1, writing background and significance:
Written before and after Tolstoy's death, when Russia was in the period of Stolypin's reactionary rule, all Russian counter-revolutionary forces rallied and United in the upsurge of evaluating Tolstoy, used Tolstoy's reactionary views to turn them into spiritual weapons in their hands, cooperated with the bloody suppression of the official government of the czar, stifled people's revolutionary consciousness and put out the fire of proletarian revolution. Lenin wrote a series of incisive papers during1908-1911,which gave all reactionary forces a head-on blow by evaluating Tolstoy's joint attack on Marxism.
First of all, Lenin pointed out that it is hypocritical and deceptive for all reactionary forces to "commemorate" Tolstoy. Secondly, Lenin exposed all reactionary forces' sinister plots to evaluate Tolstoy, so as to resist the proletarian revolution and serve his own political purposes.
Lenin pointed out: "Russian working class will know their enemies more clearly by studying Tolstoy's works of art;" When all Russian people analyze Tolstoy's theory, they will certainly understand where their weaknesses are, and it is these weaknesses that prevent them from carrying out their liberation cause to the end. " "The Russian proletariat should explain Tolstoy's criticism of capitalism to the masses-this is not to confine the masses to cursing the power of capital and money, but to let them learn to rely on the technological and social achievements of capitalism everywhere in their lives and struggles, unite themselves into a million-strong army of socialist fighters, overthrow capitalism, and create a new society where people are no longer poor and people are no longer exploiting others. "
2. The breadth and depth of Tolstoy's realistic creation:
First, realistic creation reflects the breadth of social life. Tolstoy, as a "mirror of Russian revolution", should first be understood as a mirror reflecting Tolstoy's Russian era. Tolstoy's creation outlines an "unparalleled picture of Russian life", which reflects Russian social life extremely widely. The main characteristics and development trend of the historical content displayed in this "central picture" are: the collapse of Russian serfdom and the rise of capitalism. It is embodied in the intensification of basic social contradictions, the drastic change of class relations and the reorganization of social and economic structure.
Absorb some thoughts from the historical trend, and extract and summarize a greater ideological depth from the historical content that is recognized, and the historical trend and historical content are restricted and determined by the basic social contradictions in a certain historical period. Without reflecting the basic social contradictions, it is impossible to express the historical trend and content of Tolstoy's era. As a mirror reflecting Russian social life, his works should first be understood as a mirror reflecting the basic contradictions in Russian society.
Tolstoy's works reflect the basic contradictions in Russian society by depicting characters. It is the basic social contradictions that constitute the typical environment for the survival and development of those typical characters in Tolstoy's works, which in turn reveals the typical social environment at that time through typical characters, so as to achieve the purpose of reflecting the basic social contradictions.
Basic social contradictions: first, the contradiction between farmers and aristocratic landlords; First, the contradiction between the peasants and the bourgeoisie; One is the contradiction between the aristocratic landlords and the bourgeoisie. According to these three contradictions, Tolstoy created three kinds of characters:
First of all, anna karenine dramatically portrays Liao, a typical bourgeois in the primitive accumulation period, as a "knight chasing profiteering".
Secondly, Tolstoy portrayed all kinds of noble images, showed their historical destiny in a fascinating way, and described them in the social transformation of "everything turned over", under the impact of capitalist forces, at the historical juncture of the end of serfdom, either fearing, declining, or sinking, or depending on capitalist forces, or making intense exploration for the way out of capitalist forces, or deviating from their own class. -one is the image of a dying aristocrat; The other is the aristocratic image of bent knee attachment; The other is the pursuit and exploration of aristocratic image. Kang. Levin is a Tolstoy hero. Tolstoy expressed his political views and propositions to some extent by describing Levin's agricultural reform and ideological exploration. However, this is only a utopian fantasy. There is also a rebellious and degenerate aristocratic image. For example, in the process of atonement, Nekhludoff realized the sad historical fate of his class to some extent by witnessing the corruption of aristocratic officialdom and contacting farmers and revolutionaries, and began to leave the old camp and move towards "resurrection" and "rebirth".
Third, Tolstoy created many images of farmers. Through the image of farmers, it shows the suffering caused by the double exploitation and oppression of landlords, nobles and capitalist forces after the reform of serfdom. From his works, we can clearly see the broad picture of Russian society during the collapse of serfdom and the growth of capitalism, and sincerely express the curse and hatred of the peasant masses on serfdom, as well as the shock and horror of capitalist forces.
Tolstoy revealed three kinds of social contradictions by portraying three kinds of characters, and showed the fundamental characteristics of these times, such as the intensification of basic social contradictions, the change of class relations, and the replacement of economic structure, thus sketching an unparalleled "central picture" of Russian social life and effectively showing the historical period of1861-kloc-0/905.
Second, realistic creation reveals the depth of social life.
