Nicholas Stick, 1986, Letter to a Revolutionary, 1888, Shame! 1996

Tolstoy advocates love and rails against violence in much of his philosophical writing. Nicholas Stick is one of the nicknames used for Tsar Nicholas I because of a particular brutality to which he subjects his soldiers. This story is a virulent attack on the Tsar but in a broader sense it argues that the cycle of violence will only stop if all human beings admit that they too have the capacity to be violent. Although many of Tolstoy’s words and actions endear him to the revolutionary movement, he does not identify as such. In Letter to a Revolutionary he reminds those agitating for change that torturing and beating people, and killing them, is the opposite of love. In Shame he speaks out against the torture of peasants, which is common practice in Russia in the 1800s.