Leo Tolstoy

Overview

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, was in his later years a passionate moral philosopher — and one of the most prominent international advocates of Henry George's ideas.

Advocacy for George

Tolstoy regarded the single tax as both economically sound and morally compelling, seeing in it a way to end the injustice of private appropriation of land. He wove Georgist ideas into his fiction and essays (notably Resurrection), corresponded about George, and urged the single tax on the Russian government as a remedy for peasant landlessness. He said George's program brought "the consciousness of the injustice of land ownership" to a wide public.

Significance

Tolstoy's endorsement gave Georgism enormous moral prestige and international reach, especially in Russia and among religiously and ethically motivated reformers — illustrating the movement's appeal beyond economics.

Book Findings: Redfearn on Tolstoy's Georgism

David Redfearn's Tolstoy: Principles for a New World Order (1992), written at the prompting of Fred Harrison, traces the intellectual connection between Tolstoy's moral philosophy and Henry George's economic analysis. Redfearn argues that Tolstoy's advocacy of "common before private rights to land" was foundational to his social thought, not incidental (Redfearn 1992, p. 10). (D-claim; interpretive)

The State vs. Government Distinction

Redfearn draws a crucial distinction in Tolstoy's thought between "the State, to which Tolstoy objected on account of both its violent origins and its continuing exploitative purposes backed by violence, and 'government'" (Redfearn 1992, p. 73). Tolstoy had "no objection" to peasant assemblies (mir and volost) that were "reinvested with powers of self-government" in 1861. He compared the state to an eggshell: "the time will come when we shall outgrow this dependence, just as the chick outgrows its need for the protection of the eggshell. The State will then inevitably disappear" (Redfearn 1992, p. 72). (D-claim; interpretive)

Land Deprivation as the New Slavery

Redfearn documents Tolstoy's argument that "depriving men of the land they need to work on not only takes away their freedom and reduces their wages just as effectively as does owning their bodies, but also involves fewer responsibilities" (Redfearn 1992, p. 72). Tolstoy saw the 1861 abolition of serfdom as followed by worsened conditions because "the total area of land available for their cultivation was approximately halved, and they had to pay for their highly assessed allotments" (Redfearn 1992, pp. 72–73). (D-claim; interpretive)

George's Moment of Illumination

Redfearn traces George's central insight to a conversation with a teamster about land prices near Oakland: "Like a flash it came upon me that there was the reason of advancing poverty with advancing wealth. With the growth of population, land grows in value, and the men who work it must pay more for the privilege" (Redfearn 1992, p. 96). (A-claim; factual)

See Redfearn's book page for the full analysis. Redfearn is explicitly an advocate for both Tolstoy and George; the book is "a defence of them against misguided criticism" (Redfearn 1992, p. 8). (D-claim; interpretive)

See Also

• Henry George · Single Tax
• Tolstoy: Principles for a New World Order — Redfearn's book
• Fred Harrison — prompted the book's writing
• Single Tax Narrative — Tolstoy as international advocate

Sources

1. Leo Tolstoy, letters and essays on Henry George and Georgism (1889–1910) — used for Tolstoy's advocacy of the single tax, his appeals to the Russian government, and the "consciousness of the injustice of land ownership" remark. Collection
2. David Redfearn, Tolstoy: Principles for a New World Order (London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1992) — used for Tolstoy's Georgism as foundational to his philosophy, the state/government distinction, and the land-deprivation-as-slavery argument (A/D-claims). Book page