Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was one of the critics of Stolypin’s actions as prime minister. It got to the point that in one of the drafts of letters he called him "the most pitiful man" [1] . At the same time, the Stolypin family and Lev Nikolayevich had friendly relations. At one time, Tolstoy was on “you” with the father of the future head of government, but after his death, not only did not come to the funeral, but he did not express any sympathy, saying that “a dead body is nothing for him, and that he does not consider it worthy of with him ” [2] : 51-52 .
The writer learned about P. Stolypin's elevation only in the summer of 1906, when he was already the Minister of the Interior. Since that time, he began to be interested in the affairs of Stolypin, and a year later he sent the first letter to Peter Arkadyevich and a note to his younger brother Alexander [3] .
In the message of L. N. Tolstoy, advocated the abolition of private ownership of land:
... it is necessary to destroy the age-old ancient injustice ... The injustice consists in the fact that just as the right of one person to own others ( slavery ) cannot exist, the rights of one person, no matter how rich or poor a person, a king or a peasant, to own land cannot exist as property [4] .
And in the note, the writer bothered for the Saratov veterinarian, who joined the local troublemakers in the revolution and went to prison [3] .
For some time, the younger brother of the prime minister was forced to play the role of a mediator [3] . In one of his letters to him, Stolypin responded to the criticism of Leo Tolstoy:
Dear Sasha! If you will answer L. N. Tolstoy, write to him, please, that I am not ignorant, that I did not want to quickly reply to his letter, which, of course, interested and excited me, and that I would write to him when I could do that thought out [5] .
In late October 1907, Tolstoy received a response. In it, Stolypin entered into polemics with the writer:
Nature has invested in man some innate instincts, such as: the feeling of hunger, sexual feeling, etc., and one of the strongest feelings of this order is the feeling of ownership. You can not love someone else along with your [...] Poverty, for me, the worst of slaves. And now the same serfdom, - for money you can press people just as you did before the liberation of the peasants. It is funny to talk to these people about freedom, or about freedoms. First, bring their level of well-being to at least the smallest edge, where the minimum satisfaction makes a person free. And this is achievable only with the free application of labor to the land, that is, with the ownership of the land. [...] You always seemed to me a great man, I am to myself a modest opinion. I was brought up a wave of events - probably for a moment! I still want to use this moment as far as my powers, understandings and feelings are in favor of the people and my homeland, whom I love, as I loved it in the old days, how can I do something other than what I think and realize is good? And you write to me that I am walking along the road of evil deeds, bad glory and, most importantly, sin. Believe that, often feeling the possibility of imminent death, one cannot help thinking about these issues, and my way seems to me to be a straight path [6] .
Tolstoy responded with criticism of the prime minister’s actions, pointed out two major, in his opinion, mistakes: “... first, they began to fight violence with violence and continue to do it [...], second, - [...] to reassure the population so that by destroying community, to form small landed property [6] ".
On this letter, the controversy ended, more precisely, it began to be one-sided. “Yasnaya Polyana Recluse” wrote accusatory letters and articles, of which “I can’t be silent” became the most famous and wrathful: [3]
In general, thanks to the activities of the government, allowing the possibility of murder to achieve their goals [...] So everything that you do now with your searches, spies, exiles, prisons, penal servitude, gallows - all this does not lead the people to that state which you want to bring it, but, on the contrary, increases irritation and destroys any possibility of calm. [...] What you do, you do not for the people, but for yourself, in order to keep what you consider to be deceptive, according to your delusion, but in essence the most pitiful and disgusting position that you occupy. So do not say that what you do, you do for the people: this is not true. All the nasty things you do, you do for yourself, for your selfish, ambitious, vain, vindictive, personal goals, in order to live yourself a little more in the corruption in which you live and that seems good to you. ]
I appeal to all participants of crimes that are constantly under the false name of the law, to all of you, ranging from gallows caps and loops on women brothers, women, children, and up to you, the two main secret executioners all these crimes: Peter Stolypin and Nikolai Romanov.
