Putin Evokes Tolstoy 26 Years After Soviet Troops Pulled Out of Afghanistan

Putin Evokes Tolstoy 26 Years After Soviet Troops Pulled Out of Afghanistan | News | The Moscow Times: 

Some 15,000 Soviet troops were killed in Afghanistan between 1979 and1989. On Gorbachev's initiative, the Soviet parliament in 1989 declared that thewar in Afghanistan had been amistake. Putin also deplored that Tolstoy's humanist teachings were not being applied universally. "Unfortunately we see that not everyone has reached the level of Leo Tolstoy, when his famous refusal to fight evil with evil could reap tangible results, especially on the international scene," he said. Tolstoy, who authored "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" in the late 19th century, was renowned for his pacifism. More