The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-01-23
T0ESFOY AND TEE GEAR.
APPEAL PROM WHAT CoNSID-
Erred A DYING BED.


What the People RequIre-A Cry for
Liberty.
The following letter to the Gar,
translated by V. Teherikoff and /. f.
M, and published in the London Times,
was written by Tolstoy about three
years ago, when he himself and all
around him thought that he was dying,
but has not been printed until now:
Dear Brother: Such form of address
ing you seems to me the most appropri-
ate because in this letter appeal to
You not SO much as to a Car as to a
mania brother; and also because
write to you as it were from the other
world, expecting the approach of death.
/ do not wish to die without telling you
what / think of your, present activity
and Of what it might be, what great
welfare it might bring to millions of
people and to yourself, and what a
great evil it may bring both to the peo-
pie and to You, if it continues in the
direction in which it is now going.
A third of Russia lies in the state of
special control--i. e.. outside the law.
The army of police, visible and secret,
goes on continually increasing. Pris-
ons, places of exile and of penal seryi-
tude are overfiowing, ''politicalsf' with
whom working men are now CLASSIFIED
being added to the hundreds of thou
sands of ordinary criminals. The CEN
sorship of literature extends to such. alb
surd prohibitions which it did not reach
even during the worst period Of the for
ties. Religious persecution has never
been so frequent and cruel as it is now,
and becomes ever more cruel and fire.
quent. Everywhere, both in the towns
and Industrial centers, troops are con-
centrated and sent out with loaded
cartridges against the people. In many
places fratricidal conflicts have already
taken place, and everywhere such are
being. prepared, and new and yet more
cruel struggles win inevitably occur.
AS the result of all this strenuous and
cruel activity Of the government, the
agricultural population-th hundred
millions upon whom rests the power of
Russia notwithstanding the dispropor-
tionately increasing budget, or rather,
owing to this increase, is every year be-
coming poorer, SO that famine has be-
come normal occurrence. And the un-
iversal dissatisfaction of all classes
with the government. and their inimical
attitude towards it, has also increased
in proportion.
The reason for all this, so palpably
evident, is this. Your helpers assure
you that, by the arrest of all progress
of life in the nation, they will thereby
ensure the welfare of this people and
your own peace and safety.
But one can sooner arrest the flow of
a river than that incessant progressive
movement Of mankind which is estab-
lisled by God.
One understands how those to whom
such a state Of things is advantageous,
and who in the depths Of their souls
says, "Apres nous la dellge," can and
must assure you of this; but it is aston
ishing how you-a free man, needing
nothing, and rational and good man.
can believe them and, following their
horrible advice, commit or allow to be
committed SO much evil for the sake Of
such an urlattainable desire as the ar
rest of the eternal progress of mankind.
You cannot but know that ever since
the life of man IS known to us, the
forms of this life economical and social.
as well as religious and political, have
continually changed, passing from
forms more coarse, cruel and irrational
to, softer, more humane and more ra-
tional ones Your advisers tell you that
this is not SO; that as for the Russian
people at some bygone time orthodoxy
and autoeracy were suitable, so they
are suitable now, and SO they will re-
main until the end of time, and that
therefore, for the welfare of the Rus
sian people. 1T lis necessary at all costs
to maintain these two combined forms
OF religious belief and political organi-
cation But this is a double error.
First, it is impossible to assert that
orthodoxy, which may once have been
natural to the Russian people, is now
natural to them. From the reports of
the procurator of the synod you may
see that the more developed among the
people, notwithstanding all the advan-
tages and dangers to which they are
exposed when they secede from ortho-
doxy every year join the so-called sects
in increasing numbers. Secondly, if it
were true that orthodoxy is natural to
the people, then there would be no rea-
son for the use of coercion to support
this form Of belief, nor for the cruel
persecution Of those who repudiate it.
So. as to autocracy,s if 1T were natural
to the Russian people while this people
still believed that the Gear is an infal-
lble earthly deityWho alone rules the
people, it is far from natural to them
now, when they all know, or else find
out as soon as they get a little educa-
tion, first that a good Gar is only an
IN hetireux hasard, and that Cars may
be and have been monsters and mani
acs--like John Nv. and Paul; and sec"
ondly, that, however good and wise a.
man a Gear might be, he himself can
not possibly rule a nation of one hun
bred and thirty-six million, but that the
people are ruled by those who surround
the Car, and who are more concerned
with their own position than with the
peoples welfare.
{. You will reply that the Gar can
elect as helpers for himself disinterested
and good people. Unfortunately, the
Gar cannot do this, because he knows