Leo Tolstoy’s Principle of Non-Resistance to Evil by Violence and Its Criticism in Ivan Ilyin’s Philosophy

At the outset, Leo Tolstoy viewed the principle of non-resistance to evil by violence as a purely moral commandment, which was obligatory for everyone to observe and lead humanity to perfection. In his later teaching, though, he emphasized the need for people to transition from a lower ‘animalistic’ form of life towards the divine form; his principle of non-resistance to evil by violence could only apply to those who managed such a transition. According to Tolstoy, the divine life means an unmediated spiritual unity of people, enabling them to influence one another directly without any material sources. People who have gained divine life have a more complex and deeper understanding of being. They see the consequences of their actions not only in the short term but also in the future so they can more correctly assess them. Tolstoy argues that in this case, each person sees that evil deeds (even those committed for a good purpose) lead only to a general negative result, while good deeds lead to a positive one. Ivan Ilyin’s philosophy states that people’s souls are entirely isolated from each other and enclosed in bodies; therefore, purely spiritual stimulation techniques are ineffective. The soul of a villain can be disciplined only through her body with some material sources applied. The research proves that Tolstoy and Ilyin quite correctly develop their systems of ideas based on different metaphysical concepts of man, equally originating from Gnostic Christianity. Tolstoy takes a strictly monistic religious position of the absolute priority of the spiritual principle; Ilyin shares a dualistic metaphysics in which spirit and matter are equal in their value. Both Russian thinkers turn out to be right within the frames of their initial metaphysical assumptions.