God's Way and Man's (Tolstoy)
Short summary
Russia, 1870s. During the revolutionary struggle against the government, a German General-Governor signed the death warrant for Anatole Svetlogub.
Svetlogub had been arrested for hiding dynamite that a comrade asked him to conceal. His mother was devastated when she learned of the death sentence. In prison, Svetlogub initially struggled with despair and doubts about his revolutionary activities. Then the prison inspector gave him a New Testament. Reading the gospels transformed him spiritually, giving him peace and strengthening his belief in love and self-sacrifice.
On the morning of his execution, Svetlogub faced death with courage. As the hangman prepared the noose, Svetlogub said:
And are you not sorry for me? Into Thy hands I commit my spirit. Lord, help—have mercy on me!
His words haunted the executioner, who later quit his post and drank himself into ruin. Meanwhile, Ignatius Mezhenetsky was imprisoned.
Seven years later, Mezhenetsky met new revolutionaries who rejected his terrorist methods, claiming they had only caused reaction and suffering. Devastated by the thought that his life's work was meaningless, Mezhenetsky hanged himself in his cell. His body was placed beside that of an old sectarian who had died believing in the triumph of love over evil.
Detailed summary by chapters
Chapter titles are editorial.
Chapter 1. The General-Governor signs Svetlogubs death warrant
In 1870s Russia, during the height of the struggle between revolutionists and the government, a General-Governor sat in his cabinet one evening, reviewing and signing papers left by his secretary. Among these documents was the death warrant of Anatole Svetlogub, a university graduate sentenced for participating in a conspiracy to overthrow the existing government.
After signing the warrant, the General suddenly remembered a conversation with his assistant about Svetlogub's case. The General had doubts about whether the dynamite found in Svetlogub's possession was sufficient proof of criminal intentions, while his assistant insisted there was adequate evidence that Svetlogub was the gang's leader. This memory troubled the General, causing his heart to beat nervously beneath his military coat with its white cross.
Chapter 2. Svetlogubs mother learns of the death sentence
When a schoolmaster, who was Svetlogub's friend, came to break the terrible news to Svetlogub's mother, she immediately sensed the tragedy from his tone and timid look. She struggled against the grasp of the schoolmaster and a doctor who tried to restrain her, crying out in anguish.
And they say there is a God!... What God is He, if He allows it?... May the devil take Him, that God!
Chapter 3. Svetlogubs revolutionary background and imprisonment
From childhood, Svetlogub had felt the injustice of his privileged position as a rich man's son. Despite attempts to help through establishing schools and cooperative stores on his estate, he felt increasingly ashamed. In Kiev, he met a fellow university student who drew him into a revolutionary society aimed at enlightening the people and forming federated groups to free them from landlords and government oppression.
Svetlogub worked among peasants, teaching and explaining their position, but faced two obstacles: most people treated his preaching with indifference or contempt, and the government closed his school and searched his house. Frustrated by government oppression, he joined terrorist activities under the influence of Mezhenétsky, regarded as a man of indomitable power and logic. Eventually, when asked to hide dynamite for a comrade he disliked, Svetlogub agreed, and the next day police found the explosives during a search.
Chapter 4. Svetlogub discovers the Gospel in prison
During his imprisonment, Svetlogub's moral and physical strength gradually gave way. In the second month, the prison inspector handed him a Testament, left by the Governor's wife for distribution among prisoners. Initially expecting worthless jargon, Svetlogub began reading mechanically but became increasingly absorbed by the Beatitudes and Christ's teachings.
Yes, yes—that is it! I wished just that: just to give my soul, not to keep it safe, but to give it... That is where joy lies—that is life!
The reading evoked in Svetlogub a glow of tender emotion and mental activity he had never experienced before. He wondered why people didn't all live as instructed in the Gospel, realizing that such living would bring blessedness to all.
We only need live like that, and there will be no sorrow and no want, only blessedness... not to live so is madness!
Chapter 5. The death sentence and Svetlogubs final letters
One day, the inspector came at an unusual hour, asking if Svetlogub was comfortable and bringing him cigarettes and matches. The next day, Svetlogub was taken to court where a judge read his death sentence in an expressionless voice. Anatole Svetlogub was sentenced to be deprived of all rights and death by hanging for his participation in revolutionary activity aimed at overthrowing the government.
Initially, Svetlogub couldn't grasp the meaning of the sentence. He felt so full of vitality that he couldn't imagine death or connect his consciousness with the absence of his existence. When the inspector offered him the opportunity to write letters, Svetlogub began his first letter to his mother, bursting into tears as he wrote.
In his letter, Svetlogub asked for forgiveness for the grief he had caused and expressed his lack of fear or repentance. However, realizing he had mentioned a comrade's name that could lead to that person's destruction, he tore up the letter and burned it. He then wrote a second letter, feeling calm and almost happy.
Do not reproach my friends, but love them—especially the one who was the involuntary cause of my death. It is so joyful to love one who... one might reproach and hate!
When the inspector came to collect the letter, Svetlogub held him affectionately by the sleeve, asking why he stayed in such a dismal service and suggesting he find other work. The inspector suddenly sobbed, turned away, and left, banging the door. This interaction increased Svetlogub's loving emotion, and he began pacing his cell, no longer experiencing fear but only tenderness that lifted him above the world. He fell asleep peacefully, dreaming of climbing trees with a little girl and picking cherries.
