Book 8 can be considered, on one level, as Tolstoy's polemic against the Russo-Turkish war which broke out in April, 1877 while he was completing the novel. The author's view was so unpopular at the time that Tolstoy's publisher refused to accept the manuscript even though its tone was softened in two successive versions. Levin expresses Tolstoy's pacifist views, based on the idea that the "general welfare" can be achieved only by the strict observance of "the law of right and wrong which has been revealed to every man." The argument with Koznyshev convinces Levin he must pursue his own moral code despite the views of knowledgeable intellectuals. The imminent thunderstorm — an act of nature — turns his thought from these irritating transient matters to his more meaningful concentration on his family. As a literary device, the storm clears Levin's thoughts, while the same storm — that of the war — is merely a vehicle whereby the other characters avoid self-scrutiny and submerge their individual life quests by repeating of cliches like "fighting for freedom," "brotherhood of all Slavs," "national honor," and "upholding Christian faith."
Though Anna Karenina concludes with Levin's salvation, Tolstoy has raised many problems he leaves unanswered, and characters who must still confront unresolved lives. Vronsky is embarked on a course of atonement whose end is uncertain, Karenin remains a pitiable cuckold, and Levin, newly inspired by a love of God, remains at the beginning of a long and difficult career.
