'The Church perverts the great teaching that people need'. 1903

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910)
'The Church perverts the great teaching that people need'. 1903
Autograph letter signed ('L. Tolstoy') to Ivan Mikhailovich [Tregubov], [Yasnaya Polyana], 6 May 1903.

In Russian. One page, 263 x 217mm, ink transfer on verso of a second autograph letter signed by Tolstoy, to Boris Osipovich Goldenblat, 6 May 1903, and of part of another. Provenance: Ketterer Kunst, 21/22 May 2007, lot 88.

'The Church perverts the great teaching that people need': Tolstoy's presumed responsibility for an anti-clerical uprising. Tolstoy responds to two letters from Tregubov and an article which he approves, although 'its conclusion about the two types of consciousness must be struck out'. He goes on: 'What you write in your first letter about the activites of the revolutionaries is very interesting and important. I have finished my 'Epilogue' ['To politicians'] and am planning to send it today to Chertkov. Your reproach to me for my words concerning the destruction of the temple is fair, but there are mitigating circumstances ... Let this letter of mine to you be an expression of my repentance. In response to your question, whether the Pavlovtsy acted well or badly in destroying the church, I answer you that it is obviously bad, just as bad as when the same people destroy a factory ... although there are extenuating circumstances, in that the Church perverts the great teaching that people need, just as there would be extenuating circumstances if one destroyed a factory that produced weapons of murder and execution. I do not condemn strikes, but I think that strikes which arise out of previous agreement and not impulsively are unfruitful.

Published from Tolstoy's retained copy, letterbook no.5, f.173. I.M. Tregubov (1858-1931) was the son of a priest who became a convinced Tolstoyan after meeting the writer in 1891. Tregubov was a close associate of Vladimir Grigoryevich Chertkov (1854-1936, later executor of Tolstoy's literary estate), and like him was in exile for revolutionary activities at this time. The Pavlovtsy were a sect of dissenters based at Pavlovki in Kharkov province, and their destruction of the Orthodox church at Pavlovki in September 1901 was generally considered to have been inspired by their Tolstoyan beliefs. The ink transfer of one or more additional letters on the verso is an intriguing reminder of Tolstoy's use of wet-copy letter books to preserve copies of his correspondence: the letter to Goldenblat, which can be read quite clearly, relates to the recipient's help in a court case: 'Recently I sent a person to you not because I was counting on your help, but only to convince him of the futility of further intercessions'.

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