Tolstoyan movement

Tolstoyan movement. The Tolstoyan movement was a social, philosophical, and religious movement based on the late-life teachings of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. Emerging in the late 1880s, it advocated for a radical form of Christian anarchism and pacifism, rejecting all forms of institutional violence, including the state, military, and private property. Its followers, known as Tolstoyans, sought to live in accordance with the ethical principles of the Sermon on the Mount, establishing agricultural communes and promoting nonviolent resistance across Europe, North America, and beyond.

Origins and philosophical foundations

The movement crystallized following Tolstoy's profound spiritual crisis in the 1870s, detailed in his work A Confession, which led him to renounce his earlier literary successes like War and Peace and Anna Karenina. His subsequent theological treatise, The Kingdom of God Is Within You, became a foundational text, synthesizing ideas from the Gospels, the writings of Adin Ballou, and the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. Tolstoy's excommunication by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901 solidified his break with institutional religion and attracted dissidents. Key influences also included the American Revolution-era pacifism of the Quakers and the civil disobedience ideas later embraced by Mahatma Gandhi.

Core principles and beliefs

Central to Tolstoyan doctrine was a literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount, particularly the injunction against resisting evil by force, leading to absolute pacifism and conscientious objection to military service. They vehemently opposed the state, viewing its courts, police, and prisons as instruments of coercion incompatible with Christian ethics. The movement advocated for Christian anarchism, rejecting all forms of private property and promoting a life of manual agricultural labor, simplicity, and vegetarianism. Tolstoyans practiced nonviolent resistance, a strategy that profoundly influenced Mahatma Gandhi during his time in South Africa following correspondence with Tolstoy.

Organization and communities

As a decentralized movement opposed to hierarchy, Tolstoyans organized into self-sufficient agricultural communes, attempting to create a counter-society free from state control. Significant communities were established within the Russian Empire, such as the Kherson Governorate settlement, and across the world, including the Purleigh colony in England and the Christian Commonwealth in Georgia (U.S. state). These communes often faced persecution; within Russia, many were suppressed by the Okhrana and later the Cheka, while members were frequently imprisoned for refusing conscription. Publishing efforts, like Vladimir Chertkov's press and the journal The Free Word, were crucial for disseminating banned works by Leo Tolstoy and other tracts.

Influence and legacy

The movement's most direct and profound impact was on Mahatma Gandhi and the development of Satyagraha during the Indian independence movement, with Gandhi declaring Tolstoy his greatest teacher. Its principles of nonviolent resistance provided intellectual groundwork for later activists, including Martin Luther King Jr. and the American civil rights movement. Within Russia, despite suppression under Tsar Nicholas II and later Vladimir Lenin, it preserved a strand of radical pacifist thought. The movement also influenced early environmentalism, the back-to-the-land movement, and cooperative living experiments throughout the 20th century.

Notable figures and adherents

Beyond its founder Leo Tolstoy, key propagators included his close disciple Vladimir Chertkov, who edited and smuggled his later works abroad. The writer Mikhail Novosyolov was an early leader, while figures like Valentin Bulgakov served as Tolstoy's last secretary. Internationally, the British journalist John Coleman Kenworthy established the Purleigh colony, and the anarchist Prince Peter Kropotkin expressed strong sympathies with its ideals. Notable adherents also included the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Kassner, the Bulgarian writer Mikhail Gerdzhikov, and the pioneering vegetarianism advocate William Fayle.

Category:Christian anarchism Category:New religious movements Category:Political movements