![Item #1092 Smertnaja kazn’ i christianstvo. (Die Todesstrafe und das Christentum.) [The Death Penalty and Christianity.]. Leo Tolstoy.](https://foldvaribooks.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/1092.jpg?width=768&height=1000&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1490974320)
Smertnaja kazn’ i christianstvo. (Die Todesstrafe und das Christentum.) [The Death Penalty and Christianity.]
Berlin: Bühnen- und Buchverlag russischer Autoren J. Ladyschnikow, [1909]. First separate edition. Text in Russian. In publisher’s printed wrappers. 28, (4). Cover dusted, slightly worn. Quires loose. Water stain to the inner margin. Overall in good condition.
First separate edition of Tolstoy’s essay on capital punishment and Christianity.
Martial law was introduced in Russia during the turmoil time of repression after the 1905 Russian Revolution. Between 1906 and 1909 over 3,000 suspects were convicted and executed, while rebellion not ceased and attempts of political assassinations were also common. 1908 Tolstoy wrote three essays “I Cannot Be Silent”, “The Law of Violence and the Law of Love” and this one, wherein he expressed his moral outrage and criticized the anti-Christian violence and counter-violence of both the government and the revolutionaries. “The Death Penalty and Christianity” was a response to an article written by the Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin’s journalist brother to justify the government’s use of capital punishment on Christian grounds.
The text was first published somewhat earlier than this first separate edition in the "Новая Русь” (New Russia; 1909, February 28, No. 57.), Saint Petersburg’s liberal daily newspaper, and was banned in Russia until after the February Revolution of 1917.
Bibl.: Miller Pfost, F. Jr.: Pessimism, Religion, and the Individual in History: The Meaning of Life According to Lev Tolstoy and Émile Zola. Dissertation Ph. D. Florida State University, 2005. p. 145. url: http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:176431/datastream/PDF/view
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Price: €800.00