Печатается по копировальной книге № 2, л. 9. Впервые опубликовано, с неверной датой: «1896—1897», в «Толстовском ежегоднике» 1913, отдел II, стр. 146. Письмо в копировальной книге оттиснуто среди писем 1898 г., на одном листе с письмом к И. М. Трегубову от 15 ноября, написанным, вероятно, одновременно.
Юрий Осипович Якубовский (1857—1929) — банковский служащий, знакомый Толстого с 1886 г. См. о нем в т. 65.
Ответ на письмо Якубовского от 14 октября, в котором Якубовский сообщал, что посылает Толстому статью воспитателя в Кадетском корпусе в Самарканде Альфреда Осиповича Термена по вопросу о воспитании.
1 Статья эта напечатана не была.
1898 г. Августа конец, ноября 17? Я. П.
My dear friend,
I am very thankful to you and your friends for the remembrance of my birthday.1 I would very much like to use this opportunity to present to you and your friends more vividly the significance of the case of the Douchobortsy. I have just written a letter article entitled: «The two wars», which I have no time to translate but the contents of which I would like to communicate to you.2 I say, that in our time there were two wars going on: one the Spanish American war, which is finished, and the other war against war which is still going on and which will finish only with all the wars in the world. This is the war, that the Douchobortsy and all the true Christians are making against the Russian and all the military government. I hear that you have great heroes who have killed a great many nearly unarmed men (the spanishs were unarmed in comparison with Americans). I got letters from Americans, who engage me to write about this noble work of their sailors and soldiers as they call it.3 But I find that the work done by the American army and fleet was quite the opposite of noble and all these heroes are disgusting. I can imagine an old weak man full of superstitions, who thinks, that he can solve a dispute by boxing, but when I see a young a strong man who by his culture and the ideas of his time ought be know better accept the challenge of the old man and beat this silly old man and be proud of it, I am quite disgusted. And this is the aspect of the American war. I dont speak of the motives of the war, or better say the pretext,
