In 1888, to show that the ideas of which he made himself the apostle were not illusive dreams, or the conceptions of a paradoxical mind, Tolstoï himself edited in Russian Wealth[1] Bondareff's book, whose publication had been forbidden. On this occasion he wrote a profound essay on the work and theory of Bondareff, which we publish herewith together with Bondareff's own production.
The principal reason for presenting to the world a translation of Labor is that it possesses great value, not only as showing Tolstoï's own views, but as displaying the great intelligence belonging to the reform that he advocated. Bondareff's work is the simple but profound effort of an uneducated peasant, who stammeringly proclaimed in 1881 the great reform of which Tolstoï subsequently became the champion and herald.
I.
Between the doctrine of the peasant Bondareff and that of the noble Lyof Tolstoï exists a strong and remarkable resemblance. Tolstoï, as we have said, knew Bondareff; he
- ↑ A journal published under the direction of M. Obolonski.
expression of a popular writer, or the natural law of life as we call it. This law prescribes to each of us personal labor as the means of existence."—"The popular writer" of whom Tolstoï speaks is no other than Bondareff, who, as we shall see, bases manual labor on the primitive or primordial law: "In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread."
