---
id: quakers
recordStatus: draft
liveStatus: new
type: group
title: Quakers
titleEn: Quakers (Religious Society of Friends)
titleRu: Квакеры
description: "The Christian society whose letters and books were among the first answers to What I Believe, and which opens chapter I of The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1890–93)."
groupType: religious-sect
originDate: ""
originDateApproximate: false
originPlace: "England"
relatedArticles:
- william-lloyd-garrison
- adin-ballou
- vladimir-chertkov
- leo-tolstoy
themes:
- non-resistance to evil by violence
- refusal of military service
- property
identifiers:
wikidata: Q170208
fieldSources: {}
---
The Quakers (квакеры), the Religious Society of Friends, are a Christian society that does not allow its members to bear arms or serve in war.
## In The Kingdom of God Is Within You
In the preface to [[The Kingdom of God Is Within You]] (Царство божие внутри вас, 1890–93) Tolstoy says that he knew of the Mennonites, Herrnhuters and Quakers, "who do not allow a Christian the use of weapons", but knew little of what they had written on the question.[^1]
Chapter I begins with them. Among the first answers to *What I Believe* were letters from American Quakers. They told him of their "so-called sect", which "for more than two hundred years has actually professed the teaching of Christ on non-resistance to evil by force", and sent him pamphlets, journals and books (I.3).[^2] Tolstoy sums up their argument: nothing has done so much to obscure Christ's truth in the eyes of the heathen, and to hinder its spread, as the permission of war and violence to Christians (I.4).[^3] He then quotes three passages from their letters (I.5–7):
- Christ's teaching came to be known "not by means of violence and the sword, but by means of non-resistance to evil, gentleness, meekness, and peaceableness", and can spread only by the example of peace among its followers.
- No authority can force a Christian to act against the teaching of God.
- "The law of state necessity" can force only those who "try to reconcile the irreconcilable" for the sake of earthly gain.
Further reading of their works "with Fox, Penn, and especially the work of Dymond" showed him that the impossibility of joining Christianity to force and war had been proved "long, long ago", so clearly that one could only wonder how the churches went on preaching the union (I.8).[^4]
The Quakers return through chapter I. [[William Lloyd Garrison]] took the commandment of non-resistance "as understood by the Quakers, with whom Garrison happened to be on friendly relations" (I.11).[^5] Helchitsky (Chelčický) teaches what "the non-resistant Mennonites and Quakers" teach now (I.101).[^6] The "hundreds of thousands of Quakers" stand with the Mennonites, Doukhobors and Molokans among those who hold military service incompatible with Christianity (I.126).[^7] And their two hundred years of preaching share the fate of the work of Garrison and [[Adin Ballou|Ballou]]: "It seems just as though it did not exist and never had existed" (I.90).[^8]
Tolstoy's letter to L. G. Wilson of 1889, about Ballou, has one criticism of them: "Property has been Achilles heel for the Quakers, and also for the Hopedale Community."[^9]
## Fox and Penn {#fox-and-penn}
Tolstoy names them only in passing, «с Фоксом, Пэном» ("with Fox, Penn", I.8), without quoting either. They are George Fox, who founded the Society, and William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania.
## Jonathan Dymond {#jonathan-dymond}
Jonathan Dymond was an English Quaker writer. Tolstoy came to his book through [[Vladimir Chertkov]]. On 4 June 1885 Chertkov wrote from England: "Here we live in a district full of Quakers. I am getting to know their literature a little… War and the oath they reject absolutely." He sent an extract from Dymond's book, in which the attitude of Christ and his first followers to war is examined "remarkably fully and convincingly".[^10] On 14 November 1890, with the treatise under way, Tolstoy asked Chertkov for the book itself, *An Enquiry into the Accordancy of War with the Principles of Christianity*, and Chertkov sent it.[^11]
Chapter I calls it "On War", first published in London in 1824, and marvels that it is so little known. With Daniel Musser's book of 1864 it treats not so much the theory as the practice: how a Christian should meet the demand for military service (I.108).[^12] Dymond's answer: "His duty is humbly but steadfastly to refuse to serve" (I.111).[^13] A man cannot hand the responsibility for his acts to his rulers; if he would refuse an order to kill his neighbour's child, there is no line short of Christ's where obedience can stop (I.112–116).
