Nikola Berdyaev on Leo N. Tolstoy

Abstract

In this essay we wished to point out the various ways and means in which the »great Russian wrtter« Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 — 1910) influenced perhaps the most prominent Russian philosopher Nikolai A. Berdyaev (1874—1948). The essay does not give a complete picture of this singular relationship between two great Russian thinkers, but rather invites us, as philosophy always does, to pursue our research by probing both further and deeper into the matter. Since Berdyaev is perhaps one of the very few to approach the person and work of this great Russian writer systematically, endeavouring always to portray him objectively, Berdyaev's conclusions to which he came in the course of studying Tolstoy's works are a worthwhile achievement. Berdyaev's views on many great thinkers are definitive and refined, and so too of those whom he regarded as being the creators of Russian philosophy-writers.