Mikhail Aleksandrovich Engelhardt (Михаил Александрович Энгельгардт) is the addressee of a long letter written in Moscow in the winter of 1882–83, which states the teaching that followed A Confession. The PSS prints it as letter No. 140 and dates it between about 20 December 1882 and 20 January 1883, both dates queried.1
The letter
It answers two letters from Engelhardt, and opens warmly: “you cannot even imagine to what degree I am lonely”. The hope it names is to find in him “a person sincerely going with me along one road and towards one and the same goal”.2
Engelhardt had sent his own letters to Aksakov. The reply judges them: “Your arguments are irrefutable, but for him they do not exist.”3
The letter speaks of him as one of the young: “Young people of your cast of mind are inclined to confuse the true Christian teaching with the quietism of the superstitious.”4 Against this it sets out non-resistance to evil by violence, and the failure of the sacrifices of the young intelligentsia over the past twenty years: “instead of shots, explosions, printing presses”.5 It names Vasily Sutaev, an illiterate peasant, as having more influence on the educated than all Russian scholars and writers.6
The five commandments
Near its end the letter puts the teaching in a few lines: “Its significance is not in rebuilding society by violence in its name; its significance is in finding the meaning of life in this world. Fulfilment of the five commandments gives that meaning.”7 The meaning of life is the question of A Confession; the five commandments of the Sermon on the Mount belong to the work that followed it, What I Believe.
The letter closes by mentioning something sent with it: “If you read what I am sending”.8
Open questions
- Dating: the PSS heading gives 20 December 1882 to 20 January 1883, both queried; the extract’s catalogue line reads “20 December 1882 to 18 December 1882”; the dive’s dossier gives December 1882. Old style is assumed; no new-style date is given in the sources.
- Who Engelhardt was, beyond what the letter says, is not in this dive: no dates of life, no account of his views. “Young radical” in the dive’s dossier rests on the letter’s own words.
- Which Aksakov received his letters, and what was sent with the reply, are explained in the PSS notes (markers ¹ and ²⁵), which the extract does not include.
- Whether the correspondence went on after this letter: not checked.
Dive provenance
- 1879-1882-a-confession — the letter to M. A. Engelhardt (evidence conf-let-08, PSS 63:112–128) and the dossier’s entity entry, 2026-10-02.
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«140. М. А. Энгельгардту.1882 г. Декабря 20? — 1883 г. Января 20? Москва.» (PSS 63:112–128, letter heading). ↩
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«вы не можете и представить себе до какой степени я одинок»; «найти в вас человека, искренно идущего со мной по одной дороге и к одной и той же цели» (PSS 63:112–128, letter to M. A. Engelhardt, Dec. 1882 – Jan. 1883). English: ours. ↩
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«Доводы ваши неотразимы, но для него не существуют.» (PSS 63:112–128, letter to M. A. Engelhardt). English: ours. ↩
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«Люди молодые и вашего строя мысли, склонны смешивать христианское учение истинное с квиетизмом суеверов.» (PSS 63:112–128, letter to M. A. Engelhardt). English: ours. ↩
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«вместо выстрелов, взрывов, типографий» (PSS 63:112–128, letter to M. A. Engelhardt). English: ours. ↩
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«Вот вам безграмотный мужик, — а его влияние на людей, на нашу интеллигенцию больше и значительнее, чем всех русских ученых и писателей» (PSS 63:112–128, letter to M. A. Engelhardt). English: ours. ↩
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«Значение его не в том, чтобы во имя его насилием перестраивать общество; значение его в том, чтобы найти смысл жизни в этом мире. Исполнение пяти заповедей дает этот смысл.» (PSS 63:112–128, letter to M. A. Engelhardt). English: ours. ↩
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«Если вы прочтете то, что я посылаю» (PSS 63:112–128, letter to M. A. Engelhardt). English: ours. ↩