As a truly great artist, he will at least reflect some essential aspects of the revolution in his works. Interpretation: First, the relationship between literature and art and life includes the relationship between literature and art and revolution, so "at least reflecting some essential aspects of revolution" should be understood as at least reflecting some essential aspects of life; Secondly, Lenin believed that the essence of life or revolution has "some aspects", that is, it is not single but can be analyzed; Third, Lenin did not put forward harsh requirements for writers and works to reflect the essence of life and revolution.
However, Tolstoy's enlightenment is extensive, multifaceted and has relatively complete characteristics. He clearly exposed the inherent hypocrisy of all institutions maintained by modern society-church, court, militarism, "legal" marriage and bourgeois science, and let us see some essential aspects of Russian social life. Tolstoy profoundly revealed the basic social contradictions in many fields such as economy, politics, law, religion, morality, education and women before the revolution, and showed the class nature of various social systems in old Russia.
Economic system: Ruthless exposure and angry protest were made against serfdom, which showed that serfdom stifled the miserable life of poor peasants, and pointedly pointed out that the land ownership of aristocratic landlords was the root of the misery and misfortune of poor peasants.
Political system: profoundly exposed the corruption and evil of the state machine and bureaucracy in czarist Russia.
Legal system: Through Maslova's tragic experience, he sharply condemned the violent organs of the czar's autocracy.
The class nature of the official church: it satirizes the hypocrisy and deception of the official church. The official church put on a sacred cloak for evil political oppression and acted as a tool to maintain the czar's rule. In fact, it is a spiritual poison used by the czar government to combine violent repression and ideologically anesthetize and deceive the people to let them trample and slaughter.
Third, the breadth and depth of artistic expression depend on the breadth and depth of artistic understanding.
Artistic cognition is the premise of artistic expression, and artistic expression is the display and presentation of artistic cognition. Tolstoy can become a "genius artist" because he is extremely familiar with Russian social life, and he is full of the deepest feelings and the strongest anger. The greatest feature of Tolstoy's creation is the most sober realism, that is, truth and simplicity. He boldly tore off all masks and corrected the fallacies used by the ruling class to fool the people for thousands of years.
In order to tear off all masks and achieve the most sober realism, Tolstoy asked his hero to explore and pursue; Or focus on the fate of the damaged characters and reveal the root of misfortune and pain; Or with sharp contrast, draw two completely different and sharply opposed camps in the world, so that the beauty of * * * and the false, evil and ugly complement each other.
3, lev tolstoy is the mirror of the Russian revolution:
First, first, Tolstoy's works reflect the nature and characteristics of the Russian revolution to some extent. "The Russian revolution is a bourgeois revolution in social and economic content and a bourgeois democratic revolution in social content. One of the main features of the Russian revolution is the peasant bourgeois revolution in a period when capitalism is highly developed all over the world and Russia is relatively highly developed. The core and basic content of the peasant bourgeois revolution is the land issue. Lenin believed that removing the remnants of Russian serfdom and its various manifestations was the key to Russian peasant bourgeois revolution. Although Tolstoy did not fully understand the nature and characteristics of the Russian revolution and did not advocate violence, his works truly showed Russian farmers' demands for land, their dissatisfaction and curses on the land ownership of landlords and nobles, and their urgent desire to eliminate the remnants of serfdom. Criticize the ideological elements of democracy.
Tolstoy's exploration and expression of land problems can be roughly divided into two stages: one is to seek an improved way out as an aristocratic landlord on the premise of retaining the Russian patriarchal agricultural system and management mode; First, from the standpoint of patriarchal farmers, from the perspective of patriarchal farmers, we can see the unequal social phenomenon and come to the conclusion that the land ownership of aristocratic landlords is denied. With sober realism, the writer found out the real cause of mass disasters, and revealed that the continuous accumulation of private property and wealth obtained by the ruling class through exploiting the working people is the source of people's misfortune and pain, thus truly reflecting the historical trend of eliminating serfdom, abandoning private ownership of land and solving farmers' land problems, and to some extent showing the nature and historical characteristics of the Russian revolution.
Secondly, Tolstoy's works show the strength and weakness of the Russian revolution to some extent, and also show its strength and limitations. -First, Tolstoy's works show spontaneous resistance and anger against the czar's rule, and express farmers' democratic emotions, psychology and demands. Such as resurrection; Second, it reflects the historical trend of eliminating the remnants of serfdom and clearly puts forward farmers' requirements for land; Thirdly, it expresses the political ideal that Russian farmers try to establish a free and equal social life for small farmers, rather than a police-style class state. This political ideal of "free and equal social life of small farmers" established by "not destroying the whole building" and changing "the internal devices of the building" not only shows the strength of the Russian peasant revolution, but also reflects its weakness.
Weaknesses: first, what the new social life pursued by revolutionary peasants should look like is unclear and incomprehensible; Second, in order to seek this new social life that I am not sure about, what means of struggle should I take? Tolstoy's revolutionary thoughts and actions did not show the revolutionary fighting edge. Therefore, Lenin pointed out that Tolstoy's thought is a mirror of the weaknesses and defects of the peasant uprising in China and a projection of the weak and timid peasants who are good at management in the patriarchal countryside. At the same time, it shows that farmers are addicted to fantasy, lack political literacy and are not firm in revolutionary will. But these are not true reflections of real life.
