for Kennan because of his denunciation of the horrors of Russian prisons and deportation to Siberia, he was far from satisfied with the visit.
Quite the contrary was the case in the visit of Professor Massarik, a Czech and a doctor of philosophy, who left a very pleasant impression by his simplicity and clear understanding of high, spiritual problems. But the visit of Déroulède, the well-known French patriot, was not fruitful of mutual understanding. His hatred of Germany, and his hope of revenge, brought him to Russia with the view of arousing public opinion there against Germany and of inducing Russia to declare war against her neighbour, so that the latter might be attacked from two sides. He therefore appealed to Tolstoy as being a leader of public opinion. Tolstoy, in a humorous sketch, described the efforts of Déroulède to explain to the peasants of Yasnaya Polyana how Germany was to be squeezed from two sides, and how the peasants replied that it would be better to invite the Germans to work beside them. Déroulède’s mission proved a failure.
Tolstoy’s ideas began to penetrate amongst the peasantry and working classes chiefly owing to the publications of the Posrednik. In 1887 he received a copy of a catechism from the south
