Remarkable LS in French, signed “Votre ami et frére, Leon Tolstoy,” seven pages four sheets, 5.25 x 8.5, February 8, 1908. Letter to Franco-Polish journalist Sergei Zimaco, penned in French in the hand of Sophia Tolstaya, with a few annotations by Tolstoy himself. In part (translated): "You ask me if I share your ideas expressed in your letter and the brochure addressed to Nicholas II. I will try to answer this question as frankly and seriously as possible. Your ideas on property, especially on the odious ownership of land, on the horror of patriotism, of wars and of the armed peace it engenders, are very dear to me and I have made for a quarter of a century everything I could to popularise them as much as possible. To fight against the terrible superstition of landed property, I wrote to the head of the government, offering him the fine role of putting himself at the head of this restitution to the vast majority of the people of their most sacred rights. I repeat the same steps again now…
As for militarism, I am happy to say that every day I receive letters from my unknown friends, true Christians, who suffer imprisonment and the misery of their families, for the refusal of military service… So that as regards your fundamental principles and the results to which you tend, I completely agree with you. I think I can say that however small the results obtained by people who try to follow Christian principles to their full extent, these results are greater than those which the anarchist communists have hitherto achieved.
This brings me to the heart of the matter and the only difference of opinion that exists between us. You say that the social problem is above all an economic problem. I do not think so. The social problem, as you say, or the coming of the kingdom of God as you understand it and as I understand it is much larger. The economic problem is only a very small part of the arc of the circle. There are the relations of the sexes, the education of children, nationalities, the way of acting towards assailants, madmen, animals and a number of personal actions which do not enter into the economic problem, and which are the most important for humanity. All these problems cannot be solved by solving the economic problem. The solution of these problems and of all those that may arise before man is not in economic laws, but in the spiritual realm. Their solution is that given by the apostle John in his epistles. The solution is in the revelation of love.
I say ‘revelation’ because I believe that love is not a prescription but an interior law of man’s life; that love is the only means for man to attain happiness, to which he tends naturally. This law was revealed not only by Christianity, but by all the sages of the world: Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Greeks etc. But it has only been accepted and understood by a very small minority. The history of mankind is nothing but the progressive realisation of this law, the acceptance of this law, the replacement of selfishness with love, not to reward them from beyond the grave, but for the true happiness of this life. This, my dear friend and brother, is my creed with which I lived the happiest last part of my life, and with which I await death at every moment, without desiring it and without being able to fear it.”
Reverse bears a note written in Zimico's hand, in part (translated): "[Tolstoy]…consoled me for the many setbacks I received from certain French journalists in wanting to expose them… and defend the true doctrine of Jesus Christ." In very good to fine condition, with light staining, toning, and soiling.
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