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Speech by Lunacharsky on September 12, 1928 at the grand opening of the Yasnaya Polyana School

Comrades and citizens, I am sure that I will express not only the mood of the Anniversary Committee on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Tolstoy, when I say that we are sincerely glad to meet here on this solemn day, at the newly created school, which will serve as one of the best monuments to the immortality of that great man, whose memory we are now honoring.

We have now formed a presidium to preside over this small celebration, which will serve as an act of official opening of the school.

We know that abroad, press organs hostile to us, individuals and groups hostile to us, have tried, in parallel with any other slander that is being spread against us, to launch propaganda hostile to us on the basis of supposedly our intolerance and our disrespect for the memory of a person and a teacher, which is honored by many progressive people of all countries.

We ourselves read articles that said that there was no stone left unturned from Yasnaya Polyana, that the entire legacy of Tolstoy, which is actually stored in the Museum, was plundered and destroyed, as if we were persecuting Tolstoy’s writings in every possible way. They reacted with extreme distrust to the government's decision to finally publish a truly complete and exhaustive collection of Tolstoy's works, which should fully reflect the personality and work of Leo Tolstoy. one

The facts should speak for themselves. Our foreign guests who have come here will see what is being done in Yasnaya Polyana, they will see how the memory of Tolstoy is kept in the Yasnaya Polyana museum here. They will soon be able to read, one after another, the volumes of the state publication, which are distinguished by the most thorough completeness.

I would say that the words that Al. Lvovna, who firmly believes in her father's behests and is on guard so that his memory is not compromised in any way, should once again emphasize the extreme delicacy with which the Soviet government treats Tolstoy and his students .

We do not take the point of view that Tolstoy took on both of these cardinal questions. We would consider it a crime on our part to preach disarmament at a time when the country of the proletariat, fighting for the triumph of humanity on earth, is surrounded by millions of enemies and when, if we were not armed for defense, it would undoubtedly be torn to pieces by these enemies.

And despite the fact that in our schools we most bluntly preach hatred of war, that in our diplomatic work we resolutely demand the complete disarmament of all powers, at the same time, since for the time being weapons are the only guarantee of our existence and the further triumph of that truth. , which we serve, we really teach children from an early age to the idea that they cannot let go of the damned weapon from their hands, because then they will fall victim to armed reaction.

Despite the fact that we treat this matter in this way, we treat not only the outstanding supporters of Lev Nikolaevich, but also all those religious-minded people who, based on their views, refuse to take up arms, treat with the same delicacy . Our law exempts from military service, from carrying out part of the military duties of those citizens of our Union who, by virtue of the corresponding order of their conscience, consider this unacceptable for themselves. 3

The second question is a religious one. Tolstoy is always a great ally for us in our struggle against all sorts of superstitions and against the entire church system, which was one of the pillars of the existing untruth and contributed to its adornment and reconciliation with the masses. Even now, in our struggle against churchism, we often have to draw on precisely those brilliant arrows that are in Tolstoy's quiver. But we disagree with Tolstoy in his final conclusions, in his deeply religious views. We are atheists - he believed in God as in spirit, as in truth, as in love, which, in his opinion, underlies the whole world and the very existence of human consciousness.

We disagree with him in this regard, but in our country complete religious tolerance reigns. We do not prevent anyone from believing as his consciousness suggests, and, at least in our country, in Russia, there has never been such tolerance for all religious beliefs as the one established by the Soviet government.

Another thing is that we are trying, of course, using all the authority that the proletariat has gained as a result of the revolution, to fight with all manifestations of religion, even the most refined, even the most purified, with the weapon of persuasion, believing that the energy, the creative energy of the person standing here, on earth, and creating his own happiness here, grows stronger when he ceases to rely on any otherworldly power.

But if in relation to all religious beliefs we show the greatest tolerance and never in the slightest degree use any kind of administrative violence in the fight against religion, considering it unacceptable and even practically harmful, then all the more easily we made concessions in order to in this place dedicated to the name of Tolstoy, do not require any active anti-religious propaganda.

We are deeply convinced of the tremendous strength of our principles and our cause, and therefore do not consider it a great harm to ourselves if there is a school that carefully guards itself from the struggle for atheism. The whole life of our country leads in a certain direction. We believe that the students who graduated from this school, having met with life and with our mighty communist propaganda, will change these beliefs.

I will say a few more words about our attitude towards Tolstoy when we are at the foot of the image of him that we will now open.

Let me confine myself to what I just said, and let me once again ask our guests - both citizens of our Union and those who have come from abroad - about this solicitude, about this breadth of our views, about this tolerance of ours to tell in order to contribute to the disappearance from the world of that great lie, by which we still feel surrounded. (Applause).

This refers to the Complete (Jubilee) Collected Works of Leo Tolstoy, begun in 1928, in 90 volumes. Completed 1958 ↩
A. L. Tolstaya said in her speech:

“The Soviet government is extremely sensitive to the memory of Lev Nikolaevich and, thanks to this sensitivity, militarization is not carried out in the Yasnaya Polyana school - of course, you all understand why. Lev Nikolaevich was opposed to any murder, any violence, wars, etc.

Then the second question. Although L.N. was an opponent of the Orthodox faith and fought in every possible way against ecclesiasticism, with everything that it imposed on the true faith, he believed in God. And therefore, in our school, there was no - and I think it will not be carried out in the future - propaganda of atheism"

( Department of Manuscripts of the State Museum of Leo Tolstoy ).

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We are talking about a decree of the Soviet government of 1923, according to which individuals were exempted for religious reasons from military service, replacing it with service in auxiliary military units (sanitary, construction, etc.). The decree was canceled in 1930 ↩