Talk:Ivan the Fool

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No. Ivan is not a "lucky young man." He is a "sacred fool," a man too "foolish" to be greedy, selfish, or a liar. For that reason, Tolstoy used him in the 1886 short story "Ivan Durak" as the ideal ruler of an anarcho-communalist (not "communist") society in which everyone works, eats, thrives, and prospers -- except the leisure class, those with uncalloused hands, who must eat only the leavings of those who work honestly.Timothy Perper 22:33, 28 August 2007 (UTC)