Leo Tolstoy, Non-Violence, Christian, Orthodox
WhatsAppKingdom of God is Within You (Leo Tolstoy) Influence on Gandhi
“The Kingdom of God is Within You” Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy was an Orthodox Christian and a strict vegetarian. We can consider one of initiators of Christianity spiritual revolution.
His Ahimsa - Non-Violence vision came mainly from his reflections on the “Sermon on the Mount” of Jesus. For Tolstoy:
“Law of love was present in all the World's Religions.”
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, Henry David Thoreau (American philosopher), Upanishads (Hinduism) and Confucianism were the inspiration sources for Tolstoy.
- Leo Tolstoy (Russian Orthodox writer): The Kingdom of God is Within You
- Ahimsa vision of Non-Violence of Tolstoy
- Influence on Mahatma Gandhi, Quakers, and Martin Luther King
Leo Tolstoy
Religions and Global Business -
Religious diversity
The Subject “Leo Tolstoy (Russia, Orthodox)” is included within the curriculum of the following academic programs at EENI Global Business School:
Doctorate: Ethics, Religions & Business.
Russian Federation: Russian Economy, Ports of Russia Vladimir Potanin, Yelena Baturina, Alexander Lebedev...
Languages: 
or 
Tolstoi 
Léon Tolstoï 
Tolstoi.
Russian Writer Leo Tolstoy was born in Russia in 1828 and died in 1910. Tolstoy is considered one of the greatest novelists of all time: “Anna Karenina,” “War and Peace,” or “The Brothers Karamazov.”
In his book “The Kingdom of God is Within You” (1894) - was censored in Russia, and had to be published in Germany-, will be one of the key works of the principle of Non-Violence, and will have a significant influence on other spiritual leaders like Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.
“How can kill people, when it is written in God's commandment: 'Thou shall not kill'?” Tolstoy
The conclusions of this work are the culmination of thirty years of “Christian Anarchist” thinking of Tolstoy and establish a new organization of society based on a literal Christian interpretation, especially in non-violence.
The book's title is borrowed from Luke 17:21. In the book, Tolstoy speaks of the principle of non-violent resistance when a person faced with the violence, as taught by Jesus Christ.
According to his ethics, any Government involved in a war is against Christian principles.
Tolstoy criticizes the Russian Orthodox Church by total symbiosis with the State.
Influence of Tolstoy on Gandhi.
In his autobiography “The Story of My Experiments with Truth,” Gandhi recognized the enormous influence that “The Kingdom of God is Within You” had on his Ahimsa vision. In 1908, Tolstoy wrote to Gandhi his famous “Letter to a Hindu”:
“Just by using love as a weapon of passive resistance will allow the native Indian people overthrow the colonial British Empire.”
Premonitory words, which will become a reality under the Leadership of Gandhi in his struggle for long and peaceful independence of India. Both leaders continued to be written until Tolstoy's death in 1910. Gandhi chose the name “Tolstoy Colony” to his second ashram in South Africa.
It is a beautiful example of the principle of Harmony of Religions, which we have called Principle Sri Ramakrishna:
A Christian spiritual leader inspires a Hindu spiritual leader.
Tolstoy also maintained correspondence with North American Quakers and surely influenced them on implementing Non-Violence to George Fox, William Penn and Jonathan Dymond.
(c) EENI Global Business School (1995-2025)
Top of this page
