It is true there are people in England who share Tolstoy's views, but one of the chief characteristics of these views consists in the conviction that each man should be guided, not by the mental or moral authority of another, but by his own reason and conscience; and thus one of the special features of those who have these views is independence of opinion and character. In their conceptions of life they are not followers, but companions of Tolstoy.
- Vladimir Chertkov, 'If Tolstoy were tsar' in Brotherhood vol. 5, no. 6 (October 1897) p. 63 qtd in Charlotte Alston, Tolstoy and His Disciples: The History of a Radical International Movement (London, 2014) pp. 2-3.