Leo Tolstoy: A Letter to a Hindu: Including Correspondences with Gandhi & Letter to Ernest Howard Crosby
By Leo Tolstoy, M. K. Gandhi, Aylmer Maude and Leo Wiener
()
About this ebook
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is the author of War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and other classics of Russian literature.
Read more from Leo Tolstoy
A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confession Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5War and Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Death of Ivan Ilyich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Following the Call: Living the Sermon on the Mount Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5War and Peace : Complete and Unabridged Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tolstoy's Stories for Children Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wise Thoughts for Every Day: On God, Love, the Human Spirit, and Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gospel in Brief: The Life of Jesus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What is Art? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master and Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Book of Christmas Tales: 250+ Short Stories, Fairytales and Holiday Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greatest Christmas Stories of All Time: Timeless Classics That Celebrate the Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Death of Ivan Ilych (Complete Version, Best Navigation, Active TOC) (A to Z Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Beautiful Christmas Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThoughtful Wisdom for Every Day: 365 Days of Love, Kindness, Healing, Faith, and Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gospel in Tolstoy: Selections from His Short Stories, Spiritual Writings & Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Confession and Other Religious Writings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5BEST RUSSIAN SHORT STORIES Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Leo Tolstoy
Related ebooks
In the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Illustrated Biography of William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegends of India: The people who reshaped the course of India the Destiny of India Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNationalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlaying the Nation Game: The Ambiguities of Nationalism in India Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIndian Social Justice: A Case for Review Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHindu Iconoclasts: Rammohun Roy, Dayananda Sarasvati, and Nineteenth-Century Polemics against Idolatry Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Peripheral Centre, The: Voices from India's Northeast Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUntouchable Fictions: Literary Realism and the Crisis of Caste Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImmortal for a Moment: Small Answers to Big Questions About Life, Love and Letting Go Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaakshi: The Witness Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why I Am An Atheist And Other Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Architect of Modern India: Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPogrom in Gujarat: Hindu Nationalism and Anti-Muslim Violence in India Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Elegy for the East: A story of blood and broken dreams Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Kashmir Dilemma Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Master and Margarita Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBookless in Baghdad: Reflections on Writing and Writers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Critique of Pure Reason Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGods And Godmen Of India Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Shape of Things to Come: An Impassioned View Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation of Caste Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Intolerant Indian: Why We Must Rediscover A Liberal Space Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Caravan from Hindustan: The Complete Birbal Tales from the Oral Traditions of India Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPatriots, Poets and Prisoners: Selections from Ramananda Chatterjee's The Modern Review, 1907-1947 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComparative Models of Development: Challenges to the American-Western System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnnihilation of Caste Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContesting Nation: Gendered Violence in South Asia: Notes on the Postcolonial Present Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Politics For You
The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anarchist Cookbook Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Spook Who Sat by the Door, Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race: The Sunday Times Bestseller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Closing of the American Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essential Chomsky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S.-Israeli War on the Palestinians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Leo Tolstoy
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Leo Tolstoy - Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy, M. K. Gandhi
Leo Tolstoy: A Letter to a Hindu
Including Correspondences with Gandhi & Letter to Ernest Howard Crosby
Published by
Books
- Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -
musaicumbooks@okpublishing.info
2017 OK Publishing
ISBN 9788075833167
Reading suggestions
Table of Contents
Introduction
Leo Tolstoy: A Short Biography
A Letter to a Hindu
Letter to Ernest Howard Crosby
Correspondences with Gandhi
Introduction
Table of Contents
Leo Tolstoy: A Short Biography
by Aylmer Maude
Table of Contents
COUNT LEO TOLSTOY was born 28th August 1828 [in the Julian calendar then used in Russia; 9th September 1828 in today’s internationally accepted Gregorian calendar], at a house in the country not many miles from Toúla, and about 130 miles south of Moscow.
He has lived most of his life in the country, preferring it to town, and believing that people would be healthier and happier if they lived more natural lives, in touch with nature, instead of crowding together in cities.
