What Then Must We Do?
11 hrs. 43 min.
Description
"I will never forget his voice, full of pomp, his heartrending “What should we do?” He has just opened all the suffering of the world and could no longer bear it; he broke with the calm of his family life and with the pride that art gave him.”
(Romain Rolland)
The treatise was written hot on the heels of an important public event— the Moscow census—and based on the author’s personal experience of taking part in it. Shaken by the social injustice he saw in the facts and by the cold, “indifferent contemplation” of the wealthy over the misfortunes of the poor, Tolstoy posed the cursed question of Russian literature and publicism to society: “So what should we do?”; and sought to provide an answer.
In particular, to learn economists’ opinions about his views on the role of money in modern society, Tolstoy invited familiar professors from Moscow University. One of them—Chuprov—wrote: “Just understand what an amazing capacity for thought, what a natural power lives in the brain of this person! With his mind alone, without any knowledge of economic science, to carry out its entire evolution up to the 18th century and bring it precisely the result that was historically reached then! It’s unheard of! It’s a supernatural mind! It’s a monstrous mental phenomenon!”
Despite the fact that the treatise “So what should we do?” was banned from publication (as were a number of other works by the author), its views only became more and more well known, and in many people it sparked a lively interest.
“Tolstoy’s appeal struck hearts and strongly stirred up Muscovites. Even people who were actually standing aside from the thick of life—people of purely office temperament, people more or less distant from the burning concerns of the day—even they were moved and suddenly wanted to do something, suddenly felt the need to undertake something.”
(A. S. Prugavin)
(Romain Rolland)
The treatise was written hot on the heels of an important public event— the Moscow census—and based on the author’s personal experience of taking part in it. Shaken by the social injustice he saw in the facts and by the cold, “indifferent contemplation” of the wealthy over the misfortunes of the poor, Tolstoy posed the cursed question of Russian literature and publicism to society: “So what should we do?”; and sought to provide an answer.
In particular, to learn economists’ opinions about his views on the role of money in modern society, Tolstoy invited familiar professors from Moscow University. One of them—Chuprov—wrote: “Just understand what an amazing capacity for thought, what a natural power lives in the brain of this person! With his mind alone, without any knowledge of economic science, to carry out its entire evolution up to the 18th century and bring it precisely the result that was historically reached then! It’s unheard of! It’s a supernatural mind! It’s a monstrous mental phenomenon!”
Despite the fact that the treatise “So what should we do?” was banned from publication (as were a number of other works by the author), its views only became more and more well known, and in many people it sparked a lively interest.
“Tolstoy’s appeal struck hearts and strongly stirred up Muscovites. Even people who were actually standing aside from the thick of life—people of purely office temperament, people more or less distant from the burning concerns of the day—even they were moved and suddenly wanted to do something, suddenly felt the need to undertake something.”
(A. S. Prugavin)
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