Without violence and lies

Leo Tolstoy is not only the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, but also one of the most radical critics of the state, church, and war in the history of Russian thought. This collection includes journalistic works from Tolstoy's late years (1868-1910), in which he expresses with utmost frankness his views on the nature of power, patriotism, violence, and social justice. These include passionate anti-war articles from the Russo-Japanese War, correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi, reflections on the Russian Revolution of 1905, and criticism of socialism and the church. For these texts, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the church and placed under police surveillance, yet he continued to speak what he believed to be the truth. His ideas on nonviolent resistance influenced 20th-century liberation movements from India to the United States.