He lost his mother when he was three, and his father when he was nine years old. He remembers a boy visiting his brothers and himself when he was twelve years old, and bringing the news that they had found out at school that there was no God, and that all that was taught about God was a mere invention.
He himself went to school in Moscow, and before he was grown up he had imbibed the opinion, generally current among educated Russians, that ‘religion’ is old-fashioned and superstitious, and that sensible and cultured people do not require it for themselves.
After finishing school Tolstoy went to the University at Kazán. There he studied Oriental languages, but he did not pass the final examinations.
In one of his books Tolstoy remarks how often the cleverest boy is at the bottom of the class. And this really does occur. A boy of active, independent mind, who has his own problems to think out, will often find it terribly hard to keep his attention on the lessons the master wants him to learn. The fashionable society Tolstoy met at his aunt’s house in Kazán was another obstacle to serious study.
He then settled on his estate at Yásnaya Polyána, and tried to improve the condition of the serfs. His attempts were not very successful at the time, though they served to prepare him for work that came later. He had much to contend against in himself, and after three years he went to the Caucasus to economise, in order to pay off debts made at cards. Here he hunted, drank, wrote his first sketches, and entered the army, in which an elder brother to whom he was greatly attached was serving, and which was then engaged in subduing the native tribes.
When the Crimean War began, in 1854, Tolstoy applied for active service, and was transferred to the army on the frontier of European Turkey, and then, soon after the siege began, to an artillery regiment engaged in the defence of Sevastopol. His uncle, Prince Gortchakóf, was commander-in-chief of the Russian army, and Tolstoy received an appointment to his staff. Here he obtained that first-hand knowledge of war which has helped him to speak on the subject with conviction. He saw war as it really is.
The men who governed Russia, France, England, Sardinia, and Turkey had quarrelled about the custody of the ‘Holy Places’ in Palestine, and about the meaning of two lines in a treaty made in 1774 between Russia and Turkey.
They stopped at home, but sent other people — most of them poorly paid, simple people, who knew nothing about the quarrel — to kill each other wholesale in order to settle it.
Working men were taken from Lancashire, Yorkshire, Middlesex, Essex, and all parts of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, and Sardinia, and shipped, thousands of miles, to join a number of poor Turkish peasants in trying to kill Russian peasants. These latter had in most cases been forced unwillingly to leave their homes and families, and to march on foot thousands of miles to fight these people they never saw before, and against whom they bore no grudge.
Some excuse had, of course, to be made for all this, and in England people were told the war was in defence of oppressed nationalities.
When some 500,000 men had perished, and about £340,000,000 had been spent, those who governed said it was time to stop. They forgot all about the oppressed nationalities,
but bargained about the number and kind of ships Russia might have on the Black Sea.
Fifteen years later, when France and Germany were fighting each other, the Russian Government tore up that treaty, and the other Governments then said it did not matter. Later still, Lord Salisbury said that in the Crimean War we put our money on the wrong horse.
To have said so at the time the people were killing each other would have been unpatriotic. In all countries truth, on such matters, spoken before it is stale, is unpatriotic.
When the war was over Count Tolstoy left the army and settled in Petersburg. He was welcome to whatever advantages the society of the capital had to offer, for not only was he a nobleman and an officer, just back from the heroic defence of Sevastopol, but he was then already famous as a brilliant writer. He had written short sketches since he was twenty-three, and while still young was recognised among Russia’s foremost literary men.
He had, therefore, fame, applause, and wealth — and at first he found these things very pleasant. But being a man of unusually sincere nature, he began in the second, and still more in the third, year of this kind of life, to ask himself seriously why people made such a fuss about the stories, novels, or poems, that he and other literary men were producing. If, said he, our work is really so valuable that it is worth what is paid for it, and worth all this praise and applause — it must be that we