The article reconstructs the dispute that evolved in the first decade of the 20th century between Maxim Gorky and Leo Tolstoy – who both in addition to being world‑famous fictionists, played an essential part as notable public figures in Russian philosophical and political life. The outbreak and the course of the First Russian Revolution (1905– 1908) prompted both thinkers to define their positions on the most important problems of Russian thought. In this dispute, Gorky represented the position of socialist humanism, social revolution, civilizational development, activism, the culture‑formingr ole of the intelligentsia and Western‑style modernization. Against these hopes Tolstoy advocated archaic anarchism, negation of civilization, rural primitivism, personal and moral excellence, in short a Russian Sonderwege. The author puts forward that this debate is an important extension of the famous discussion triggered by the publication of the Vekhi almanac („The Milestones”, 1909).

Of the Victorian writers Tolstoy read, Charles Dickens was the most eminent, and his appreciation of the English author was permanent and unchangeable. Tolstoy admired Dickens for the democratic and humanistic qualities in his writings. The theme of social isolation and gradual re‑adaptation into society is explored by Dickens in A Christmas Carol and Tolstoy in Where Love Is, There Is God Also. The story of Scrooge’s mean‑spirited solitude which was later replaced by open‑hearted sociability was not like Martin’s. Scrooge deliberately isolated himself from his family and avoided all human contact. Martin was unable to find a purpose and meaning in life after the death of his wife and children. A series of events and encounters with people lead both protagonists towards the development of a new moral understanding and make life worth living. The moral lesson is to treat all people with compassion. Dickens and Tolstoy took the commonest and simplest sorts of human kindness and showed them intensified. Both stories are also openly didactic, and the main characters are developed through their actions, and good deeds. The details of place, time and people are made very real to the reader. They are intensified through the use of imagery, motifs of light and dark; and cold and heat, which recur throughout A Christmas Carol and Where Love Is, There Is God Also. In Tolstoy’s story there are also many examples of Biblical imagery which are used to add weight to the moral teaching of his story. In the final part of the stories the protagonists no longer desire isolation. Martin helps those in need and is glad to have guests. His every act of kindness is done as an act of charity, and accepted as such. According to Tolstoy, all people are able to do good if they will because man, as a child of the Heavenly Father, is himself good, and the evils of the world are obstructions which prevent him from being himself. What is more, striving towards God means striving for goodness and man’s progress towards his own perfection. In the final part of Dickens’s novel Scrooge visits his nephew Fred, where he has a wonderful time. Being a part of a family is equated for him with happiness. While the backdrop of A Christmas Carol is a Christian festival and moral values underpin the novel in the shape of kindness, generosity and care for others, there is little sense of solemn religious ceremony in the novel. Dickens’s vision of Christmas is largely a secular one. He focuses on secular aspects of Christmas as a joyous holiday with parties and gatherings of friends and family.

The article is a presentation of the subject of a lawyer in the Russian literature of two eras – the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century. The object of comparative analysis are two literary texts: the first is the story by Leo Tolstoy – “Father Sergius” (1911), the second is a novel by the modern Russian writer – Evgeny Vodolazkin, which entitled “Laurus” (2012). The author of the article concludes that the multifariousness of the life of lawyers in both writers underlines their life experience on the way to holiness. An important element of the characters’ description is their sinfulness, in particular the fi ght against their own pride and human passion. In the case of Leo Tolstoy, the image of his literary right-wing was influenced by the writer’s views on the essence of holiness and the complex human-God relationship. In their portraits of heroes striving for spiritual perfection, both Tolstoy and Vodolazkin show a connection with the genre of hagiography.