Reasons for Tolstoy’s excommunication from the church
Leo Tolstoy, baptized into the Orthodox Church in early childhood, later wrote in his diary that he aspired to a new faith. He spoke of a religion that tied to human progress and the teachings of Christ, a practical faith that would bring happiness to the world rather than promise it in the future. As the years passed, Tolstoy sought truth in the lives of ordinary people and tried to align his beliefs with their faith. He continued to attend services and participate in church rituals, but the act of receiving communion in later years proved deeply painful for him.
He explained that despite making concessions and avoiding heated debates, he could not accept the faith as it was presented. He believed that what others called faith did not illuminate the meaning of life and that their faith served purposes far removed from his questions about existence. This disconnect grew after a long period of quiet reflection, and Tolstoy eventually parted ways with the official church in his own mind and heart.
In the late 1870s Tolstoy produced The Four Gospels: A Connection and Translation of the Four Gospels, in which he removed what he saw as distortions from the Bible. A decade later the novel Resurrection appeared, offering a critique of clerical power and religious authority. Tolstoy described a ceremony that involved a gilded cross held out as a sacred relic and then kissed by the crowd, arguing that the ritual echoed a brutal symbol rather than the message of Christ. He wrote that the ceremony had become an act performed in his name but devoid of its original meaning.
Journalist Ivan Kontsevich, in his discussion of Resurrection, noted that Tolstoy pushed beyond his earlier critiques and attacked the church with sharper language. Historian Yuri Prokopchuk has pointed to Resurrection as a central turning point that intensified the conflict with church authorities and contributed to the excommunication decision.
Anathema
In February 1901 the Holy Governing Synod announced Tolstoy’s excommunication in a formal declaration published by the Church Newspaper. The decision was steered by Metropolitan Anthony of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, while Konstantin Pobedonostsev, then head of the Holy Synod’s Prosecutor’s Office, opposed the move, concerned it would amplify Tolstoy’s appeal rather than diminish it.
The declaration accused Tolstoy of preaching with zeal against Orthodox dogma and the core of Christian faith, rejecting sacraments and ridiculing them. It stated that attempts to warn the so‑called new false teacher had failed and that Tolstoy could not be accepted as a member until he repented. The document described Tolstoy as a figure who, though born Russian and raised in the faith, had fallen under pride and openly defied the church and Christ, turning his literary talents toward spreading teachings contrary to the faith and damaging the spiritual life of the community. The Synod affirmed the central Orthodox creed as essential to national identity and the spiritual strength of Holy Russia.
According to the decree, Tolstoy was forbidden to confess, receive communion, or be buried according to Orthodox rites. The church would not grant him the rites of passage that mark a believer, effectively exiling him from communal worship and ritual.
Tolstoy’s answer
Tolstoy replied to the Synod in April 1901. His letter was published in church periodicals with significant editing. He challenged the wording of the decree, calling it illegal and untrue, and argued that slander and incitement to hostility lay behind the charges. He asserted that his critique did not reject faith entirely but rejected ritual and clerical authority when they distorted the meaning of Christianity. He argued that infant baptism had become an adult misapplication and that the institution of marriage had drifted from its original purpose by permitting redefinitions and the moral straightforwardness of union through divorce and remarriage. Tolstoy clarified that his departure from church life was driven by a desire to serve God with unhindered sincerity rather than rebellion against the Lord. He expressed a belief in God as Spirit and love, and he claimed that the true will of God was best understood in the teachings of Jesus Christ, which he viewed as the core of Christian truth and as the pure guide for living a righteous life.
Tolstoy concluded that his separation from the formal church was not a rejection of the divine, but a personal effort to align his deeds with a deeper understanding of faith and love. He asserted that the essence of Christian teaching should illuminate life rather than become a vehicle for power or ritual superiority.
Public reaction to the Synod’s decision
News of the excommunication spread quickly as newspapers across the empire reprinted the decree. The announcement stirred a broad public response, and Tolstoy received a flood of letters, including many that contained threats and calls for repentance. Catholic and Orthodox clergy alike offered sharp criticisms, with Archbishop John of Kronstadt denouncing the writer as an atheist and lamenting that Tolstoy and his followers threatened the moral fabric of society. A prayer petition in a Moscow newspaper urged divine intervention to remove Tolstoy from public life.
Not all voices sided with the church. The philosopher of religion Nikolai Berdyaev defended Tolstoy, praising his willingness to challenge hypocrisy and what he described as the superficial religiosity of a semi Christian society. Berdyaev argued that Tolstoy laid bare the gap between official religion and the living conscience of believers, and he noted that Tolstoy’s self‑excommunication underscored a personal, principled stand rather than a simple conflict with church authority. Tolstoy’s wife, Sofya Tolstaya, described a strong outpouring of support through letters and flowers, and demonstrations in several major cities reflected popular sympathy for the author.
Results
In the years before his death in 1910, Tolstoy faced an effort to reconcile with the church through a visit from Elder Barsanuphius of Optina. Tolstoy’s relatives blocked the meeting, and the attempt did not restore his standing with the church. After his death, church authorities did not revise the excommunication, and Orthodox tradition has since maintained that Tolstoy remains outside the communion. In 2001 Tolstoy’s grandchildren asked the Patriarchate to annul the excommunication, but the request was denied. The case remains a focal point in discussions of religious authority, literary dissent, and the limits of institutional orthodoxy within Russian religious history.