a. and sb. Also Tolstoian. [f. proper name Tolstoi + -AN.]
a. adj. Of or pertaining to Count Leo N. Tolstoi, a famous Russian writer and social reformer (1828–1910). b. sb. A follower of Tolstoi or his teachings. So Tolstoyism, the opinions or teachings of Tolstoi; Tolstoyist = Tolstoyan b.
1888. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 27 May, 27/2. ‘That towards which he strives is given to him; life can not be death, and good can not be evil.’ Such is the Tolstoian philosophy; and such, its author contends, is the basis and spirit of the true religion.
1891. Manchester Weekly Times & Examiner, 6 Nov., Suppl. Her Spartan (or Tolstoyan) treatment of herself may be of value in character building, as mortification of the flesh is supposed to be in general.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 12 Nov., 5/3. An article by a Russian correspondent on the harrying of Tolstoyists by the police in the Southern and Central provinces…. the banishment of a certain Prince Khilkov … a rich landowner who had given up his estates to the poor in his neighbourhood, and was actively engaged in propagating the peculiar tenets known as Tolstoyism.
1898. Daily News, 6 Oct., 5/4. Anything more distant from the Quaker, or Stundist, or Tolstoian view of military things than that of the German Social Democrat it would be difficult to imagine.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 22 March, 2/2. We are not converted to any Tolstoyan gospel by this book.
1901. Daily Chron., 30 May, 3/1. Already the Tolstoyans are becoming a sect.
1905. Contemp. Rev., May, 685. The Tolstoyan gospel of Christian morality apart from faith in the Supernatural.
