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Rh amongst the students, who were joined by the workers. Excited crowds paraded the main streets and squares. Tolstoy had gone for his usual daily walk and, crossing the square near the Kremlin, he was recognised by the crowd, surrounded, acclaimed, and treated with the greatest manifestations of respect and sympathy. With difficulty he succeeded in freeing himself and driving home. There, already, deputations were awaiting him, and greetings and manifestations continued the whole day. Flowers, presents, and expressions of sympathy poured in from all sides and, as Tolstoy himself said, he was feted as if it were his birthday. These tokens of feeling grew as the news of the ukase gradually spread to more distant parts of the country.

To the ukase Tolstoy replied by a short but powerful exposition of his conception of Christianity. In this document he made the remarkable statement that not only did he not wish to consider himself a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, but he also even hesitated to call himself a Christian, as this term might obscure truth, dear to him above all. From truth, he said, no existing power could excommunicate him.

It was soon after this epoch-marking incident in his life that Tolstoy fell dangerously ill. When he