The Slavery Of Our Times
By Leo Tolstoy
()
About this ebook
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is the author of War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and other classics of Russian literature.
Read more from Leo Tolstoy
A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War and Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confession Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5War and Peace : Complete and Unabridged Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tolstoy's Stories for Children Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Death of Ivan Ilyich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Following the Call: Living the Sermon on the Mount Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wise Thoughts for Every Day: On God, Love, the Human Spirit, and Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Christmas Stories of All Time: Timeless Classics That Celebrate the Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat is Art? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master and Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gospel in Brief: The Life of Jesus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Book of Christmas Tales: 250+ Short Stories, Fairytales and Holiday Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Confession and Other Religious Writings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Death of Ivan Ilych (Complete Version, Best Navigation, Active TOC) (A to Z Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thoughtful Wisdom for Every Day: 365 Days of Love, Kindness, Healing, Faith, and Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Beautiful Christmas Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBEST RUSSIAN SHORT STORIES Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gospel in Tolstoy: Selections from His Short Stories, Spiritual Writings & Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Slavery Of Our Times
Related ebooks
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and on the Will in Nature - Two Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prince Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Days that Shook the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gambler Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHuman, All Too Human Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGroupthink: A Study in Self Delusion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Metaphysics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master and Margarita Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Is to Be Done? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistorical Materialism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Communist Manifesto Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Communist Manifesto & Selected Writings: & Selected Writings Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dragon Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Market Civilizations: Neoliberals East and South Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeviathan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mass Psychology of Fascism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Idiot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlobal Civil War: Capitalism Post-Pandemic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Discovery of Iran: Taghi Arani, a Radical Cosmopolitan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRhetoric Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Genealogy of Morals (Translated by Horace B. Samuel with an Introduction by Willard Huntington Wright) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ideas of Karl Marx Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Netochka Nezvanova by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Marxism and Philosophy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Syndromes of Souls: Search In...Your Soul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crowd Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Essays, Study, and Teaching For You
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Human Nature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhose Middle Ages?: Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way I Heard It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Defence of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handy History Answer Book: From the Stone Age to the Digital Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Trail of Tears:The 19th Century Forced Migration of Native Americans Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAP® U.S. History Crash Course, 4th Ed., Book + Online Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReconstruction Updated Edition: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-18 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5History's Greatest Lies: The Startling Truths Behind World Events Our History Books Got Wrong Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5AP® U.S. History Crash Course, For the 2020 Exam, Book + Online: Get a Higher Score in Less Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDick Gregory's Political Primer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Wall Street: The Wealthy African American Community of the Early 20th Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Vol. 2: Since 1877 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Souls of Black Folk: The Unabridged Classic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Witch of Eye Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Lose a Battle: Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Story of America: Essays on Origins Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Short Books: A Year of Reading—Briefly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Could Happen Here: Why America Is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable—And How We Can Stop It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Massey Lectures: Recovered Classics from Five Great Thinkers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for The Slavery Of Our Times
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Slavery Of Our Times - Leo Tolstoy
THE SLAVERY OF OUR TIMES
By
Leo Tolstoy
Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Contents
Leo Tolstoy
INTRODUCTION
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
CHAPTER II SOCIETY’S INDIFFERENCE WHILE MEN PERISH
CHAPTER III JUSTIFICATION OF THE EXISTING POSITION BY SCIENCE
CHAPTER IV THE ASSERTION OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE THAT RURAL LABOURERS MUST ENTER THE FACTORY SYSTEM
CHAPTER V WHY LEARNED ECONOMISTS ASSERT WHAT IS FALSE
CHAPTER VI BANKRUPTCY OF THE SOCIALIST IDEAL
CHAPTER VII. CULTURE OR FREEDOM
CHAPTER VIII. SLAVERY EXISTS AMONG US
CHAPTER IX WHAT IS SLAVERY?
CHAPTER X. LAWS CONCERNING TAXES, LAND AND PROPERTY
CHAPTER XI LAWS THE CAUSE OF SLAVERY
CHAPTER XII THE ESSENCE OF LEGISLATION IS ORGANISED VIOLENCE
CHAPTER XIII WHAT ARE GOVERNMENTS? IS IT POSSIBLE TO EXIST WITHOUT GOVERNMENTS?
CHAPTER XIV HOW CAN GOVERNMENTS BE ABOLISHED?
CHAPTER XV WHAT SHOULD EACH MAN DO?
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born on 9th September 1828, at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate located seventy miles from Tula, Russia.
A master of realistic fiction, Tolstoy is widely considered one of the greatest novelists of all time. He is best known for his two longest novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), though he also penned short stories, plays and philosophical essays on Christianity, nonviolent resistance, art and pacifism.
