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Leo Tolstoy Great Archive on Animal Rights, Famine and Scandal. He is Against Things "cruel and Unnecessary".
Leo Tolstoy Great Archive on Animal Rights, Famine and Scandal. He is Against Things "cruel and Unnecessary".
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Description:

Leo Tolstoy
Toula, Russia, April 23, 1909
Leo Tolstoy Great Archive on Animal Rights, Famine and Scandal. He is Against Things "cruel and Unnecessary".
Archive
An important and revealing archive featuring a superb manuscript letter in English signed in full by the great author and humanitarian, one page, 8.5" x 11", Toula, Russia, April 10, 1909. Directed to Dora Fox in St, Petersburg. Floated on a cream mat with other important related pieces (details below) and set into a wood frame with overall dimensions of 21.5" x 18". Overall very good condition, not examined out of frame. Most worthy of further research!

It reads, in full: "I do not remember having ever written anything directly against vivisection, but nevertheless I am glad to have an opportunity of expressing my great disapprobation of vivisection, which I consider cruel and unnecessary…".

Tolstoy did in fact speak of vivisection (the practice of performing operations on live animals), for he is well known for the quote: "What I think about vivisection is that if people admit that they have the right to take or endanger the life of living beings for the benefit of many, there will be no limit for their cruelty." He famously became a vegetarian in the mid-1880s - along with his two daughters - and subsequently lived upon simple food such as bread, fruits, vegetables and porridge.

Tolstoy's commitment to animal rights is evidenced as early as 1882, when he wrote the preface titled "The First Step" for the work "The Ethics of Diet" by Howard Williams, published in England 1883, with the Russian version following nine years later in 1892. This work argued that a meat-based diet is not only unnecessary, but actually immoral, and quickly became a watershed text for the vegetarian movement of the time, and Tolstoy's concomitant writings about the suffering of animal its cri de coeur.

The Russian publication of "The Ethics of Diet" came in the second year of a terrible famine that ravaged the country from 1891-1892 and which claimed nearly 400,000 deaths. The causes of the catastrophic grain shortage were multifaceted, for drought and crop failures alone were not alone to blame. Countrywide infrastructure inadequacies made the distribution of grain of slow and difficult, the government delayed bans on grain exports, in effect starving its own people, forcibly seized livestock and conscripted young men for service when grain ran out.

Tolstoy was active in opening soup kitchens and in organizing other forms of aid, but did not stop in openly critical of both the Tsar and Orthodox Church for their "unpatriotic" indifference to the suffering of their subjects. He was subsequently excommunicated from the church, and the relief organizations benefitting from his assistance were cut off from governmental funding.

While most publications accurately portrayed Tolstoy's commitment to alleviating the suffering of the peasantry as well as his personal civil rights due to it, the Daily Telegraph in London did not. On January 26, 1892, it published a distorted translation of Tolstoy's essay "About Hunger." The conservative and largest Russian newspaper of the time, Moskovskiye Vedomosti (Moscow News), likely in retaliation for Tolstoy's criticism of the administration, released excerpts of the piece in a reverse translation from English into Russian, even though the original text was at hand in Russia and needed no such translation. These excerpts incorrectly gave the impression that Tolstoy was calling for the overthrow of the authorities rather than reporting on the tragic effects of the famine. Naturally, this misrepresentation precipitated a enormous scandal.

The Daily Telegraph in London, eager to distance itself from the repercussions of its gaff, immediately blamed the error on Emile J. Dillon, a foreign correspondent who was especially considered an expert in Russia -- and not without evidence. Dillon was, in fact, the confidential adviser to Prime Minister Sergei Witte, so it stands to reason that he may have been asked to leak the botched translation to the Moscow News in retaliation for Tolstoy's condemnation of the Russian government in general.

Framed along with our letter are two partial letters related to the ensuing scandal from the mis-translation. The first, dated London, February 5, 1892 is addressed to Emile Dillon and states: "…Reuters Agent called to tell me that they had received the following telegram: 'Count Tolstoy denies authenticity letter published in The Daily Telegraph 26th January.' I immediately wired the effect of this to you…". The sender is not known.

Beneath this is an autograph note signed by Dillon attempting to prove his innocence as a reporter and passes the blame on to the translator of the nonsensical Russian to English to Russian method. This document, one page, 4.25" x 3", [n.p., n.d.], however only serves to inculpate him further and reads, in full: "…Letter perfectly authentic sentences occasionally omitted & phrases added which leave sense unchanged. Author himself having asked translator touch up…denied inspired by imminent danger or refer to some [?] expression or retranslation made by certain journals here. Dillon."

Apparently the affair did not end there, for a third letter present in our grouping is dated a week later. Also penned to Dillon, on February 2, 1892, it contains similar content condemning Dillon: "…Yesterday morning the enclosed [not present] was published in the [Daily] Standard. I called to see them but the Chief Editor was out. Altho' they promised to place the matter before him I have not yet heard anything from him. We also thought it well to publish a statement enclosed [not present] which appears in the Daily Telegraph this morning…".

Dillon was a former Professor of Philology at University of Kharkov, and an authority on oriental languages, ancient Armenian and Sanskrit so no doubt familiar with the pitfalls of pitfalls of translation. Nonetheless, he served as a foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph until well after the 1914-1918 war. He was considered a "semi-official ambassador," and wrote frequently on foreign affairs in the Contemporary Review and other leading magazines and journals. He traveled widely and covered such major events as the Boxer Rebellion in China, the Russo-Japanese War, the Balkan wars, Mexico, and the Dreyfus case.

Almost 150 years later, Tolstoy's following words about the sanctity of all life and the suffering of animals at the fate of humans are celebrated: "This is dreadful! Not the suffering and death of the animals, but that a man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity -- that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself -- and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. And how deeply seated in the human heart is the injunction not to take life!"

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 21.5" x 18"
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