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A Molokan's
search for truth:
the
correspondence of Leo Tolstoy and Fedor Zheltov
(Un
Molokan cherche la vérité :
la
correspondance de Léon Tolstoï et Fedor Jeltov)
Traduit par
John Woodsworth
Edité par
Ethel Dunn
xvi+155 pp.
ISBN 0-88927-290-5
|
L. N. Tolstoj i F. A. Zheltov: Perepiska Publié
par
2001 Veuillez noter : ce livre
utilise une orthographie américaine
|
Le livre original
est édité avec une Introduction par
Andrew
Donskov
La correspondance
est compilée par
Ljudmila
Gladkova
CE VOLUME renferme trente-sept lettres de l'écrivain sectaire molokan Fedor Alekseevitch Jeltov à Léon Tolstoï, publiées pour la première fois, ainsi que quatorze lettres de Tolstoï à Jeltov (incluses dans l'Édition Jubilaire des åuvres complets rassemblés de Tolstoi), dont toutes sont écrites entre 1887 et 1909. Les lettres révèlent un échange de pensées et des expériences entre deux penseurs religieux qui essayaient sincèrement de découvrir la signification du Christianisme et la vérité biblique dans leur propre vie; chacun a contribué aux recherches de l'autre à travers leur correspondance mutuelle.
|
De la préface à l'édition anglaise
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.
De la préface du traducteur
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....
De la lettre de Fedor Jeltov à Léon Tolstoï du 18 avril 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.
De la lettre de Tolstoï à Jeltov du 20 juillet 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.
De l'Introduction d'Andrew Donskov, Université d'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..
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