Short Fiction, Leo Tolstoy [general ebook reader .txt] 📗

pamphlets which, for political reasons, the censor would not sanction, and which it was therefore dangerous to publish. ↩

The Patriarch whose reforms caused a great schism. ↩

A term of contempt, and an allusion both to the Government’s tobacco revenue and to the fact that smoking was introduced into Russia in Peter the Great’s time, to the scandal of the Old Believers, who dwell on the text that: “Not that which entereth into a man, defileth him, but that (smoke) which cometh out of him.” ↩

Alexander II was assassinated on March the First (o.s.), 1881. ↩

A game of cards similar to auction bridge. ↩

A school for natural science without Greek and Latin; in the classical gymnasium Latin and Greek are taught. ↩

County council. ↩

The name is Frol, but the common way of the ignorant masses is to use H, instead of F. It is as if one said Johnny then John and then John Smith. ↩

When a lady in Russia stands godmother she gives the christening robes and a dress to the mother. The godfather pays the priest and gives his godchild a cross. ↩

The Khodinka is a large plain outside Moscow where the military often exercise. It was here that the people of Moscow assembled to celebrate the Tsar’s accession, and where many hundreds were crushed to death. ↩

The custom of giving a living to a son-in-law is universal in Russia. The living is usually the dowry of the youngest daughter. ↩

About three halfpence. ↩

About a shilling. ↩

The big peasant loaf of black bread. ↩

Not in the English sense, for there is no Poor-Law system entitling the destitute to demand maintenance. ↩

Five farthings. ↩

Three guineas. ↩

One of the most depressing features of L. N. Tolstoy’s environment is the large number of unemployed and beggars from the adjacent highway. They wait outside the house for hours every day for the coming of Leo Nikolayevich. The consciousness of his inability to render them substantial aid weighs heavily upon him, as does also the fact that, owing to insurmountable obstacles, he cannot even feed them, and allow them to sleep in the house in which he himself lives. These unfortunates surround Leo Nikolayevich at the steps, and besiege him with their importunate requests, just at the time when he seeks the fresh air and is most in need of mental rest and solitude after long-continued and strenuous mental labour. In view of this fact, the idea has occurred to some of Leo Nikolayevich’s friends, of establishing in the village of Yásnaya Polyána a lodging- and eating-house for tramps, the use of which by the latter would save L. N. unnecessary trouble. The establishment of such premises⁠—L. N. has viewed the idea very favourably⁠—would at least afford some temporary relief to the wandering poor who are in dire need. At the same time the peasantry of Yásnaya Polyána would be relieved of the too heavy burden of supporting the passing unemployed described by Tolstoy in his article. Lastly, it would afford Tolstoy, in his declining years, considerable mental relief, which it would seem that he has more than deserved by his incessant labours on behalf of distressed mankind. ↩

A Zémsky Natchálnik is a salaried official placed in authority in a district. He is often selected from among the local gentry, and wields very considerable authority. ↩

A primitive plough used by the peasants. ↩

Colophon

Short Fiction
was compiled from short stories and novellas published between 1852 and 1911 by
Leo Tolstoy.
They were translated from Russian between 1887 and 1920 by
Louise Maude, Aylmer Maude, Nathan Haskell Dole, Constance Garnett, J. D. Duff, Leo Weiner, R. S. Townsend, Hagberg Wright, Benjamin Tucker, Everyman’s Library, Vladimir Chertkov and Isabella Fyvie Mayo.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Weijia Cheng,
and is based on transcriptions produced between 2006 and 2017 by
Sankar Viswanathan, Odessa Paige Turner, Anna Hall, Albert László, Chuck Greif, Judith Boss, David Widger, Clare Graham, Marc D’Hooghe, Carlos Colón and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
for
Project Gutenberg (A Russian Proprietor, The Complete Works of Count Tolstóy, Volume XII, Tolstoi for the Young, The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, The Invaders and Other Stories, The Forged Coupon and Other Stories, Master and Man, Father Sergius and Three Days in the Village and Other Sketches),
Wikisource (Family Happiness, Twenty-Three Tales, Diary of a Lunatic and The Devil),
and
Alex Bell and The Tolstoy Library OnLine
for the
Patricia Clark Memorial Library (The Kreutzer Sonata),
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive (The Cossacks and Other Tales of the Caucasus, The Kreutzer Sonata, The Complete Works of Count Tolstóy, Volume XII, Tolstoi for the Young, Father Sergius, Master and Man and Other Tales, The Invaders and Other Stories, Ivan Ilych and Hadji Murad and Other Stories, Three Days in the Village and Other Sketches, The Overthrow of Hell and Its Restoration and Twenty-Three Tales),
and the HathiTrust Digital Library (A Russian Proprietor, Sevastopol, The Death of Ivan Ilyitch and Other Stories, In the Days of Serfdom and Other Stories, The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, The Novels and Other Works of Lyof N. Tolstoï, Volumes XV