The incident started when a lecture, 'Tolstoy's view on penal law through his novel, "Resurrection"' in October 1932 by Professor Yukitoki TAKIGAWA of the Faculty of Law, Kyoto Imperial University explained in his talk that 'Criminal offenses occur when organization of the national governmental is bad,' which was considered problematic by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Law as being anarchist.
事件は、京都帝国大学法学部の瀧川幸辰教授が、1932年10月中央大学法学部で行った講演「『復活』を通して見たるトルストイの刑法観」の内容（レフ・トルストイの思想について「犯罪は国家の組織が悪いから出る」などと説明）が無政府主義的として文部省および司法省内で問題化したことに端を発する。