Chapter 6. The old sectarian witnesses Svetlogubs execution
An old man from a "Priestless" sect, who had lost faith in his leaders and was seeking truth, was confined in the same prison. He denied the Church and Government, calling the Tsar's rule "Snuff-rule." On the day of Svetlogub's execution, he climbed to his window and saw a youth with waving curls and eyes full of light, smilingly mounting the execution cart while holding a Testament.
That youth knows the truth. Antichrist's servants will strangle him with a rope for it, that he should not reveal it to anyone.
Chapter 7. Svetlogubs execution and its aftermath
On the dull autumn morning of his execution, Svetlogub was driven through nearly empty streets. Various people stopped to watch: bricklayers, carters, a cook, and two boys who ran after the cart. When Svetlogub's eyes met those of the frightened younger boy, he nodded and kissed his hand with a kind smile, causing the boy to respond with a sweet, kindly smile.
At the gallows, Svetlogub saw rows of soldiers, officers, and carriages with spectators who had come to watch. When an officer read the sentence aloud, Svetlogub thought about how these people didn't know what he now knew, but that they would eventually understand. A priest approached offering last rites, but Svetlogub politely declined, remembering the Gospel words "they know not what they do."
The executioner, a man with an ordinary Russian workman's face, approached and bound Svetlogub's hands. When Svetlogub asked if he wasn't sorry for him, the executioner's face turned cruel, and he quickly placed a linen sack over Svetlogub's head. Svetlogub thought "Into Thy hands I commit my spirit" as he felt a push, lost his equilibrium, and everything vanished.
Svetlogub's words "And are you not sorry for me?" haunted the executioner. Though the post gave him comparative freedom and luxury, from that day he refused to fulfill his duties, eventually drinking away his money and clothing, and ending up in a penitentiary and hospital.
Chapter 8. Mezhenétsky meets the sectarian in prison
Ignatius Mezhenétsky, the revolutionary leader who had drawn Svetlogub into terrorist activity, was being transported to Petersburg when he encountered the same old sectarian in prison. The sectarian, hoping to learn about the faith of the youth who had died so peacefully, asked to speak with Mezhenétsky about faith.
Mezhenétsky explained their revolutionary faith: they believed in struggling against those who seized power and tormented the people, destroying despotic government to establish free, elected, popular government. The old sectarian, disappointed, bowed deeply and left, thinking "Not therein lay that youth's faith." He continued his search for true faith, reading his Testament which opened to Revelation.
Chapter 9. Mezhenétskys ordeal in the Petropávlof Fortress
During seven years in the Petropávlof Fortress, Mezhenétsky endured solitary confinement in a small, damp cell. The dead silence and consciousness of other prisoners suffering behind impenetrable walls filled him with terror. His anger, unable to vent itself on objects, ate into his heart. Sleep became his only relief, but the longer he remained imprisoned, the less he slept.
Mezhenétsky began experiencing hallucinations - horrible faces appearing on dark, spangled backgrounds, then whole figures chattering and dancing. In despair, he decided to take his life by hanging, but lacked sufficient material. He tried starving himself but became unconscious after two days. When a doctor came to treat him, Mezhenétsky angrily berated him for serving in such a place, comparing him to doctors who healed wounds only so more punishment could be administered.
Chapter 10. Mezhenétskys survival strategy and imaginary life
Whether from medicine or passing a crisis, Mezhenétsky recovered and established a rigorous routine. He arranged his days with set sleeping hours, exercise, and elaborate imaginary activities. In his mind, he walked through Petersburg streets, visited comrades, discussed revolutionary prospects, studied history and mathematics, and composed literature. Sometimes he imagined traveling south, inciting people, arranging riots, and establishing a republic with himself as president.
Chapter 11. Mezhenétsky encounters the new revolutionaries
After seven years, when transported to Siberian penal servitude, Mezhenétsky met six new political prisoners. These younger revolutionaries treated him with condescension, considering his generation's methods outdated mistakes that had contributed to reaction under Alexander III. Their leader, Román, argued that peasants were a rough mob, that land ownership made people conservative, and that only industrial workers could achieve solidarity necessary for revolution.
When Mezhenétsky defended terrorist methods and the assassination of Alexander II, Román dismissed March First as a waste of energy. The dark woman revolutionary smiled contemptuously at Mezhenétsky's arguments. Choking with anger, Mezhenétsky left the discussion.
Chapter 12. The dying sectarians vision of the Lamb
In the prison cell, the old sectarian lay dying, pale and emaciated but with kindly, attentive blue eyes. He told Mezhenétsky about the Lamb from Revelation, saying that youth had possessed the Lamb, and that the Lamb would overcome all kings and beasts. Though others thought him delirious, the old man knew clearly what he meant - that evil would not reign much longer, and the Lamb was overcoming all through righteousness and meekness.
The Lamb shall overcome them... there would be no more hangmen, nor sickness, nor death. And he felt that this was already happening—happening all over the world.
Chapter 13. Mezhenétskys despair and suicide
Mezhenétsky was filled with dreadful hatred of everyone and everything - the senseless world where only animal-like people could live. He questioned whether all his powers, energy, and genius had been wasted for nothing. Remembering Svetlogub's mother's letter reproaching him for leading her son to perdition, he began to wonder if his whole life had been a mistake. The same terrifying hallucinations from his early imprisonment returned.
While the old sectarian died peacefully in his cell, experiencing visions of the Lamb and great joy, Mezhenétsky waited for the watchman to leave. When the corridor was empty after the sectarian's body was removed, Mezhenétsky took a cord from bundled logs, made a noose, and hanged himself. The next morning, the warder found him beside an overturned stool. His body was carried to the mortuary and laid beside the old sectarian's corpse.