1 “In fact, the whole evolution of his thought, his definite position in old age, are under the influence of some guiding ideas which he follows faithfully and methodically throughout his whole life. In relation to him, people have spoken about paradox, even of incoherence, and yet Tolstoy has perhaps been one of the rare Russian writers and thinkers of the XIX century who remained absolutely and rigorously faithful to himself. The personal conclusions which he offers us in his writings from 1885 to 1910 are the end result of a thought process of which the constitutive elements existed already in the works of his youthful age and even of his adolescence”. (Translation mine).