Leo Tolstoy’s Religious and Philosophical Writings: The Dawn of Fame in France and Germany

Abstract

The article analyses the reasons and mechanism behind the international fame of Leo Tolstoy’s religious and philosophical journalism. The initiative to translate Tolstoy’s religious and philosophical articles belongs to Prince L.D. Urusov. With the assistance of the French writer Juliette Adam, he was able to publish the introduction to The Gospel in Brief in her magazine. Adam advocated for a rapprochement between France and Russia and viewed publication of Russian authors as a means of improving the image of Russia in French public opinion. Protestants appreciated Tolstoy’s articles and sought contact with the author. Urusov’s translation of My Religion was published by the Protestant publisher C. Fischbacher, all expenses being covered by Tolstoy. Simultaneously, a German translation was published by C. Geibel, a German liberal publisher. Other translations soon followed. Tolstoy was promoted as a thinker and religious reformer. His views were compared to nonconformism, theosophy and eastern religions. He was proclaimed as a preacher of Christian anarchism and nihilism. Tolstoy’s declarations against the Russian government and the Church were considered beneficial for revolutionary propaganda and for influencing public opinion in Russia. E.-M. de Vogüé’s critique of Tolstoy’s philosophy helped shape the Catholics’ attitude towards Tolstoy’s views. Catholics saw that the propaganda of Tolstoy’s ideas came from Protestants but did not attach much importance to his articles, pointing to their secondary and controversial nature. Tolstoy was well aware of the reasons behind his international fame and kept that in mind when working on his subsequent articles.