Portrait of Leo Tolstoy
Left · Thinker or writer · From history

Leo Tolstoy

Russian novelist and moral thinker, 1828 to 1910

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Turned from writing War and Peace to a Christian pacifism that rejected the state, the army and the church, and corresponded with the young Gandhi.

Leo Tolstoy sits in the left-libertarian part of the Caucus economy and liberty compass: leaning state-led and strongly libertarian. The clearest positions are strongly libertarian on liberty and authority, strongly peace-first on war and peace and strongly non-interventionist on interventionism.

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Where Leo Tolstoy sits on ten dimensions

Each scale runs from one pole to the other, and the dot shows the overall tendency of this person's record and public life. These are simplified estimates and open to debate.

💰EconomyLeaning state-led
State-ledFree market
⚖️Liberty and authorityStrongly libertarian
LibertarianAuthoritarian
🎭CultureLeaning traditional
ProgressiveTraditional
🌍NationStrongly globalist
GlobalistNationalist
🌱EnvironmentStrongly nature-first
Growth-firstNature-first
🤖TechnologyStrongly tech-cautious
Tech-cautiousTech-optimist
🕊️War and peaceStrongly peace-first
Peace-firstStrength-first
🏛️InstitutionsStrongly anti-establishment
Anti-establishmentInstitutional
🙏ReligionLeaning religious
SecularReligious
🛡️InterventionismStrongly non-interventionist
Non-interventionistInterventionist

People most like Leo Tolstoy

Dorothy Day American journalist and Catholic Worker founder, 1897 to 198097%Laozi Chinese sage, c. 6th century BCE97%Bob Marley Jamaican musician, 1945 to 198194%Mahatma Gandhi Leader of the Indian independence movement93%Ivan Illich Austrian philosopher and priest, 1926 to 200293%Thích Nhất Hạnh Vietnamese Zen master and peace activist, 1926 to 202291%Henry David Thoreau American essayist and naturalist, 1817 to 186290%Jacques Ellul French sociologist and Christian anarchist, 1912 to 199489%

People furthest from Leo Tolstoy

Joseph Stalin Soviet leader, 1920s to 19531%Louis XIV King of France, 1643 to 17151%Adolf Hitler Chancellor and Führer of Germany, 1933 to 19451%Benito Mussolini Prime Minister of Italy, 1922 to 19431%

Political views closest to Leo Tolstoy

Anarcho-primitivismRejects civilization, agriculture and industry and favors a return to hunter-gatherer…90%PacifismRejects war as a political tool and favors nonviolent resistance and disarmament.89%Deep ecologyGives nature value in itself and calls for a radical reduction of human impact.80%Utopian socialismImagines planned model communities built on cooperation, an approach that predates…79%

Read more about Leo Tolstoy

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Percentages show how close two profiles are across all ten dimensions. Including a person here is for study and comparison, not approval. Portrait: Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; see all photo credits.