"Evil Allures, But Good Endures" ("Вражье лепко, а божье крепко") (AKA: Hatred is Sweet, but God is Strong) is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885. It is commonly included in the massively-reproduced collection Twenty-three Tales.
In 1923, it was listed in the index of short stories for Leo Tolstoy by Ina Ten Eyck Firkins.[1]
According to the Cambridge Companion, the work was modeled on the lubok, the traditional, early-printed sheets in Russian literary circles, similar to the work of European Renaissance scribes, where imagery was interwoven with the worded message.[2] According to a literary study published by University of Santo Tomas, this was another example of a Tolstoy work where the moral was definitely present and even in the title.[3]
Like many other Tolstoy pieces, this work has been republished in English dozens of times. It was republished in hardback or paperback in 1924,[4] 2008,[5] 2009,[6] and 2020.[7]