Leo Tolstoy
The Russian novelist became one of Henry George's most fervent advocates, promoting the single tax as a moral and practical remedy for landed injustice.
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.
See Also
Sources
- Leo Tolstoy, letters and essays on Henry George and Georgism (1889–1910). Collection