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A Molokan's
search for truth:
the
correspondence of Leo Tolstoy and Fedor Zheltov
Translated by
John Woodsworth
Edited by
Ethel Dunn
xvi+155 pp.
ISBN 0-88927-290-5
|
L. N. Tolstoj i F. A. Zheltov: Perepiska Published
by
2001 Please note: American
spelling conventions are used throughout this book.
|
Original book
edited and with an Introduction by
Andrew
Donskov
Correspondence
compiled by
Ljudmila
Gladkova
THIS VOLUME
comprises thirty-seven letters from Molokan sectarian writer
Fedor
Alekseevich Zheltov to Leo Tolstoy, never before published,
along with
fourteen
letters from Tolstoy to Zheltov
(included
in the Jubilee Edition of the Complete Collected Works of
Tolstoy),
all written
between 1887 and 1909.
The letters
reveal a sharing of thoughts and experiences on the part of
two religious
thinkers who were both earnestly striving to
discover
the
meaning of Christianity and biblical truth in their own lives,
each contributing
to the other's quest through their mutual correspondence.
|
From the preface to the English edition
The question still remains, why should an American Molokan in Los Angeles, say, be interested in these letters? Zheltov's letters seem to me to be an extraordinarily clear statement of belief (particulary Letter 8), and one can only hope that his faith sustained him as we was taken out, at age 77, and shot on trumped-up charges by the Soviet regime in 1938. ...
To Molokans who have transferred to other Protestant denominations, the exchanges between Tolstoy and Zheltov about the Christian life might awaken a response. With a better understanding of their past and their place in Russian history, I hope that Molokans in America will help their Russian brothers and sisters, because this help is sorely needed -- not just the building of churches and the provision of Bibles, but material aid as well.
From the Translator's Note
Having worked closely with Andrew Donskov on the publication of the original Russian edition, entitled L.N. Tolstoi i F.A. Zheltov: perepiska [L.N. Tolstoy and F.A. Zheltov: Correspondence], I was very glad to respond to Ethel Dunn's invitation to produce an English translation for the benefit fo the many Molokans (as well as students of the religious, philosophical or literary history of Russia) who are not familiar with the Russian language.
The translation was not without its share of challenges....
From Fedor Zheltov's letter to Leo Tolstoy of 18 April 1887
We are simple people, simple peasants -- literate, but not well-educated; we still have a lot to learn, to understand, yet at the same time we realize that these great truths for which mankind has been striving either consciously or unconsciously for eons, which it has expressed and still is expressing by various means and which it is searching for either directly or by roundabout ways, are to be found only in the unchanging, eternal moral law, which summarizes their totality in just a few words: love for one's neighbor, love for one's enemy, love for God, hence in knowledge of God, in an understanding of good and truth... The people of whom I am speaking are the sectarians -- the "Spiritual Christians," or simply Molokans.
From Tolstoy's letter to Zheltov of 20 July 1887
I received your story. In terms of both spirit and content, it is very good... I am delighted on the whole to communicate with you. The point is not so much to write, but to live a Christian life; that is the highest creative achievement available to mankind.
From the Introduction by Andrew Donskov, University of Ottawa
The fundamental content of the letters ... is the discussion of religious questions, along with a wide array of burning social problems. F.A. Zheltov's religious beliefs, which in many respects coincided with the views of L.N. Tolstoy, are discussed in some detail in Letter No. 15 (date 15 October 1889), along with the tenets of the Molokan faith. The content of this letter, as well as of several other of Zheltov's letters which are so extensive as to approximate detailed critical articles or treatises, give a picture of their author as an extremely intelligent person and at the same time a rather colorful figure. On the one hand, this Russian peasant sectarian remains unshaken in his convictions as a thinker, while on the other hand he stands out as a stranger to his own milieu by virtue of his sharply penetrating analystical mind, the breadth of his reading experience and the logic of his arguments. ...
Zheltov's letters to Tolstoy are fraught with a multitude of interwoven themes. These include educational issues (especially relating to child-raising), the true meaning of literature, marriage, prayer (should it be in a group or in solitude?--"only in solitude," replies Tolstoy), the person of Jesus Christ, famine, drunkenness, and useful books for the people to read..
Click on the links below to see the volumes in the Tolstoy Series:
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