In Episode 132 [11] of the CounterVortex podcast [12], Bill Weinberg notes that deputy Duma speaker Pyotr Tolstoy, one of the most bellicose supporters of Putin's Ukraine war, is a direct descendent of Leo Tolstoy [13]—and recently invoked [14] his great-great-grandfather's "slaughter" of British and French troops during the Crimean War as a warning to the West. This is, of course, an utterly perverse irony given that the literary giant's anarcho-pacifist beliefs [15] were antithetical to everything that his descendant Pyotr stands for. Indeed, it was Leo Tolstoy's experiences in the Crimean War [16] that turned him into a committed pacifist. His final novel, Hadji Murat [17], vivdly depicts the brutality of Russia's counterinsurgency campaign [18] in Chechnya in the 1850s—a history that repeated itself [19] in Chechnya in the 1990s. This is bitterly recalled [20] by the Chechen volunteers [21] fighting for Ukraine, where this history is now repeating itself yet again [22]. Listen on SoundCloud [11] or via Patreon [23].
Other books discussed: Sevastopol Sketches [25] by Leo Tolstoy; Tolstoy: A Russian Life [26] by Rosamund Bartlett
Production by Chris Rywalt [27]
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