<p>The theme of the peasantry is central throughout most of Tolstoy&#39;s long career. His obsession with this class is seen not just as a matter of social or humanitarian concern, but as a response to the questions of 'how to live a good life' and 'what is the meaning of life that an inevitable death will not destroy?' These questions plagued him his entire life.</p><p>The letters he exchanged with the four major peasant sectarian writers (Bondarev, Zheltov, Verigin, and Novikov) reveal that Tolstoy was matched as a profound thinker by his correspondents, as they converse on religious-moral questions, the meaning of life and how one should strive to find it, and on a wide array of burning social and personal problems. Reading through the analysis and the extensively annotated letters as a unified whole, elucidates the progressive development of the ideas they shared (and where these diverged) and which guided Tolstoy&#39;s and his correspondents&#39; lives.</p><p>Juxtaposing Tolstoy&#39;s letters with those of his four sectarian correspondents makes them even more significant as it shows them in their original context - a dialogue, or conversation. Also, with the aim to present the conversation in an even broader context, Andrew Donskov briefly discusses Tolstoy&#39;s relationship with peasants in general as well as with each of the four individual writers in particular. In addition, he provides a background sketch of two major religious groups, namely the Doukhobors and the Molokans, both of which still claim sizeable populations of followers in North America today.</p><p>Originally published in 2008 by the Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa under the title <em>Leo Tolstoy and Russian peasant sectarian writers: Selected correspondence, </em>the expanded University of Ottawa Press edition includes 44 letters never published in English, out of the total 155 letters. Correspondence translated by John Woodsworth.</p><p><em>This book is published in English.</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p>