poor masses in Lower Depths(1917).
8