Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910)

Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) the mystic literary voice of Russia, was also a herald of Indian thought. He was a champion of nonviolent protest; he was "an influential factor in the social restlessness that swept Russia before the revolution." He was a mystic who started Russia's first vegetarian society. After the Bolshevik revolution in 1971, his followers were persecuted and all vegetarian communities were closed. Tolstoy, a late-comer, was also deeply influenced by Indian religious thought. Like Wagner, his introduction to it was through Burnoff and Schopenhauer.

He was greatly influenced by the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tamil Tirukkural and the modern Indian spiritual literature of his time. Milan Markovitch, the author of Tolstoi et Gandhi, wrote that:

"There is not one of Tolstoy's works written after this period" of his life referred to in the Confessions "which is not inspired, in part, by Hindu thought . . . His was a Christianity underpinned by the great Hindu doctrines."

He further adds that Tolstoy also "remains the most striking example, among a great many, of these who sought a cure for the western spirit in India."

(source: The Oriental Renaissance - By Raymond Schwab p. 451. and On Hinduism Reviews and Reflections - By Ram Swarup p. 105).