Tolstoi wanted to take for the motto of his new book, The Slavery of our Times, Marx’s saying that since the capitalists made themselves masters of the working classes the European governments lost all shame.
Tolstoi praised Elzbacher’s book on anarchy, in which the doctrines of seven anarchists are expounded: of Godwin, Proudhon, Max Stirner, Bakunin, Kropotkin, B. P. Tucker, and Tolstoi himself.
Tolstoi said:
“I myself can remember at the beginning of the socialist movement in Russia that the word ‘socialist’ was only spoken in a whisper; but when Professor Ivanyukov in the first years of the eighties openly wrote his book on socialism, it was already a widely spread doctrine in Western Europe. It is in the same way that the public now regard anarchism, often crudely identifying this doctrine with the throwing of bombs.”
Of Elzbacher’s book Tolstoi said:
“At the end of the book is an alphabetical index of the words used by the seven anarchists. It appears that the word Zwang, compulsion, violence, is absent only in the exposition of my views.”
Sergeenko was telling Tolstoi about Volinsky’s book on Leonardo da Vinci, and said it was a fine book.
Tolstoi remarked:
“Yes, it seems to be one of those books which are good in that it is not necessary to read them.”