 | A Morning of a Landed Proprietor — Chapter 17By Leo Tolstoy (1852) |
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| A Morning of a Landed Proprietor — Chapter 17By Leo Tolstoy (1852) |
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Father of Christian Anarchism
: In 1861, during the second of his European tours, Tolstoy met with Proudhon, with whom he exchanged ideas. Inspired by the encounter, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana to found thirteen schools that were the first attempt to implement a practical model of libertarian education. (From: Anarchy Archives.)
• "...for no social system can be durable or stable, under which the majority does not enjoy equal rights but is kept in a servile position, and is bound by exceptional laws. Only when the laboring majority have the same rights as other citizens, and are freed from shameful disabilities, is a firm order of society possible." (From: "To the Czar and His Assistants," by Leo Tolstoy, ....)
• "People who take part in Government, or work under its direction, may deceive themselves or their sympathizers by making a show of struggling; but those against whom they struggle (the Government) know quite well, by the strength of the resistance experienced, that these people are not really pulling, but are only pretending to." (From: "A Letter to Russian Liberals," by Leo Tolstoy, Au....)
• "The Government and all those of the upper classes near the Government who live by other people's work, need some means of dominating the workers, and find this means in the control of the army. Defense against foreign enemies is only an excuse. The German Government frightens its subjects about the Russians and the French; the French Government, frightens its people about the Germans; the Russian Government frightens its people about the French and the Germans; and that is the way with all Governments. But neither Germans nor Russians nor Frenchmen desire to fight their neighbors or other people; but, living in peace, they dread war more than anything else in the world." (From: "Letter to a Non-Commissioned Officer," by Leo Tol....)
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Chapter 17
When they entered the hut, the old man bowed again, wiped off the bench in the front corner with the flap of his coat, and, smiling, asked :
" What may we serve to you, your Grace ? "
The hut was white (with a chimney), spacious, and had both hanging and bench beds. The fresh aspen-wood beams, between which the moss-caulking had just begun to fade, had not yet turned black ; the new benches and beds had not yet become smooth, and the floor was not yet stamped down.
A young, haggard peasant woman, with an oval, pensive face, Ilya's wife, was sitting on the bench-bed, and rocking with her foot a cradle that hung down from the ceiling by a long pole. In the cradle a suckling babe lay stretched out, and slept, barely breathing, and closing its eyes. Another, a plump, red-cheeked woman, Karp's wife, stood, with her sunburnt arms bared above the elbows, near the oven, and cut onions into a wooden bowl. A third, a pockmarked, pregnant woman, stood at the oven, shielding herself with her sleeve. The hut was hot, not only from the sun, but from the oven also, and was fragrant with freshly baked bread. From the hanging beds the flaxen heads of two boys and a girl, who had climbed there in expectation of dinner, looked down with curiosity at the master.
Nekhlyudov was happy to see this well-being ; but, at the same time, he felt embarrassed before these women and children who gazed at him. He sat down on the bench, blushing.
" Give me a piece of warm bread, I like it," he said, and blushed even more.
Karp's wife cut off a big slice of bread, and handed it to the master on a plate. Nekhlyudov was silent, not knowing what to say ; the women were silent, too ; the old man smiled gently.
" Really, what am I ashamed of ? I am acting as though I were guilty of something," thought Nekhlyudov. " Why should I not make the proposition about the farm to him ? How foolish ! " But still he kept silent.
"Well, Father Dmitri Nikolaevich, what will your order be about the boys ? " said the old man.
" I should advise you not to send them away, but to find work for them here," suddenly spoke Nekhlyudov, taking courage. " Do you know what I have thought out for you ? Buy in partnership with me a young grove in the Crown forest, and fields — "
" How, your Grace ? Where shall I get the money for it ? " he interrupted the master.
" A small grove, for about two hundred rubles," remarked Nekhlyiidov.
The old man smiled angrily.
" It would not hurt to buy it if I had the money," he said.
" Do you mean to tell me you have not that amount ? " said the master, reproachfully.
" Oh, your Grace ! " answered the old man, in a sorrowful voice, looking at the door. " I have enough to do to feed the family, and it is not for me to buy groves."
" But you have money, and why should it lie idle ? " insisted Nekhlyudov.
The old man became greatly agitated ; his eyes flashed, he began to shrug his shoulders.
" It may be evil people have told you something about me," he spoke in a trembling voice, " but, as you believe in God," he said, becoming more and more animated, and turning his eyes to the image, " may my eyes burst, may I go through the floor, if I have anything outside of the fifteen rubles which Ilyushka has brought me, and I must pay the capitation tax, and, you know yourself, I have just built a new hut — "
" All right, all right ! " said the master, rising from the bench. " Good-bye, people ! "
From : Wikisource.org
Father of Christian Anarchism
: In 1861, during the second of his European tours, Tolstoy met with Proudhon, with whom he exchanged ideas. Inspired by the encounter, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana to found thirteen schools that were the first attempt to implement a practical model of libertarian education. (From: Anarchy Archives.)
• "...for no social system can be durable or stable, under which the majority does not enjoy equal rights but is kept in a servile position, and is bound by exceptional laws. Only when the laboring majority have the same rights as other citizens, and are freed from shameful disabilities, is a firm order of society possible." (From: "To the Czar and His Assistants," by Leo Tolstoy, ....)
• "You are surprised that soldiers are taught that it is right to kill people in certain cases and in war, while in the books admitted to be holy by those who so teach, there is nothing like such a permission..." (From: "Letter to a Non-Commissioned Officer," by Leo Tol....)
• "...the dissemination of the truth in a society based on coercion was always hindered in one and the same manner, namely, those in power, feeling that the recognition of this truth would undermine their position, consciously or sometimes unconsciously perverted it by explanations and additions quite foreign to it, and also opposed it by open violence." (From: "A Letter to a Hindu: The Subjection of India- Its....)
Leo Wiener was an American historian, linguist, author and translator. Wiener was born in Białystok (then in the Russian Empire), of Polish-Jewish origin. His father was Zalmen (Solomon) Wiener, and his mother was Frejda Rabinowicz. He studied at the University of Warsaw in 1880, and then at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. Wiener later declared, "Having 'for many years been a member of the Unitarian Church,' and having 'preached absolute amalgamation with the Gentile surroundings', [I] 'never allied with the Jewish Church or with Jews as such." Wiener left Europe with the plan of founding a vegetarian commune in British Honduras (now Belize). He sailed steerage to New Orleans. On his arrival, in 1880, he had no money. After travel and work around the US, he went to Kansas City, Missouri, and became a lecturer in the department of Germanic and Romance languages at the University of Kansas. He was a polyglot, and was reputed to speak thirty languages... (From: Wikipedia.org.)
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Chapter 17
