re
disenchanted as to European progress, admitted the mental and moral
insolvency of educated Russian society, and fell into despair, from
which the only escape, so it seemed to them, was becoming imbued with
the lively faith of the common people, and both authors regarded this
faith as the sole means of getting into real communion with the people.
Then, becoming more and more imbued with the spirit of the Christian
doctrine, both arrived at utter rejection of material improvement of the
general welfare; Count Tolstoy came out with a theory of non-resistance
to evil by force, and Dostoevsky with a theory of moral elevation and
purification by means of suffering, which in essence are identical; for
in what manner does non-resistance to evil manifest itself, if not in
unmurmuring endurance of the sufferings caused by evil?

Nevertheless, a profound difference exists between Count Tolstoy and
Dostoevsky. In the former we see an absence of conservatism and devotion
to tradition. His attitude towards all doctrines is that of
unconditional freedom of thought, and subjecting them to daring
criticism, he chooses from among them only that which is in harmony with
the inspirations of his own reason. He is a genuine individualist, to
his very marrow. By the masses of the common people, he does not mean
the Russian nation only, but all the toilers and producers of the earth,
without regard to nationality; while by the faith which he seeks among
those toilers, he does not mean any fixed religious belief, but faith in
the reasonableness and advantageousness of life, and of everything which
exists, placing this faith in dependence upon brisk, healthy toil.

Dostoevsky, on the contrary, is a communist, or socialist. He cares
nothing for freedom and the self-perfection of the individual. The
individual, according to his teaching, should merely submit, and
resignedly offer itself up as a sacrifice to society, for the sake of
fulfilling that mission which Russia is foreordained, as God's chosen
nation, to accomplish. This mission consists in the realization upon
earth of true Christianity in orthodoxy,[31] to which the Russian people
remain faithful and devoted; union with the common people is to be
accomplished in that manner alone; like the common people, with the same
boundless faith and devotion, orthodoxy must be professed, for in it
alone lies all salvation, not only for the world as a whole, but for
every individual.

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