Davydov Stanislav Gennadievich

Davydov Stanislav Gennadievich

Aug., 2025

Leo Tolstoy, pacifism, Tolstoyism, non-resistance to evil by violence, proclamations, pacifist groups, hippies, anarcho-pacifism

The article examines the history of Tolstoy's ideas in the pacifist movement of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. It is shown that Leo Tolstoy's arguments about nonviolence and non-resistance to evil found their followers in Russian society and served as unifying elements for pacifists in Russia. Concrete examples show the social activity of pacifists in the pre-revolutionary period, the years of revolution and the civil war. Since the late 1920s, the independent pacifist movement has been moving away, due to the well-known features of the political regime, into a "catacomb" state, the way out of which is associated with the activity of hippie representatives and young people who share their views, primarily students. Tolstoy's ideological legacy was also present in the general palette of the hippie ideological platform. Despite the strict position of the government, pacifists firmly fit into nonconformist and dissident structures. With the beginning of perestroika, many prohibitions are lifted, and pacifist organizations and publications are expanding their activities.

© 2025, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license