Albany Tula Alliance Essay Contest 2012 Winning Essay #1
By Rose Schneider, will be senior at Ichabod Crane High School 2012-2013
Teacher: Sharon Wall
Leo Tolstoy: Writer of Revolutions
Leo Tolstoy came into a changing world. Growing up, he witnessed war1 and predicted an
eventual revolt of the peasants in Russia2. Around him arose leaders who would bring about
these vast changes. Vladimir Lenin witnessed the results of the anguish Tolstoy wrote of in
many of his short stories; he also helped bring on some of these changes3. Mohandas Gandhi
corresponded with Tolstoy as he began to develop new ways of bringing about change4.
Tolstoy's works, especially his short stories, reflected the changing society around him. Out
of this society came new ways of thinking, and new movements and revolutions. Leaders like
Lenin and Gandhi carried his ideas of the ascetic defiance and the plight of the common
people with them as they changed the world.
Gandhi and Tolstoy both had similar twists and turns in their lives. Both came from well-to
do backgrounds, and yet switched to ascetic lives based upon the suffering they saw around
them. Tolstoy came from a noble family, but eventually would attempt to work and live with
the serfs on his estate5. Likewise, Gandhi was a young lawyer from a wealthy Indian family
when he witnessed the injustice Indians in South Africa suffered from. After protests under a
tenet of non-violence, he began a commune called Tolstoy Farm6. Both men focused on
farming as a virtue, as well as the purity in an ascetic lifestyle. In fact, while Gandhi was
starting his commune, he and Tolstoy were exchanging letters on such topics as religion and
the injustice of corrupt governments, but also the virtues of nonviolent protest. Tolstoy
remarked that in Christianity, Christ found “violence is incompatible with love,” and that the
“law of love” that could be found across all beliefs7.
In “The Candle,” the story appears to be telling about serfs’ revolt. The supervisor of the
estate, Michael Simeonovitch, is cruel and oppressive to the point of being inhuman; the serfs
are meeting and talking of killing him. The conspiracy splits into two camps, Vasili
Minayeff’s and Peter Mikhayeff’s. This is where the story diverges from a simple tale of an
uprising. Vasili insists the overseer must be killed, that it would be a sin to let someone so
wicked live. On the other hand is Peter, a character almost holy in Tolstoy’s presentation of
him, solemnly declares that it is sin to take anyone’s life, that only God can deal out justice,
and that he will, in due time. It is revealed that his prediction is true. Michael is dismissive of
the resentful Vasili’s venom, laughing at threats of the serfs breaking his back. It is Peter who
Michael truly fears. At the news of Peter’s simple phrase, “There should be peace on earth
and good-will to men,” he becomes alarmed. The story speeds up in its climax. Michael,
trying to climb onto his horse, falls off onto a spike. The serfs find him the next morning.
Peter, the only one with enough compassion to crouch near his prostrate body, closes the
corpse’s eyes and takes it away. God, not the serfs punished the wicked8.
It may seem as if this story is a lesson in not standing up to authority, to wait for God to
liberate oneself. Rather, this story can be seen not as a tale of abstaining from resistance, but
as tale passive, non-violent resistance. Peter, though not desiring a violent end for his
overseer, did acknowledge Michael’s wickedness and that he would have to be punished by
God9. Likewise, Gandhi was not subordinate when he preached nonviolence; rather, he knew
that nonviolence was not only more honorable in protest, but also the more practical and
beneficial; he called it Satyagraha, or “truth force.”10 The Indian people were being
suppressed. But it was not God who was to judge and redeem these people, but the press. The
stoic stance of pacifism in the face of violent and unjust regimes was often recorded by a
press newly enabled by photography and faster communications. Around the world people
witnessed these actions, criticizing the cruelty of the British imperialists and praising Gandhi
and his cause. Later this form of protest would be used by Martin Luther King Jr. in the
American South as well. The effectiveness was in that once the press presented it to the
public, they often demanded justice for the oppressed people from their political leaders, or it
shamed the oppressive leaders into compromise.
Another work of fiction that may have influenced Gandhi is “God Sees the Truth, But
Waits.” In it, a man suffers what may be the ultimate injustice, taking the blame for a crime
he never committed. The main character, Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov, loses all that he owns, his
youth, his family, and even his identity, being called “Grandfather” instead of his own name.
However, he accepts of his fate, feeling God will eventually deliver justice. As he says, "It
seems that only God can know the truth; it is to Him alone we must appeal, and from Him
alone expect mercy." Aksionov demonstrates strength in his patience, but he does not show
how patience can also conquer until Makar Semyonich, the man actually responsible for the
crime, arrives at the same prison. Upon each learning of who the each other is, Aksionov
exhibits mercy and tolerance, while Semyonich gradually drops deeper into guilt. This guilt
especially escalates after Aksionov allows Semyonich to evade punishment for trying to
escape. Physical torture does not harm him the way this psychological tumult does, "When
they flogged me with the knot it was not so hard to bear as it is to see you now ...” he says.
"God will forgive you!" responds Aksionov11.
It appears that Semyonich can alleviate his guilt by confessing, but Aksionov does not even
allow him that; he dies upon Semyonich’s confession12. Therefore, Aksionov is triumphant in
his patience and mercy to the injustice he suffered under. For the protests Gandhi headed,
these virtues became especially important. Aksionov embodies the ideal ascetic, non-violent
protestor; his patience, tolerance, and forgiveness despite knowing he suffers unfairly. This
may have also encouraged Gandhi when he partook in similar protests; he was embodying a
Tolstoyan hero.
