Although the last thing George and I wanted to do was to go again after returning the night before from being gone for 12 days to Armenia and Turkey, we had already bought train tickets for our P-Day adventure with a group of Senior volunteers to the LEO TOLSTOY HOME in Tula, about two and a half hours outside of Moscow. We were so glad we went!
Tolstoy's huge estate where he was born and his 13 children were born, all on the same leather sofa that is inside the home, is now a museum open to the public. This same home largely left exactly as when he was alive, is where he wrote his famous novels, "War and Peace," and "Anna Karenina." We were thrilled to see amongst his 22,000 volume library, a Bible, a copy of Life of Joseph Smith," and THE BOOK OF MORMON!
Evidently, Susa Young Gates, a daughter of Brigham Young's, sent these copies to Tolstoy, knowing that he had very opinionated views of religion. He must have read these books because later when Tolstoy met with Andrew D. White in March of 1894, White was President of Cornell University and had been a minister to both Germany and Russia, and also the American delegate to the Hague Conference of 1899. He was independently wealthy, a man of power, sure of his position and confident of himself. He said that Tolstoy had said the following (as told by one of White's students at Cornell, Thomas J. Yates):
The Mormon people teach the American religion; their principles teach the people not only of Heaven and its attendant glories, but how to live so that their social and economic relations with each other are placed on a sound basis. If the people follow the teachings of this Church, nothing can stop their progress — it will be limitless. There have been great movements started in the past but they have died or been modified before they reached maturity. If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known.’ ”
The grounds around the house are so peaceful and beautiful, with a long path to where his "unadorned gave" is situated.
So glad we went--sleep is greatly overrated when there is so much world to see and so many adventures to be had! Hah!
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