ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that during late 1890s, Tolstoyans shifted their goals from inconspicuous self-perfection to peace activism in the public sphere. Tolstoyans considered this show of public support to be their first victory; a second came a year later, when General Sergei Abramovich-Baranovsky, the chief of the court, became a Free Christian. The program document "An essay on the foundations of true freedom" outlined their main principles, including the rejection of any kind of violence, a rejection of war, state borders, and rejection of private land ownership. Pacifists visited Moscow's military barracks and factories to give public lectures and introduce activities that introduced soldiers and workers to the ideas of "true freedom." Furthermore, the Tolstoyan periodical press became one of the most important distributors of pacifist ideas of its day. Tolstoyan samizdat-illegal materials published underground and abroad-contained news from world pacifist movements, reviews and reports of foreign pacifists groups, and addresses for correspondence.