For Vladimir Lenin, Tolstoy was not someone living in a parallel life in another part of the
globe, such as it was for Gandhi, but instead a comrade of the same situation in Russia. Lenin
grew up reading works of Tolstoy13, who had predicted an uprising of the proletariat long
before Lenin led such a revolt14. They were comrades in that they were both witnesses to the
changing times, but Lenin often criticized Tolstoy’s distance from the lower class, that he
failed to understand the revolution going on in his own country. Yet Lenin also argued that
Tolstoy reflected his country and its struggles in his works. “…the sum total of his
views…express the specific features of our revolution…the contradictions in Tolstoy’s views
are indeed a mirror of those contradictory conditions in which the peasantry had to play their
historical part in our revolution…” states Lenin15. While Tolstoy is not necessarily expressing
the views Lenin wanted, he expressed many elements of life in Russia that Lenin was
concerned with.
One of the aspects of peasant life that touched both Lenin’s revolution and Tolstoy’s short
stories was the constant need for land and money and the greed surrounding these necessities.
In “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” a peasant family is introduced arguing the merit of
their simple life; the only trouble, the husband, Pakhom, says, is that they can never get
enough land. This is when Tolstoy introduces an almost folkloric element to his story with
the character of the Devil watching over Pakhom. The Devil brings on Pakhom’s demise
simply by offering more and more land for him to take until he finally dies from exhausting
himself in a bizarre land grab16. This can bring up the root of the ills of this society in two
ways. One is that the need for land is what defines a peasant’s life. In the perspective of
Lenin, this is where the redistribution of land could be an antidote. The other way of looking
at this story is that greed is the root of anyone’s problem-no matter how much land is
acquired. Pakhom is allowed to take as much land he can walk around in a day for a set price.
He knows he should turn and start for the finishing point, but keeps going in the want for
more land. When he does turn for the end, he tries to hurry in fear of losing his land once the
sun sets, dying of exhaustion in the process; the moral, greed can kill. Lenin, who grew up
reading stories like this by Tolstoy, adopted a Marxist philosophy with its ideas of total
redistribution of wealth and a state-run economy. He hoped for a future where all wealth and
property was eradicated and replaced by a “distribution agency.” Capitalist greed, he
believed, was detrimental to society and the reason for his nation’s suffering. 17
Gandhi and Lenin have greatly affected modern world history, and yet took very different
paths. Gandhi is remembered as the father of nonviolent protest who brought justice to his
people in India and South Africa. Lenin is known for initiating a bloody revolution that
would lead to the birth of Russia’s Communist regime, which would bring on a Cold War
with the United States long after Lenin’s death. However, both are similar in that they were
influenced by Tolstoy and the ideas that can be found in his short stories. Looking into such
elements of his stories such as the plight of the people, the virtue of nonviolence, or the sin of
greed, they may have found initiatives to change the world.
1 Advameg, Inc., "Leo Tolstoy Biography," notablebiographies.com, accessed March 1, 2012, last modified 2012, http://www.notablebiographies.com/ St-­‐Tr/Tolstoy-­‐Leo.html. 2 Morris Philipson, The Count Who Wished He Were A Peasant: A Life of Leo Tolstoy (New York: Random House, 1967) 3 I. E. Levine, Lenin: The Man Who Made A Revolution (New York: Julian Messner, 1969) 4 Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy Letters, ed. B. Srinivasa Murthy, page #s, accessed March 6, 2012, http://bsmurthy.com/download/Mahatma_Gandhi_Leostoy_Letters_by_BSM.pdf. 5 Leo Tolstoy, "How Much Land Does a Man Need," in Themes in World Literature, ed. George P. Elliot et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975) 6 Gerald Gold and Richard Attenborough, Gandhi: A Pictorial Biography (New York: Newmarket Press, 1983) 7 Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy Letters, ed. B. Srinivasa Murthy, page #s, accessed March 6, 2012, http://bsmurthy.com/download/Mahatma_Gandhi_Leostoy_Letters_by_BSM.pdf. 8 Leo Tolstoy, "The Candle," readbookonline.net, accessed March 1, 2012, last modified 2012, http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2137/. 9 Leo Tolstoy, "The Candle," readbookonline.net, accessed March 1, 2012, last modified 2012, http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2137/. 10 Olivia Coolidge, Gandhi (Boston: Houghton-­‐Mifflin, 1971) 11 Leo Tolstoy, "God Sees The Truth, But Waits," readbookonline.net, accessed March 7, 2012, last modified 2011, http://www.readbookonline.net/ readOnLine/5322/. 12 Leo Tolstoy, "God Sees The Truth, But Waits," readbookonline.net, accessed March 7, 2012, last modified 2011, http://www.readbookonline.net/ readOnLine/5322/. 13 I. E. Levine, Lenin: The Man Who Made A Revolution (New York: Julian Messner, 1969) 14 Morris Philipson, The Count Who Wished He Were A Peasant: A Life of Leo Tolstoy (New York: Random House, 1967) 15 V. I. Lenin, "Leo Tolstoy as the Mirror of the Russian Revolution," Lenin Internet Archive, accessed March 5, 2012, last modified 2004, http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1908/sep/11.htm. 16 . Leo Tolstoy, "How Much Land Does a Man Need," in Themes in World Literature, ed. George P. Elliot et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975) 17 I. E. Levine, Lenin: The Man Who Made A Revolution (New York: Julian Messner, 1969)