Leo Tolstoy "If the people follow the teachings of this Church, nothing can stop their progress — it will be limitless."

[kirtland r.m.]

"The Mormon people teach the American religion; their principles teach the people not only of Heaven and its attendant glories, but how to live so that their social and economic relations with each other are placed on a sound basis. If the people follow the teachings of this Church, nothing can stop their progress — it will be limitless."
—Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy's view of Mormons as teaching 'The American Religion'
By Susan McCloud for the Deseret News
Read the article.https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865 ... tml?pg=all
More details also from The Improvement Era, 1939https://archive.org/stream/improvemente ... 1/mode/2up
There were no missionaries in Russia during Tolstoy’s lifetime, however, according to Emily Schmuhl, reporting for Mormon Times, Tolstoy had a copy of the Book of Mormon in the library at his estate, Yasnaya Polyana. How did he obtain this precious volume? Frederick and Nataliya Felt, who at that time were attending the Laurel Ward of the Silver Spring Stake in Washington, D.C. set out to find an answer to that question after being told about the Book of Mormon in Tolstoy’s library by a Russian member. They went to Yasnaya Polyana, now a Tolstoy museum located four hours south of Moscow, to learn more about the book. Nataliya had a vested interest because she was born in Moscow, Russia, and has knowledge of the language and the country’s rich literary history. In a Deseret News article dated 22 June 2010, she commented, “I knew and respected Tolstoy’s works before I joined (the church),” Nataliya said. “I was really happy to know such a talented writer took an interest in the church.”

The Deseret News article continues:

A librarian at the museum searched her records and photocopied a catalog reference to the Book of Mormon. “It identified the exact cabinet, shelf and volume number,” Frederick said.

More importantly, the reference indicated that the book was a gift given to Tolstoy by Susa Young Gates, daughter of Brigham Young....

“It was surprisingly heavy,” Frederick said. He identified the copy as an 1881 Second Electrotype Edition published in Liverpool, England.

[Michelle]

Yes. I love Tolstoy's real life. This is awesome, I never heard this part before.

[Davka]

I may or may not be more exited about this than that Abraham Lincoln checked out the BOM from the Library of Congress and held onto it for awhile. I’m a huge Tolstoy fan. I wasn’t aware of this story at all. I wish I still had time to read his books, but they’re so long and have taken a backseat to other reading. It feels like these days I’m working to squeeze in scripture reading and a little bit of LDSFF browsing.

[The Airbender]

You forgot the rest of the quote wherein he says,

"If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known.’ ”"

It did not endure unmodified until it reached the third and fourth generation. Instead it was heavily modified within the first generation –which, I suppose, is why we still haven't built Zion– and now we are here at the 6th generation awaiting the Davidic Servant to restore what was lost and to set the house in order.

[DRC53]

You forgot the rest of the quote wherein he says,

"If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known.’ ”"

It did not endure unmodified until it reached the third and fourth generation. Instead it was heavily modified within the first generation –which, I suppose, is why we still haven't built Zion– and now we are here at the 6th generation awaiting the Davidic Servant to restore what was lost and to set the house in order.

I’ve got to call you out on this. You point out that Tolstoy mentioned that his belief about the greatness of the Church would only happen so long as the religion was left unmodified until the third and fourth generations. You then assert that modifications were made even in the first generation. I want to point out that this comment was made right at the end of the 19th century, approximately 70 years after the Church had been restored. The first generation had long since passed. The second generation was in full swing with the third generation was coming of age. Tolstoy was well aware of the first generation, and the second generation, and could see the third generation coming. Apparently, he did not see the modifications you allege took place.

Additionally, any modifications that were made were part of the continuing restoration of the Lord’s Church. The modifications were made by the Lord through His living Prophet. It is apostatizingly dangerous to believe and assert the things as you do. This is precisely the kind of things a Snufferite would believe, say, and try to convince others to believe.

[The Airbender]

You forgot the rest of the quote wherein he says,

"If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known.’ ”"

It did not endure unmodified until it reached the third and fourth generation. Instead it was heavily modified within the first generation –which, I suppose, is why we still haven't built Zion– and now we are here at the 6th generation awaiting the Davidic Servant to restore what was lost and to set the house in order.

I’ve got to call you out on this. You point out that Tolstoy mentioned that his belief about the greatness of the Church would only happen so long as the religion was left unmodified until the third and fourth generations. You then assert that modifications were made even in the first generation. I want to point out that this comment was made right at the end of the 19th century, approximately 70 years after the Church had been restored. The first generation had long since passed. The second generation was in full swing with the third generation was coming of age. Tolstoy was well aware of the first generation, and the second generation, and could see the third generation coming. Apparently, he did not see the modifications you allege took place.

Additionally, any modifications that were made were part of the continuing restoration of the Lord’s Church. The modifications were made by the Lord through His living Prophet. It is apostatizingly dangerous to believe and assert the things as you do. This is precisely the kind of things a Snufferite would believe, say, and try to convince others to believe.

To clarify, I mean changes were made by the first generation of Saints, ie Wilford Woodruff. He was one of the first ordained apostles. Under his leadership the Kingdom of God was abandoned, and with it God's systems of marriage and economy. I do not know what his personal motivation was. I do know that those closest to him have been quoted as saying they were attempting to "beat the devil at his own game".

The church can do what it pleases at that is its free choice. However, you are not at liberty to claim things were done by the Lord when there is no revelation in existence to back up those claims, while there are several revelations, not accepted by the church, but genuine, indicating the will of the Lord was the opposite of what occurred.