Pedagogical views of L. N. Tolstoy

First of all, the author deals with the socio-political and philosophical views of L N. Tolstoy, proceeding from V. I. Lenin’s ideas. In the next part of the study he analyses and appraises L N. Tolstoy’s pedagogical activities, which he has divided into four periods; the 1st period comprises the years 1859—1861, the 2nd period covers the year 1862, the 3rd period embraces the 1870s and the 4th period includes the 1890s and the 4th period includes the 1980s and the early 20th century. In the third part the author deals with L N. Tolstoy’s pedagogical views. He points out that they were formed in educational practice and in the struggle with the German Herbatian pedagogy. Tolstoy criticized traditional pedagogy and demanded the study of educational experience, character training methods, and called for generalization of teachers’ good experience. The author pays special attention to Tolstoy’s didactic views and to his views on moral education and the teacher’s personality. In the fourth part of his study the author investigates the repercussions of L N. Tolstoy’s pedagogical views in Russia and abroad. Valuable information is that of the repercussion of Tolstoy’s pedagogical views in the Czech regions and in Slovakia before the establishment of the Czechoslovak state in 1918, then in the bourgeois Czechoslovak Republic, and since the liberation of our country in 1945. In the last part of his study the author writes about the significance of L N. Tolstoy in the history of pedagogy. He points out that leading socialist educationists agree when evaluating L. N. Tolstoy for the history of pedagogy, and he quotes appraisals by Soviet educationists E. N. Medynski, V. A. Veykshan, and N. K. Goncharov, whose views he endorses. In conclusion, the author expresses the conviction that also future generations of teachers and educational workers will study L. N. Tolstoy’s pedagogical work for its originality and will find suggestions in it for their work.