There is an opinion that the writer, disillusioned with the Orthodox Church, changed his faith and became a Muslim. We checked the validity of this version.

Assumptions and even statements that Leo Tolstoy became a Muslim at a certain point in his life can be found on the Muslim YouTube channel NUR, Kazakhstan website informburo.kz and in several publications philologist Maryam Vakhidova. They can also be found on social networks - for example, in "Odnoklassniki", "VKontakte" And Facebook. On services "The Big Question" And "Mail.Ru Answers" it is assumed that Tolstoy changed his faith shortly before his death.

Assumptions that Leo Tolstoy at some point became a Muslim are most often based on one of two of his quotes. One dates from 1884 and reads: “Please look at me as a good Mohammedan, then everything will be fine.” According to another, Tolstoy considered Islam “the final authority of any reasonable person.” In addition, for many years Tolstoy, first in absentia and then in person, polemicized with official Orthodoxy - this led to the publication of a special definition of the Synod that “the church does not consider him its member and cannot count him until he repents and restores his communion with her.”

In 1884 the writer really sent a letter to his cousin and close friend Alexandra Tolstoy. The above quote about the “good Mohammedan” is indeed there, but it seems to be taken out of context. Throughout the letter, Tolstoy tries to talk about religious disputes and what negative emotions divergence of positions can cause in people. In particular, he writes: “I am often surprised at the irritation that my profession of faith causes. Why do Protestantism, Unitarianism, and Mohammedanism not cause such irritation? I would be very glad if you were of the same faith with me; but if you are of a different faith, then I very well understand how it happened that you are of a different faith, and your difference with me cannot irritate me. The irritation against me is especially cruel.” In other words, Tolstoy only calls on his interlocutor to be calmer about his disagreement with the official church and dogmas.

Analysis of the second quote held our colleagues from Kyrgyzstan. According to the resource factcheck.kg, this phrase is found exclusively in blogs and on thematic resources, but it is not in any text belonging to Tolstoy. During the search, Kyrgyz fact checkers found a mention of a letter from the writer to a certain Elena Vekilova, with whom Tolstoy discussed issues of religion. This letter exists, it was sent in March 1909. As Vekilova told the writer, her two sons decided to convert from Christianity to Islam and ask for her approval, but the children’s intentions cause her concern.

Tolstoy, in his answer to the correspondent, writes: “In the most ancient religions there are most of all miraculous things and all kinds of superstitions that hide the truth: most of all in the most ancient, in the Brahmin, less in the Jewish, even less in the Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, even less in the Christian, but least of all in the very last great religion - the Mohammedan. And therefore Mohammedanism is in the most favorable conditions in this regard. He has only to discard everything unnatural, external in his doctrine and put as a basis the basic religious and moral teaching of Mohammed, and it will naturally merge with the foundations of all great religions and especially with the Christian teaching, which it recognizes as the truth.” In other words, Tolstoy is interested in Islam, but nothing more, and factcheck.kg came to the conclusion that the quote attributed to the writer is a fake.

Although even genuine quotes from Tolstoy speak of his positive attitude and sincere interest in Islam, it is unfounded to conclude from this that the writer accepted Islam. We were unable to find a single confirmation that he changed his faith or followed Muslim rituals. For example, in 1908, in his diary, Tolstoy left record of wanting to be buried in a simple wooden coffin, while Muslims accepted bury in a shroud.