The Tolstoys were a well-known family of old Russian nobility, and Leo was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, and Countess Mariya Tolstaya. Tolstoy’s parents died when he was young however, so he and his siblings were brought up by relatives. In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University (the second oldest of the Russian universities). Surprisingly, Tolstoy was not known as a promising student, and was described by one lecturer as ‘both unable and unwilling to learn.’
Tolstoy left university in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much of his time in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army. It was about this time that he started writing. Tolstoy served as Second Lieutenant in an artillery regiment during the Crimean War, recounted in his Sevastopol Sketches. His experiences in battle helped stir his subsequent pacifism and gave him material for realistic depiction of the horrors of war in his later work.
His conversion from a dissolute and privileged society author to the non-violent and spiritual anarchist of his latter days was brought about by his experience in the army as well as two trips around Europe in 1857 and 1860–61. During his 1857 visit, Tolstoy witnessed a public execution in Paris, a traumatic experience that would mark the rest of his life. Writing in a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin, he stated:
The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere.
Tolstoy’s European trip in 1860–61 further shaped both his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo, whose literary talents Tolstoy praised after reading Hugo’s newly finished novel Les Misérables.
Tolstoy’s political philosophy was also influenced by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, then living in exile under an assumed name in Brussels. Apart from reviewing Proudhon’s forthcoming publication, La Guerre et la Paix (War and Peace in French), whose title Tolstoy would borrow for his masterpiece, the two men discussed education and its significance for modern culture. Fired by enthusiasm, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana and founded thirteen schools for the children of Russia’s peasants, who had just been emancipated from serfdom in 1861. Tolstoy described the school’s principles in his 1862 essay ‘The School at Yasnaya Polyana’. Tolstoy’s educational experiments were short-lived however, partly due to harassment by the Tsarist secret police.
On 23rd September 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs, who was sixteen years his junior and the daughter of a court physician. They had thirteen children, eight of whom survived childhood. The marriage was marked from the outset by sexual passion and emotional insensitivity. Even so, their early married life was ostensibly happy and allowed Tolstoy much freedom to compose War and Peace and Anna Karenina with Sonya acting as his secretary, proof-reader and financial manager. Despite this, their later life together was an unhappy one; their relationship deteriorated as Tolstoy’s beliefs became increasingly radical, especially after he tried to reject his inherited and earned wealth, including the renunciation of the copyrights on his earlier works.
Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s. After this, he also became noted as a moral thinker, social reformer, and Georgist. In 1884, Tolstoy wrote a book titled What I Believe, in which he openly confessed his Christian beliefs. He affirmed his belief in Jesus Christ’s teachings and was particularly influenced by the Sermon on the Mount. Tolstoy took the injunction to ‘turn the other cheek’ as a ‘commandment of non-resistance to evil by force’ and a doctrine of pacifism and nonviolence. By directly influencing Mahatma Gandhi with this idea through his work The Kingdom of God Is Within You, Tolstoy has had a huge influence on the nonviolent resistance movement to this day. He believed that the aristocracy were a burden on the poor, and that the only appropriate political system was anarchism.
Tolstoy died in 1910, at the age of eighty-two. Just prior to his death, his health had been a concern to his family, who were actively engaged in his care on a daily basis. During his last few days, he had spoken and written about dying. Renouncing his aristocratic lifestyle, he had finally gathered the nerve to separate from his wife, and left home in the middle of Winter, in the dead of night. His secretive departure was an apparent attempt to escape unannounced from Sophia’s jealous tirades. She was outspokenly opposed to many of his teachings, and in recent years had grown envious of the attention which it seemed to her Tolstoy lavished upon his Tolstoyan ‘disciples.’ Tolstoy died of pneumonia at Astapovo train station, after a day’s rail journey south.
Even to his contemporaries, Tolstoy was praised by the most eminent thinkers, in the highest of words. Fyodor Dostoyevsky thought him the greatest of all living novelists. Gustave Flaubert, on reading a translation of War and Peace, exclaimed, ‘What an artist and what a psychologist!’ Anton Chekhov, who often visited Tolstoy at his country estate, once wrote:
When literature possesses a Tolstoy, it is easy and pleasant to be a writer; even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because Tolstoy achieves for everyone.
The Tolstoy family left Russia in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and Leo Tolstoy’s descendants today live in Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the United States.
INTRODUCTION
By Aylmer Maude
This little book shows, in a short, clear, and systematic manner, how the principle of Non-Resistance, about which Tolstoy has written so much, is related to economic and political life.
The great majority of men, without knowing why, are constrained to labour long hours at tasks they dislike, and often to live in unhealthy conditions. It is not that man has so little control over nature that to obtain a subsistence it is necessary to work in this way, but because men have made laws about land, taxes, and property, which result in placing the great bulk of the people in conditions which compel them to labour thus, or go to the workhouse, or starve.
It may be said that man’s nature is so bad that were