Institutional Justice vs. Divine Judgment Theme Analysis

Composed as a parable, or didactic moral tale, for children, “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” follows the false accusation and imprisonment of a merchant named Aksyonov for a murder that he did not commit. As state officials—a police inspector, soldiers, and even the tsar—participate in Aksyonov’s wrongful punishment, a brutal flogging followed by 26 years of hard labor in Siberia, Tolstoy sets up a highly visible contrast between the state institutions of law and justice that strip Aksyonov of his liberty and the ultimate, reliable moral judgment of God. As Aksyonov’s appeals to state authorities fail, he increasingly turns towards a life of religious devotion, trusting (as Tolstoy puts it in the title) that God sees the truth of his innocence and will eventually reward his steadfast faith by restoring moral order. With this, the story suggests that while earthly justice may fail, one should place his or her hope in divine justice.

The process by which Aksyonov is accused of murder and loses his freedom revolves principally around an encounter with an unnamed “district police inspector” who acts as a symbol of state authority and reveals institutional justice to be deeply flawed. At first glance, this inspector’s handling of Aksyonov appears to follow the outlines of a legitimate investigative-legal procedure. He begins with an interrogation, conducts a search of Aksyonov’s possessions, levels an accusation of guilt, and finally orders the arrest of his subject. Upon closer inspection, however, Tolstoy uses the inspector to represent a system of institutional justice—in contrast to the higher divine judgment that becomes Aksyonov’s focus during his imprisonment—that can be reduced to physical and psychological force and to the leveraging of state power against an effectively defenseless individual subject. The inspector arrives on the scene accompanied by two soldiers, and although Aksyonov responds fully and truthfully to all of the inspector’s queries, the inspector nevertheless cuts short his dialogue with Aksyonov and invites the intervention of the soldiers, pivoting towards the exercise of force. He asks Aksyonov to “show me your belongings,” but before Aksyonov has a chance to oblige him, the police inspector commands the soldiers to “search him!” The soldiers’ intervention, along with the shock of seeing the bloodstained knife (which Tolstoy’s audience knows to be a planted piece of evidence), abolishes Aksyonov’s voice and with it his capacity to mount a defense: “his voice kept breaking, his face was ashen and he was quaking all over with fear, just like a guilty man.” Having reduced Aksyonov to a state of physical paralysis, the inspector now cites the very symptoms of fear that he and his soldiers have induced as evidence of Aksyonov’s guilt: “I can see you’re guilty from your face.”

In the moments following his formal accusation of Aksyonov, the inspector rapidly escalates his use of force, “order[ing] the soldiers to tie [Aksyonov] up and take him to the cart.” Aksyonov can no longer speak at all; he expresses his grief through the nonverbal gestures of “cross[ing] himself and burst[ing] into tears.” Now under the absolute physical control of state officials, Aksyonov is shipped off to be flogged—a corporal punishment so destructive, Tolstoy notes, that Aksyonov must be given time to heal before he can be transported to Siberia.

As Aksyonov ages in Siberia (acquiring the moniker of “Grandpa,” as well as of “Man of God”), he turns away from the world, realizing that true justice revolves around faith and the fate of the soul, rather than the physical control and punishment that defines institutional justice and authority. The opposition of institutional versus divine justice—and the total superiority of the latter—is stated perhaps most explicitly in Aksyonov’s reasonings after his disturbing meeting with his wife, in which she questions his innocence and informs him that his appeals to the authorities have failed: “He told himself, ‘Obviously, no one except God can know the truth…only from Him should I ask for help, from Him alone can I expect mercy.’ And from that time onwards Aksyonov stopped sending in petitions, stopped hoping and simply prayed to God.” With this, Aksyonov fully internalizes the flawed, flimsy nature of earthly justice, realizing that he can trust only God to see his innocence.

Towards the end of his life, in Siberia, Aksyonov catches his fellow prisoner Makar Semyonov digging an escape tunnel. Aksyonov recognizes Makar as the actual perpetrator of the murder for which he was imprisoned; nevertheless, Aksyonov chooses not to turn Makar in to the authorities. This decision can be seen as a rejection of earthly justice and punishment, symbolized (as with the police inspector) by a state official known only by his title—the Governor. Tolstoy makes it clear that Aksyonov has not completely forgiven Makar by the time the Governor asks him, “Who was trying to dig a tunnel?” Yet Aksyonov decides to answer untruthfully (“I saw nothing, and I know nothing”) after reasoning not just that his suspicion of Makar might be misplaced, but that “they’re bound to flog him if I testify against him.” In other words, even if Makar is the one who “ruined” Aksyonov, the official punishment of flogging to which Aksyonov himself was subjected would be (in Aksyonov’s mind) unjust and unacceptable under any circumstances.

In a private moment after the Governor has gone, Aksyonov assures Makar that “God will forgive you.” This statement, together with Aksyonov’s deceitful response to the Governor, serves as a rejection of (and act of resistance to) the very idea of the Governor’s authority—an affirmation that delivering true justice is a prerogative of God’s upon which no human has the right to impinge. And although Makar confesses to the murder for which Aksyonov was jailed, by the time “official permission finally came for Aksyonov to return he had passed away,” leaving the state’s jurisdiction and moving into the afterlife, where God ultimately dispenses rewards and punishments.