The Doukhobors, Leo Tolstoy, and his Daughter Aleksandra Tolstaya – Two Stories of Escape from Russia

Abstract

Tolstoy actively supported the Doukhobors, corresponding with their leader P.V. Verigin and following events in the Caucasus. His financial aid helped fund their emigration to Canada: he organized donations and gave royalties from the first edition of Resurrection. Later, Russian-American writer Maurice Hindus described Canadian Doukhobors and the radical “Svobodniki” (“Sons of Freedom”), assuming Tolstoy’s ideas influenced them. Surprisingly, many sectarians did not even know Tolstoy’s name. Another telling episode involves Tolstoy’s daughter Alexandra, who, while in Japan and refusing to return to the USSR, asked the Doukhobors for help moving to Canada—only to receive a courteous refusal.