Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/233

Rh Pobědonoscev has been extolled for his genial and winning manners. We remember that certain inquisitors used to weep when sentencing their victims to death, and we recall that the "winning" Pob&édonoscev was the firm ally of such men as Pleve, the grand dukes Vladimir and Alexis, and the leading spirits in the black hundred. In Aylmer Maude's biography of Tolstoi we are told that in 1901, when Tolstoi fell ill after his excommunication, Pobědonoscev commissioned a priest to visit Tolstoi and subsequently to announce that Tolstoi had confessed to him. I have not looked for confirmation of this story, but it is perfectly credible, for Pobědonoscev was a thoroughgoing Jesuit.

Characteristic were the announcements he made for Europe and in Europe (see various interviews, newspaper articles, etc.). In these it was his habit to pay compliments to Europe, to declare that complete freedom of conscience prevailed in Russia, that current accusations against the Russian government were absolutely false. Complete freedom of conscience! Why, then, did not Archbishop Antonii agree with Pobědonoscev's ecclesiastical policy? And Witte, no less than Antonii, turned against Pobědonoscev (see ).

ONSTANTIN NIKOLAEVIČ LEONT'EV (1831–1891) represents a very different type of defender of the theocracy.

Leont'ev acted as army surgeon in the Crimean war, and subsequently became a general practitioner in the country. After a time, entering the service of the foreign office, he passed the years 1863 to 1870 as consul in various towns of European Turkey. It was during this period that he became reconciled with Orthodoxy. Resigning his post he lived for a while on Mount Athos (1870–1871). He then returned to Russia, subsequently served on the staff of the official newspaper in Warsaw (1880), and then became censor in Moscow. In 1887, however, he finally retired from the world to reside in the monastery of Optina Pustyn', which Kirěevskii and likewise Dostoevskii had frequented in their day. He was secretly received as a monk, and in 1891 died in the Troicko-Sergievskaja monastery near Moscow.

Leont'ev made his literary debut as contributor of belle-