Leo Tolstov life lesson #1 Keep an open mind

Tolstoy Ploughing (c.1889) by Ilya Repin

One area in which Tolstoy excelled was the ability and willingness to change his mind based on new experiences. It was a skill he began nurturing in the 1850s when he was an army officer. Tolstoy fought in the bloody siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War, a horrific experience that turned him from a regular soldier into a pacifist. A decisive event took place in 1857, when he witnessed a public execution by guillotine in Paris. He never forgot the severed head thumping into the box below. It convinced him of the belief that the state and its laws were not only brutal, but served to protect the interests of the rich and powerful. He wrote to a friend, "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens...Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere." Tolstoy was on his way to becoming an anarchist. His criticisms of the tsarist regime in Russia became so vociferous that only his literary fame saved him from imprisonment. Tolstoy would be the first to encourage us to question the fundamental beliefs and dogmas we have been brought up with.

Leo_Tolstoy