The echo of Tolstoy in S.L. Frank’s post-revolutionary ethics

Abstract

The article shows that the ethical doctrine of S.L. Frank, set forth in the works “The Crash of the Idols” and “The Meaning of Life”, coincides with the later religious and ethical teachings of Leo Tolstoy on all the main points. Negative assessments of “Tolstoyism” in Frank's works were just a consequence of the conviction prevalent in emigration that Tolstoy was responsible for the Bolshevik revolution. In fact, Tolstoy's teaching can be recognized as the true form of Christian doctrine, purified from historical distortions. There is only one significant difference between the doctrine by Tolstoy and the one by Frank, as it is represented in his works of the 1920s-1930s. In con trast to Tolstoy, who was well aware of the fact that his religious doctrine denied the church as an earthly institution, pretending to “manage” our attitude toward God, Frank pretends that his understanding of religion directly agrees with the church organization and leads to it. This must be recognized as an absolute illusion that can not be justified. Any consistent thinker who tries to see the deep truth of Christianity behind its distorted and false historical forms inevitably comes to a doctrine that is certainly incompatible with the historical church, since it sets the immediate unity of the human with God and makes the mediating role of the church unnecessary. In his early works, Frank was well aware of this fact, but when in emigration he clearly expressed Christian truth and came into agreement not only with Tolstoy, but with many great thinkers in history, he showed weakness and succumbed to the pressure of the emigrant environment. The latter did impose belonging to Orthodox Church as an obligatory condition for recognition.