Henry George’s Reforms as Economic Impetus for Lev Tolstoy’s Moral Doctrine

ABSTRACT Tolstoy became acquainted with the works of Henry George as he was writing his treatise “What Then Should We Do?” George’s economic ideas fascinated him so much that he stepped away from the treatise to spend time trying to comprehend the American economist’s solutions. At first, the project of a single land tax did not appeal to him, and he writes in his treatise, “George proposes we recognize all land as state property, and therefore all taxes, both direct and indirect, should be replaced by rents. That is, everyone who uses the land should pay the state the value of its rent. What would that be? … It would be slavery, as determined by the volume of land use.” However, from the moment he read Progress and Poverty and Social Problems Tolstoy unequivocally agreed with George’s position that “private ownership of land is theft,” though it took time for him to comprehend and adopt George’s position on the single land tax.