Come to your senses, think again. Remember who you are and understand what you are doing.
After all, before being executioners, prime ministers, kings, first of all, people and brothers of people, you looked out into the light of day, tomorrow you will not be. (To you, which caused and provokes to yourself, both the executioners and you, especially hate, you must especially remember this.) Do you really look out at this one short moment in the light of day - death, if you they will be killed, here it is always behind us, - really, your vocation in life can only be to kill, torture people, tremble for fear of murder and lie to yourself, to people and to God that you do all this on duty for some fictional non-existent goal, for a fictional for you, precisely for that we could, as a villain, regard themselves ascetic invented in Russia. [...]
At first I thought about Pyotr Stolypin, when I had the naivety of offering him a speech on the project of freeing land from property, that he was only limited and confused by his position, and he also thought about Nikolai Romanov that he was brought to the stupidity by his environment manifested and manifests in his actions, but the longer the present situation lasts, the more I become convinced that these two people, the perpetrators of the crimes committed and the corruption of the people, consciously do what they do and that they find I was in an environment where they are, because of their ability to meet the desires of the people around them, live in a constant atmosphere of flattery and lies, that these two people are more than some other need in exposing and reminder.
Yes, all of you, from the first executioner to the last of them, Nicholas II, come to your senses, think about yourself, about your soul. Understand that everything that motivates you to do what you do is one human, pitiful human deception, and that the truth is in you and in the voice that occasionally, but probably speaks in you and calls you to one thing what a person needs in this world, to the fact that it is incompatible with anger, revenge, infliction of suffering, I do not speak already, with executions, to one love, to love and love to people. Only this is necessary, only it will give you a blessing in this life and in the soon coming transition from this life to each of us to that state which we do not know.
Help you with this, all of you, like you, unhappy, misguided, mostly young men, who think with violence and murder to save themselves and the people from violence and murder, and you dog to unhappy executioners from that watchman in Moscow and his deputy for 15 rubles each. from head to Stolypin and Nick. Romanov, help you all the god who lives in all of you, come to your senses before death and throw off all that bothers you to eat, the true benefit of life that is open to all of us in love. [7] [8] .
Later, in 1909, Leo Tolstoy prepared the prime minister another message, which he did not send in the end. It began with the words “I am writing to you about a very pitiful man, the most pitiful of all I know now in Russia. You know this person and, strangely speaking, love him, but you do not understand the full extent of his unhappiness and do not regret it, as his position deserves. This man is you yourself ” [1] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 L. N. Tolstoy. Letters L.N. Tolstoy Nikolay II and Stolypin . VIVOS VOCO website (1909). The date of circulation is January 1, 2011. Archived August 11, 2011.
- ↑ Bock M. P. Memories of my father P. A. Stolypin . - New York: Publishing House of them. Chekhov, 1953.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Sidorovnin G.P. Chapter VII. Dissolution of the II Duma. Intermedia period. // Petr Arkadyevich Stolypin: Life for the Fatherland: Biography (1862–1911). - M .: Generation, 2007. - p. 284–287. - 720 s. - 3000 copies - ISBN 978-5-9763-0037-8 .
- ↑ Tolstoy's correspondence with A. A. Stolypin . The fundamental electronic library of Russian literature and folklore (1907-1908). The date of circulation is January 1, 2011. Archived July 23, 2012.
- ↑ Leo Tolstoy - Peter Stolypin: Your activity is ruining your soul // Week. - 1990. - № 598 . - p . 10 .
- ↑ 1 2 P. A. Stolypin. Letters of P. A. Stolypin to L. Tolstoy . Chronos website (1907). The date of circulation is January 1, 2011. Archived August 11, 2011.
- ↑ L.N. Tolstoy. I can not be silent . Site lib.ru (1908). The date of circulation is January 1, 2011. Archived August 10, 2011.
- ↑ L.N. Tolstoy. I can not be silent (1st edition) . Site lib.ru (1908).