A Tolstoi Prophecy.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 16 October 1917, Page 4

A Tolstoi Prophecy.

TTAS IT BEEN FULFILLED,

Four years before the outbreak of the war, in the fall of 1910, Count Leo Tolstoy prophesied the coming of a great world conflagration. This prophecy, part of which has come true, contained a prediction of the rise of a new Napoleon. The vision Tolstoy had of this Napoleon immediately suggests Kerensky. Tolstoy saw "a strange figure from the north'' enter the stage of the bloody drama, and described him: "He is a man of little militaristic training, a writer or a journalist, but in his grip most of Europe will remain till 1925." The revelation, dictated to his niece, read in part as follows: —

"This is a revelation of events of a universal character which must shortly como to pass. Their spiritual outlines are now before my eyes. I see floating upon the surface of the sea of human fate the huge silhouette of a nude woman. She is—with her beauty, her poise, her smile, her jewels —a super Venus. Nations rush madly after her, each of them eager to attract her. But she, like an eternal courtesan, flirts with all. In her hair ornament of diamonds and rubies is engraved her name

—' Commercialism.' As alluring and bewitching as she seems, much destruction and agony follow in her wake. Her breath, reeking of sordid transactions; her voice, of metallic character, like gold; and her look of greed are so much poison to the nations who fall victim to her charms.

"And behold! She has three gigantic arms, with three torches of universal corruption in her hand. The first torch represents the flame of war that the beautiful courtesan carries from city to city and country to country. Patriotism answers with flashes of honest flame, but the end is the roar of guns and mus-

ketry The great conflagration will start about 1912, set by tlie torch of the first arm in the countries of South-Eastern Europe. It will develop into a destructive calamity in 1913. In that year I see all Europe in flames und bleeding. I hear the lamentations of huge battlefields. But about the year 1915 a strange figure from the north —a new Napoleon —enters the stage of the bloody drama. He is a man of little militaristic training, a writer or a journalist, but in his grip most of Europe will remain till 1925. The end of the great calamity will mark a new political era for the Old World. There will be loft no empires and kingdoms, but the world will form a federation of the United States of Nations. There will remain only four great giants —the Anglo-Saxons, the Latins, the Slavs, and the Mongolians. Tolstoy's new Napoleon was to be a journalist; Kerensky is one. He was to come from the north and have little military training, which is characteristic of Kerensky. In a recent speech in Kiev, Kerensky spoke prophetically of himself in the following manner:— "Citizens, this is not the time for words. It is the time of action. All that I have been observing of late makes mo suffer. I might be unable to justify all the hopes placed in me. But, comrades, somewhere deep in my soul I have faith that- I shall be able to. I am going to the front with the passionate desire to stop fraternising with, the enemy. I assumed the burden. o£ auliberty and bring peace to humanity, our army and navy are able to defend libetry and bring peaco to humanity. No one can doußt, that, whatever Ido, whatever degree of power I rcach I must guide the country to the safety of the Constituent Assembly.''