From the above analysis, we can see that on the one hand, Tolstoy profoundly revealed the roots, nature and characteristics of the Russian revolution and sincerely expressed the revolutionary demands of Russian farmers; On the other hand, they are fanatically advocating the reactionary preaching of "Don't use violence against violence" and boycotting and canceling the revolution. In this way, Tolstoy became a "revolutionary" or a "revolutionary" revolutionary.
4. A brief analysis of Tolstoy's world outlook and creation;
(1) change of world outlook: (1) external conditions-the rise of capitalism and the collapse of the old foundation of patriarchal Russia; (2) Internal factors-from birth and education, he belongs to the upper-class aristocratic landlord in Russia, but he is close to farmers and his living status has changed.
The transformation of Tolstoy's world outlook is the process and positive result of the struggle between two ideological factors in his world outlook. The internal contradiction between the ideological factors of aristocrats and peasants in his world outlook is the basic contradiction of Russian society-the contradiction between peasants and landlords, which is reflected in the writer's consciousness.
(2) The contradiction between Tolstoy's world outlook and his creation: On the one hand, he is a talented artist, who not only created unparalleled pictures of Russian life, but also created first-class works in world literature; It is also the most sober realism, tearing off all masks; He made a very strong, frank and sincere protest against the lies and hypocrisy in society; Ruthlessly criticized the exploitation of capitalism, exposed the tyranny of the government and the farce of the courts and state administrative organs, and exposed the extremely profound contradiction between the increase of wealth and the achievements of civilization and the intensification of poverty, barbarism and suffering of workers. On the other hand, he is a crazy Christian landlord; One is Tolstoy, who advocates moral cultivation; Crazy advocates not to fight evil with violence; Advocate the most despicable thing in the world, that is, religion, and strive to make priests with moral beliefs replace priests in official positions, that is, to cultivate the most exquisite and therefore particularly bad monasticism.
Tolstoy's concern is not the change of czarist Russia's autocratic system, but the moral cultivation of social members themselves. He doesn't understand that morality is a historical and class category, and morality beyond class is just an illusion. These mysterious sermons that obliterate class opposition and resist class struggle are extremely harmful ideological toxins and arsenic mixed with honey. Instead of fighting violence with violence, we completely avoided the mass revolutionary struggle of 1905- 1907 and denied the revolutionary means. His revolution is only a paternalistic peasant revolution, which is absurd and very harmful.
(3) Tolstoy's world outlook and social class contradictions are rooted in his creation:
Tolstoy's contradiction is not a personal matter, but a reflection of Russian real life, contradictory situation, social influence and historical tradition at that time. Existence determines consciousness.
Real life: the intensification of basic social contradictions, the drastic change of class relations and the reorganization of social and economic structure.
Contradictory conditions: it is based on the living conditions of millions of farmers who prefer boys to girls, and has duality.
Social influence: I was influenced by the old society during lactation and was brutally suppressed by reactionary forces.
Historical tradition: it is the traditional habit and historical inertia of the closed, backward, conservative and silent state system in East Asia.
5. Lenin's views and methods on Tolstoy:
Developing Marxist literary criticism: Lenin's comments on Tolstoy are party spirit and scientific nature, revolutionary spirit and
A shining example of the combination of realism and spirit. Lenin's comments are both political and artistic, and they are organically combined.
Critically inherit Tolstoy's literary heritage;
Lenin's viewpoints and methods on Tolstoy: First, he scientifically expounded Tolstoy's world outlook, the relationship between creation and life with the reflection theory of dialectical materialism, and correctly revealed Tolstoy's world outlook, the objective content of creation and the social roots. Second, Lenin is good at analyzing classic writers and works from the perspective of historical materialism (vertically). It is the relationship between historical evaluation (height and utopia) and realistic evaluation (losing any practical significance and theoretical basis with the development of the times). Thirdly, it criticizes the fallacy of idealistic metaphysics peddled by various political forces when evaluating Tolstoy. It is divided into two parts: class root, political root and social root. Fourth, Lenin adhered to the party spirit principle of literature, expounded the political inclination of Tolstoy's theory and works (criticism of serfdom and hatred of capitalism) from the political viewpoint of the proletariat, and correctly evaluated its significance and role in the Russian proletarian revolution. "The Russian proletariat should explain Tolstoy's criticism of capitalism to the masses-this is not to limit the masses to cursing the power of capital and money, but to let them learn to rely on the technological and social achievements of capitalism everywhere in their lives and struggles, unite themselves into a million-strong army of socialist fighters, overthrow capitalism, and create a new society where people are no longer poor and people are no longer exploiting others."
"Russian working class study Tolstoy's works of art, will know their enemies more clearly; When all Russian people analyze Tolstoy's theory, they will certainly understand where their weaknesses are, and it is these weaknesses that prevent them from carrying out their liberation cause to the end. "