Yasnaya Polyana, August 30th. I have been
here now for three days, Tolstoi talked with
Ilya Lvovich and some one else about farming
and about the new machine called
"The Planet."
Tolstoi said: "It is surprising how few technical inventions
and improvements have been made in agriculture,
compared with what has been done in industry."
Afterwards Tolstoi said:
"Ruskin says how much more valuable human
lives are than any improvements and mechanical
progress."
Then Tolstoi added: "It is difficult to argue with Ruskin : he by
himself has more understanding than the whole
House of Commons."
Tolstoi went for a walk, and I fetched him his
overcoat. I met him on the road. We walked
home together and walked through the fields.
Tolstoi looked at the bad harvest and said :
"My farmer's eye is exasperated : God alone
knows how they sowed!"
When we reached the boundary of the
Yasnaya Polyana forest, we heard the loud voices
of children, and soon we saw a motley crowd of
village boys discussing something. They noticed
Tolstoi and began urging one another to go up
to him—then they felt shy and hid themselves.
Tolstoi became interested in them and beckoned
to them. They began to approach, at first
timidly and one by one, but gradually all came
together. I particularly remember one of them
dressed in grey calico striped trousers, in a
ragged cap and shirt, with huge heavy boots,
probably belonging to his father.
Tolstoi showed them his camp stool, which
was a great success. He asked them what they
were doing there. It appeared they had been
picking pears and the watchman ran after them.
Tolstoi walked with them. On the way he
enquired about their parents. One boy turned
out to be the son of Taras Fokanich.
Tolstoi said to me: "He was one of my very best pupils. What
a happy time that was I How I loved that
work ! And, above all, there was nobody in
my way. Now my fame is always in my way:
whatever I do, it is all talked about. But at
that time nobody knew or interfered, neither
strangers nor my family—though, there was no
family then."
When we reached the spot Tolstoi told the
children to gather the pears. They climbed the
trees, some knocking down the pears, others
shaking them down, others again picking them
up. There was a hubbub, a happy noise of
children ; and the figure of the good old Tolstoi
lovingly protecting the children from the attack
of the watchman moved one to tears. Then two
or three peasants came to ask his advice on some
legal point.
Tolstoi, Nikitin, and I talked of Dostoevsky.
Tolstoi said: "Certain characters of his are, if you like,
decadent, but how significant it all is!"
Tolstoi mentioned Kirilov in The Possessed,
and said: "Dostoevsky was seeking for a belief, and,
when he described profoundly sceptical characters,
he described his own unbelief."
Of Dostoevsky's attitude to Liberalism Tolstoi observed:
"Dostoevsky, who suffered in person from
the Government, was revolted by the banality of
Liberalism."
Tolstoi said: "During the sixty years of my conscious life
a great change has come over us in Russia — I
am speaking of the so-called educated society —
with regard to religious questions: religious
convictions were differentiated; it is a bad word,
but I don't know how to express it differently.
In my youth there were three, or rather four,
categories into which society in this respect
could be divided. The first was a very small
group of very religious people, who had been
freemasons previously, or sometimes monks.
The second, about 70 per cent of the whole,
consisted of people who from habit observed
church rituals, but in their souls were perfectly
indifferent to religious problems. The third
group consisted of unbelievers who observed the
conventions in cases of necessity; and, finally,
there were the Voltairians, unbelievers who
openly and courageously expressed their unbelief.
The latter were few in number — about
2 or 3 per cent. Now one has no idea whom
one is going to meet. One finds the most
contrary convictions existing side by side. Recently
there have appeared the latest decadents
of orthodoxy, the orthodox churchmen like
Merezhkovsky and Rosanov.
"Many people were attracted to orthodoxy
through Khomyakov's definition of the Orthodox
Church, as a congregation of people united by
love. What could be better than that? But
the point is that it is merely the arbitrary substitution
of one conception for another. Why is the
Orthodox Church such a congregation of loveunited
people ? It is the contrary rather."
A.B. Goldenveizer (1875-1961) was een Russische componist. Van zijn gesprekken met schrijver Leo Tolstoi deed hij verslag in
Talks with Tolstoi.
