Thoughts of G. Mazzini in “The Circle of Reading” by L.N. Tolstoy

Abstract

Thanks to the earliest Russian translations of Giuseppe Mazzini’s major work, I doveri dell’uomo (The Duties of Man), L.N. Tolstoy became acquainted with the ideas of one of the leading figures of the Italian Risorgimento for whom he came to feel a profound respect, albeit tempered by certain reservations. Evidences of Tolstoy’s esteem are the numerous quotations from the “father” of Italian unity in the works of his final years. Prominent among these are the many included in the Krug čtenija (The Circle of Reading) (1906) — drawn from Izbrannye mysli Iosifa Madzini (Moskva 1905) translated by L.P. Nikiforov — which are the focus of the present article. An analysis of Mazzini’s thoughts in the Krug čtenija highlights significant agreement between the Italian intellectual and the Russian writer on a number of matters: the explicit assertion that God exists, which is linked to the theme of universal brotherhood, social justice and moral improvement. The author examines these core themes, singling out several areas of agreement and disagreement between Tolstoy's ethical-philosophical vision and the thinking of Mazzini, in which no distinction exists between the political and religious dimensions. Tolstoy, on the other hand, in selecting Mazzini's maxims and thoughts for inclusion in the Krug čtenija, very deliberately separates the political and religious spheres, excluding the first and endorsing the second. It is this which emerges clearly from an analysis of both the content of the quotations and the linguistic changes which Tolstoy made to Nikiforov's translations.