Tuckton House had been founded in 1900 by Tolstoy's literary executor, Count Vladimir Chertkov, to house the English branch of the Free Age Press, a small publishing business devoted to the production of cheap English-language editions of Tolstoy in which no copyright would be claimed, while unexpurgated Russian editions of Tolstoy's works were to be produced and smuggled back into Russia. To help him in this venture Chertkov recruited a young Englishman, A. C. Fifield, from the editorial staff of a large publishing house in London, who had already made a name for himself in the publishing world by overseeing the production and distribution of penny editions of Charles Sheldon's religious novels:

At this time Tolstoy's novels were subject to heavy censorship in Russia following Tolstoy's intervention on behalf of the Dukhobors, a persecuted religious sect who shared many of Tolstoy's precepts. Like Tolstoy they advocated chastity, vegetarianism, abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, the pooling of all goods and property, cooperation and non-resistance to evil. In keeping with the latter they refused to bear arms in the Russian army and as a consequence were subjected to a number of atrocities at the hands of Cossack troops. In December 1896 Leo Tolstoy wrote a manifesto, Pomigite! (Give Help!) on their behalf, which was signed by a number of influential literary figures, including Count Chertkov. A copy of the manifesto was sent to Tsar Nicholas II, who responded by banishing Tolstoy to his estates at Yasnaya Polyana and exiling Chertkov to the Baltic Provinces. However, following intercession by his mother, Yelizaveta Ivanovna, née Countess Chernyshova-Kruglikova (1831–1922), a former member of the imperial court and already in exile in Bournemouth for her Baptist convictions, Count Chertkov was allowed to go into ‘permanent exile’ in England. Chertkov knew England well.