Tidhar documents the scope of his work: "He translated from Russian literature stories by Korolenko, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. He translated the memoirs of Vera Figner and of the revolutionary Gershuni" (writings of the Russian revolution, testimony to his social affinity). And he wrote books on Rousseau and on Tolstoy. Tidhar, "Pioneers of the Yishuv and Its Builders," vol. 1, p. 254
His great love was for Vladimir Korolenko, the humane realist (AZR translated "Without a Tongue"). His words about Korolenko attest, as Streit put it, to AZR himself:
"In his stories and articles his love of humanity always stands out, a warm and tender love… he detests barbs that prick like thorns, and keeps away from all excessive agitation… not with axes and not with sledgehammers does he shatter their fortress, but with a tongue softer than butter." AZR on Korolenko, quoted by Shalom Streit (1934), who remarks: "These words may be said of AZR himself as well, a kind of autobiographical statement" (see "AZR in the Eyes of His Contemporary"). read/31321.
Tolstoy was not only translated but a spiritual root: through his disciple Feinerman in Poltava, AZR absorbed the idea that "simple, honest labor became… a sacred thing" (see "Torah and Labor" and "In Russia: Brainin, Tolstoy"). And the writing of the biography "The Life of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy" (1924) is a direct continuation of that same affinity, the life-teacher who shaped his doctrine of labor and morality.
AZR did not choose the Russian writers at random: Korolenko (tender love of humanity), Tolstoy (labor and morality), and the memoirs of the revolutionaries (Figner, Gershuni, devotion and social justice). All three are facets of the same soul: humane realism, social conscience, and non-violence. That same "smuggler from one extreme to the other" who joined the Aggadah with revolution.