V. I.

Lenin

The epoch to which Lev Tolstoi belongs and which is reflected in such bold relief both in his brilliant literary works and in
his teachings began after 1861 and lasted until 1905. True, Tolstoi
commenced his literary career earlier and it ended later, but it was during
this period, whose transitional nature gave rise to all the
distinguishing features of Tolstoi’s works and of Tolstoi-ism, that he
fully matured both as an artist and as a thinker.

Through Levin, a character in Anna Karenina , Tolstoi very
vividly expressed the nature of the turn in Russia’s history that took
place during this half-century.

“ Talk about the harvest, hiring labourers, and so forth, which, as Levin knew, it was the custom to regard as something
very low, ... now seemed to Levin to be the only important thing. ‘This,
perhaps, was unimportant under serfdom, or is unimportant in England. In
both cases the conditions are definite; but here today, when everything
has been turned upside down and is only just taking shape again, the
question of how these conditions will shape is the only important