There has lately appeared in the papers information that in connection with Nobel‘s will the question has been discussed as to who should be chosen to receive the £10,000 bequeathed to the person who has best served the cause of peace. This has called forth certain considerations in me […]. I think this point in Nobel‘s will concerning those who have best served the cause of peace is very difficult. Those who do indeed serve this cause do so because they serve God, and are therefore not in need of pecuniary recompense, and will not accept it. But I think the condition expressed in the will would be quite correctly fulfilled if the money were transmitted to the destitute and suffering families of those who have served the cause of peace. I am alluding to the Caucasian Doukhobors or Spirit-Wrestlers. No one in our time has served and is continuing to serve the cause of peace more effectively and powerfully than these people.

Nobel‘s Bequest. Letter Addressed to a Swedish Editor (August 1897).

Tolstoy is being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1909