April 15, 2026

Tolstoy Would Be Proud


Tolstoy Would Be Proud
Ivan Tolstoy. Svklimkin, Wikimedia Commons.

On April 10, academic and journalist Ivan Tolstoy, grandson of the Soviet writer Alexei Tolstoy and a distant relative of the author (and noted anti-war pacifist) Lev Tolstoy, became the latest addition to Russia's foreign agents list, along with four other individuals and a Tatar rights advocacy group. The Ministry of Justice cited the historian's opposition to Russia's war on Ukraine as the reason for his new legal status.

Ivan Tolstoy is a prominent academic, specializing in the history and literature of Russian emigres and the Cold War. The heir to the Tolstoy lineage has taught at St. Petersburg State University and Charles University in the Czech Republic. He is also known for his work as a journalist at Radio Liberty, where he began contributing in the late 1980s from Prague. Soon after the start of its War on Ukraine, the Russian government designated the broadcaster as an "undesirable organization."

The Ministry of Justice said that "Tolstoy disseminated unreliable information regarding decisions made by the public authorities of the Russian Federation and the policies pursued by them and opposed [the war] in Ukraine. He participated in the creation and dissemination to an unrestricted audience of messages and materials produced by 'foreign agents.'" Tolstoy does not live in Russia.

Tolstoy was not the only one to be named a "foreign agent" that day. Tatar Shurasy, an international council that advocates for the rights and sovereignty of the Tatar people and Tatarstan, was also on the list. Voters' rights advocate Vladimir Udot,  founder of "Asians of Russia" Vasily Matenov, activist Rizvan Kubakaev, and anti-war feminist Lilya Vezhevatova were all also labeled as foreign agents.

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