Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910) is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time.Tolstoy’s pacifist beliefs are well-known, as is his theory of non-violent resistance to evil ("непротивление злу насилием"), expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894). These ideas had a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Luther King Jr.
What is much less well known is Tolstoy’s approach to violence as a social practice. Tolstoy’s ideas on this were complex and highly sophisticated. He differentiated between types of violence: for example, criminal violence, military violence, revolutionary violence and State violence.
Tolstoy condemned any form of violence, he never regarded different forms of it as equally sinful and terrible. In his talk Professor Zorin will explain how Tolstoy came to this view by first examining the underlying rationale for Tolstoy’s powerful objection to violence in any form. He will outline Tolstoy’s views on pacifism and non-violence by way of background and will then explain Tolstoy’s principled objection to violence, i.e. what, according to Tolstoy, was wrong with violence as such and why it was unacceptable. Having provided us with this insight, Professor Zorin will then explain Tolstoy’s differentiation between different types of violence and why he regarded some forms of violence as more reprehensible than others. Throughout his talk Professor Zorin will illustrate Tolstoy’s approach to violence as a social practice (and his differentiation between different types of violence) by reference to Tolstoy’s creative works, including War and Peace (1867), The Power of Darkness (1886) and Divine and Human (1906), and to his essays - e.g. The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894) and Bethink Yourselves!(1904) - and his diaries and correspondence.
Andrei Zorin has been Professor and Chair of Russian at Oxford University since 2004. (He will be retiring from his professorial role in October 2025.) He is a graduate of the Faculty of Philology at Moscow State University and has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Stanford, Michigan, Harvard and New York. Professor Zorin is the author of several books on Russian literature and culture. These include By Fables Alone: Russian Literature and State Ideology in Late 18th Century and Early 19th Century Russia (2014), On the Periphery of Europe, 1762–1825: The Self-invention of the Russian Elite (co-authored with Andreas Schönle, 2018) and Leo Tolstoy in Reaktion Books’ Critical Lives series (2020) .
Booking will close 4 days before the scheduled date for the event, i.e. by 7.00 pm on Sunday, 2nd November, so that we can notify KCL in advance of the names of those who have booked to attend in-person. GBRS will disseminate the Microsoft Teams link by email to online attendees on Wednesday, 5th November. It would be helpful if on Thursday, 6th November you could aim to arrive at the Strand Building between 6.30 pm and (at the latest) 6.45 pm so as to register in good time at reception. KCL will kindly be providing drinks from 6.30 pm on.