What is wrong in our life, first and foremost, is that the means has been established as a goal, while what ought to be a goal– the well-being of one‘s neighbour– has been established as a means, i.e., that a person‘s well-being, his very life, is sacrificed for the production of equipment, which is sometimes necessary for everyone, but at other times only to satisfy the whim of a single individual, when human lives are lost for the production of what is needed only by a few, and sometimes even of harmful things, which no one needs.

[…] To destroy the life and well-being of any individual for the sake of everyone‘s well-being is like cutting off an animal‘s limb for the sake of its well-being. This is the terrible mistake of our time...

L. N. Tolstoy to P. V. Verigin
(Yasnaya Polyana, October 14, 1896)

Sergej Tolstoy, son of Leo Tolstoy, accompanied and supported the Doukhobors on their forced emigration to Canada in 1898 and after.