Book Five: 1806-07 - Chapter X

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Soon after his admission to the Masonic Brotherhood, Pierre wentto the Kiev province, where he had the greatest number of serfs,taking with him full directions which he had written down for hisown guidance as to what he should do on his estates.

　　When he reached Kiev he sent for all his stewards to the head officeand explained to them his intentions and wishes. He told them thatsteps would be taken immediately to free his serfs- and that till thenthey were not to be overburdened with labor, women while nursing theirbabies were not to be sent to work, assistance was to be given tothe serfs, punishments were to be admonitory and not corporal, andhospitals, asylums, and schools were to be established on all theestates. Some of the stewards (there were semiliterate foremen amongthem) listened with alarm, supposing these words to mean that theyoung count was displeased with their management and embezzlement ofmoney, some after their first fright were amused by Pierre's lispand the new words they had not heard before, others simply enjoyedhearing how the master talked, while the cleverest among them,including the chief steward, understood from this speech how theycould best handle the master for their own ends.

　　The chief steward expressed great sympathy with Pierre's intentions,but remarked that besides these changes it would be necessary to gointo the general state of affairs which was far from satisfactory.

　　Despite Count Bezukhov's enormous wealth, since he had come intoan income which was said to amount to five hundred thousand rubles ayear, Pierre felt himself far poorer than when his father had made himan allowance of ten thousand rubles. He had a dim perception of thefollowing budget:

　　About 80,000 went in payments on all the estates to the Land Bank,about 30,000 went for the upkeep of the estate near Moscow, the townhouse, and the allowance to the three princesses; about 15,000 wasgiven in pensions and the same amount for asylums; 150,000 alimony wassent to the countess; about 70,00 went for interest on debts. Thebuilding of a new church, previously begun, had cost about 10,000 ineach of the last two years, and he did not know how the rest, about100,000 rubles, was spent, and almost every year he was obliged toborrow. Besides this the chief steward wrote every year telling him offires and bad harvests, or of the necessity of rebuilding factoriesand workshops. So the first task Pierre had to face was one forwhich he had very little aptitude or inclination- practical business.

　　He discussed estate affairs every day with his chief steward. But hefelt that this did not forward matters at all. He felt that theseconsultations were detached from real affairs and did not link up withthem or make them move. On the one hand, the chief steward put thestate of things to him in the very worst light, pointing out thenecessity of paying off the debts and undertaking new activitieswith serf labor, to which Pierre did not agree. On the other hand,Pierre demanded that steps should be taken to liberate the serfs,which the steward met by showing the necessity of first paying off theloans from the Land Bank, and the consequent impossibility of a speedyemancipation.

　　The steward did not say it was quite impossible, but suggestedselling the forests in the province of Kostroma, the land lower downthe river, and the Crimean estate, in order to make it possible: allof which operations according to him were connected with suchcomplicated measures- the removal of injunctions, petitions,permits, and so on- that Pierre became quite bewildered and onlyreplied:

　　"Yes, yes, do so."

　　Pierre had none of the practical persistence that would have enabledhim to attend to the business himself and so he disliked it and onlytried to pretend to the steward that he was attending to it. Thesteward for his part tried to pretend to the count that heconsidered these consultations very valuable for the proprietor andtroublesome to himself.

　　In Kiev Pierre found some people he knew, and strangers hastenedto make his acquaintance and joyfully welcomed the rich newcomer,the largest landowner of the province. Temptations to Pierre'sgreatest weakness- the one to which he had confessed when admittedto the Lodge- were so strong that he could not resist them. Againwhole days, weeks, and months of his life passed in as great a rushand were as much occupied with evening parties, dinners, lunches,and balls, giving him no time for reflection, as in Petersburg.Instead of the new life he had hoped to lead he still lived the oldlife, only in new surroundings.

　　Of the three precepts of Freemasonry Pierre realized that he did notfulfill the one which enjoined every Mason to set an example ofmoral life, and that of the seven virtues he lacked two- moralityand the love of death. He consoled himself with the thought that hefulfilled another of the precepts- that of reforming the human race-and had other virtues- love of his neighbor, and especiallygenerosity.

