Slavonic glorious ideals of freedom, union and brotherhood in letters to Count Leo Tolstoy and the writer’s reply to Stefania Laudyn-Chrzanowska - „To a Polish Woman (One of Many) " Cover Image

Славянские возвышенные идеи свободы, общности и братства в письмах разных лиц к Л.Н. Толстому и его ответ Стефании Ляудын-Хшановской Польcкой женщине („Одной из многих”)
Slavonic glorious ideals of freedom, union and brotherhood in letters to Count Leo Tolstoy and the writer’s reply to Stefania Laudyn-Chrzanowska - „To a Polish Woman (One of Many) "

Author(s): Bazyli Białokozowicz
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warmińsko-Mazurskiego w Olsztynie
Keywords: Leo Tolstoy;Russian literature;Slavonic ideals;

Summary/Abstract: The author’s of Resurrection letters to different addressees, as well as about 60 thousand letters to the Russian writer from all over the world are kept in the Department of Manuscript Works of the National Museum of Count Leo Tolstoy in Moscow. Indeed, it is a real mine of knowledge of the writer’s contemporary Russia and the world of those days. The author of this publication pays particular attention to the letters of correspondents in Slavonic countries who subjected Slavonic glorious ideals of freedom, union and brotherhood to a penetrating analysis in view of a peaceful community of people of different nationalities, races and cultures. Such were the letters to Count Leo Tolstoy of 6th July 1909 by All-Slavonic Association „Slavia”, as well as the letters of 11th June 1910 by a revived Polish Fellowship Association — reverting to noble as well as tragic Arian history in the Poland of Reformation, signed by Marian Tadeusz Lubecki, Jozef Ostka, Stefan Baraniecki, Stanisław Parczyński, Kazimierz Piątka, Amelia Poznańska and many others. The Russian writer was applied to with many various requests (e.g. Osip Vysoky of Czech in the matter of rendering; Andża Mita Petrovic of Belgrade in the concern of Bosnia-Herzegovina annexation by Austria; Marian Zdziechowski of Cracow in the issue of tolstoizm as a religious-ethical doctrine; Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin and Jan Styka in the question of death penalty). Tolstoy’s confidant in European and Slavonic matters was a Slovakian doctor and philosopher, Dusan Makovicky, living in Yasna Polyana, the author of a masterpiece — The Yasna Polyana Record (1904—1910). Count Leo Tolstoy would consequently answer the rankling the Slavonic society questions in harmony with his rationalistic doctrine, called tolstoizm. According to the writer’s sound belief God is love and through Jesus Christ shares with His love with people. A full union with God — it is the union in the truth, love and peace. A man who chooses love is soaked through with endless kind-heartedness. The main feature of Tolstoy was a grave concern for the world’s doom. A Christian should be totally deprived of hate and the feeling of revenge; love, forgiveness, compassion, fight against evil through spreading kindliness and noble feelings should be the trails of the religion based on the life and teachings of Christ, in agreement with the principle: who lives with God, chooses love. The love of fellow being was seen and felt by the writer as a significant value which ought to be learnt and contributed to incessantly. The writer as an architect and director of purified of Christianity alien layers and a moral philosopher constantly supported kindliness and condemned evil, spreading out the space of hope and love through his obedience to peace and evangelical source of Christianity, which was perspicaciously expressed in the letter to Stefania Laudyn-Chrzanowska, in a form of a voluminous article — A Reply to a Polish Woman (One of Many).

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: XIII
  • Page Range: 277-286
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Russian