## Open questions
- **Dymond's date.** Tolstoy gives 1827 in I.8 and "London, 1824" in I.108; the PSS commentary gives London, 1824 for the *Enquiry*.[^11] Which edition Tolstoy had is not known here.
- **Who the American correspondents were.** Neither the chapter nor the commentary read so far names the Quakers who wrote to Tolstoy, and their letters are not in the dive's evidence.
- **Fox and Penn** are identified above from general knowledge; the text gives surnames only.
## Dive provenance
- [1890-1893-the-kingdom-of-god-is-within-you](../works/non-fiction/treatises/1890-1893-the-kingdom-of-god-is-within-you/index.md): the preface and chapter I (PSS 28:1–22), N. K. Gudzy's history of the writing (PSS 28:343), and the letter to L. G. Wilson (PSS 64, No. 391). Johan's reader notes of 12 October 2026 asked for this page, with Fox, Penn and Dymond on it.
[^1]: «знал и о том, что существовали и существуют некоторые, так называемые, секты менонитов, гернгутеров, квакеров, которые не допускают для христианина употребления оружия» (PSS 28:1, preface). English: Garnett.
[^2]: «квакеры сообщили мне подробности о своей, так называемой, секте, более 200 лет исповедующей на деле учение Христа о непротивлении злу насилием» (PSS 28:2, ch. I). English: Garnett.
[^3]: «ничто столько не содействовало затемнению Христовой истины в глазах язычников и не мешало распространению христианства в мире, как непризнание этой заповеди людьми, именовавшими себя христианами, — как разрешение для христиан войны и насилия» (PSS 28:3, ch. I). English: Garnett.
[^4]: «Знакомство с деятельностью квакеров и их сочинениями: с Фоксом, Пэном и в особенности с книгой Даймонда (Dymond) 1827 г. — показало мне, что не только давным-давно сознана невозможность соединения христианства с насилием и войною» (PSS 28:3, ch. I). English: Garnett.
[^5]: «так, как понимают ее квакеры, с которыми Гаррисон находился в дружеских сношениях» (PSS 28:4, ch. I). English: Garnett.
[^6]: «Хельчицкий учит тому же, чему учили и учат теперь непротивляющиеся менониты, квакеры» (PSS 28:18, ch. I). English: Garnett.
[^7]: «Есть люди — есть сотни тысяч квакеров, есть менониты, есть все наши духоборцы, молокане» (PSS 28:22, ch. I). English: Garnett.
[^8]: «Как всё то, что 200 лет проповедуют квакеры… точно как будто не существуют и не существовали» (PSS 28:16, ch. I). English: Garnett.
[^9]: Tolstoy's English, letter to L. G. Wilson, 22 June (5 July NS) 1889 (PSS 64:270–274, No. 391).
[^10]: «Здесь мы живем в местности, наполненной квакерами. Я несколько знакомлюсь с их литературою... Войну и присягу они безусловно отрицают»; «замечательно полно и убедительно исследовано отношение Христа и его первых последователей к войне» (V. G. Chertkov to Tolstoy, 4 June 1885, ГМТ; quoted PSS 28:343, commentary). English: ours.
[^11]: «В письме от 14 ноября 1890 г. Толстой просил Черткова прислать ему книгу квакера Ионафана Даймонда „Аn Enquiry into the Accordancy of War with the principles of Christianity“, London, 1824» (PSS 28:343, commentary). English: ours.
[^12]: «Это книга Dymond’a „On war“ — „О войне“, изданная в первый раз в Лондоне в 1824 году, и Daniel Musser’a „О непротивлении“, написанная в 1864 году» (PSS 28:19, ch. I). English: Garnett.
[^13]: «Обязанность его состоит в том, чтобы с кротостью, но и с твердостью отказаться от службы» (PSS 28:19, ch. I). English: Garnett.