　　In the spring of 1807 he decided to return to Petersburg. On the wayhe intended to visit all his estates and see for himself how far hisorders had been carried out and in what state were the serfs whomGod had entrusted to his care and whom he intended to benefit.

　　The chief steward, who considered the young count's attemptsalmost insane- unprofitable to himself, to the count, and to theserfs- made some concessions. Continuing to represent the liberationof the serfs as impracticable, he arranged for the erection of largebuildings- schools, hospitals, and asylums- on all the estatesbefore the master arrived. Everywhere preparations were made not forceremonious welcomes (which he knew Pierre would not like), but forjust such gratefully religious ones, with offerings of icons and thebread and salt of hospitality, as, according to his understanding ofhis master, would touch and delude him.

　　The southern spring, the comfortable rapid traveling in a Viennacarriage, and the solitude of the road, all had a gladdening effect onPierre. The estates he had not before visited were each morepicturesque than the other; the serfs everywhere seemed thriving andtouchingly grateful for the benefits conferred on them. Everywherewere receptions, which though they embarrassed Pierre awakened ajoyful feeling in the depth of his heart. In one place the peasantspresented him with bread and salt and an icon of Saint Peter and SaintPaul, asking permission, as a mark of their gratitude for the benefitshe had conferred on them, to build a new chantry to the church attheir own expense in honor of Peter and Paul, his patron saints. Inanother place the women with infants in arms met him to thank himfor releasing them from hard work. On a third estate the priest,bearing a cross, came to meet him surrounded by children whom, bythe count's generosity, he was instructing in reading, writing, andreligion. On all his estates Pierre saw with his own eyes brickbuildings erected or in course of erection, all on one plan, forhospitals, schools, and almshouses, which were soon to be opened.Everywhere he saw the stewards' accounts, according to which theserfs' manorial labor had been diminished, and heard the touchingthanks of deputations of serfs in their full-skirted blue coats.

　　What Pierre did not know was that the place where they presented himwith bread and salt and wished to build a chantry in honor of Peterand Paul was a market village where a fair was held on St. Peter'sday, and that the richest peasants (who formed the deputation) hadbegun the chantry long before, but that nine tenths of the peasants inthat villages were in a state of the greatest poverty. He did not knowthat since the nursing mothers were no longer sent to work on hisland, they did still harder work on their own land. He did not knowthat the priest who met him with the cross oppressed the peasants byhis exactions, and that the pupils' parents wept at having to lethim take their children and secured their release by heavy payments.He did not know that the brick buildings, built to plan, were beingbuilt by serfs whose manorial labor was thus increased, thoughlessened on paper. He did not know that where the steward had shownhim in the accounts that the serfs' payments had been diminished bya third, their obligatory manorial work had been increased by ahalf. And so Pierre was delighted with his visit to his estates andquite recovered the philanthropic mood in which he had leftPetersburg, and wrote enthusiastic letters to his "brother-instructor"as he called the Grand Master.

　　"How easy it is, how little effort it needs, to do so much good,"thought Pierre, "and how little attention we pay to it!"

　　He was pleased at the gratitude he received, but felt abashed atreceiving it. This gratitude reminded him of how much more he might dofor these simple, kindly people.

　　The chief steward, a very stupid but cunning man who saw perfectlythrough the naive and intelligent count and played with him as witha toy, seeing the effect these prearranged receptions had on Pierre,pressed him still harder with proofs of the impossibility and aboveall the uselessness of freeing the serfs, who were quite happy as itwas.

　　Pierre in his secret soul agreed with the steward that it would bedifficult to imagine happier people, and that God only knew what wouldhappen to them when they were free, but he insisted, thoughreluctantly, on what he thought right. The steward promised to doall in his power to carry out the count's wishes, seeing clearlythat not only would the count never be able to find out whether allmeasures had been taken for the sale of the land and forests and torelease them from the Land Bank, but would probably never even inquireand would never know that the newly erected buildings were standingempty and that the serfs continued to give in money and work allthat other people's serfs gave- that is to say, all that could begot out of them.