Tolstoi, Artist and Preacher, Edited by J Berg Esenwein, Brief Intro by David C Lane

[00:00:03]Uh, good evening. Um, my name is David Christopher Lane. I'm a professor of philosophy at Mount San Antonio College and the founder of the Neural Surf YouTube channel. Tonight I bring you perhaps my favorite novelist of all time, Leo Toltoy.

[00:00:20]I was introduced to Tolstone when I was a young boy, but I had never read completely his longer novels, you know, such as War in Peace, Anakarinina, and other stranger novels called Resurrection and Father Sergius.

[00:00:36]My favorite novel of course is Anakarinina which is just a remarkable piece of writing even though Toltoy you perhaps know later in his life wanted to disavow it and that's primarily because he had a conversion a certain way of looking at Christianity and I think he wanted to disown the more uh earthly parts of his writing but in any case it stands out now we've also done anina as an entire book audio book on this channel. I think you just search for it, you'll find it. But tonight, I just want to give you a glimpse of a magazine article. I think it was published in the early 20th part of the century, probably between 1906 or 1908, called Toltoy with a different spelling, as you'll notice, artist and preacher as a man of letters.

[00:01:24]And it also at the very end has a very famous short story by Toltoy which I think you'll enjoy especially as a an evening where you relax and listen to an audio book which is just a remarkable way to spend the night. Thank you so much.

[00:01:41]>> Leaf Nikolai, Count Toltoy, holds undisputed place in the first rank. As a philosophical preacher of reform, his position is much less secure. And it is sadly ironical that one who was so ready to lay aside those fictional laurels which all men yielded to him readily has not been accorded the preeminence among moralists which he held to be of so much greater worth.

[00:02:02]The last 20 years of his abundant life disclosed in this greatest of all Russians that which was always really present. The single eye with its gaze constantly set upon ethical ideals. Even a swift survey of his life and its so closely interpenetrating work will bear out this estimate. Perhaps surprisingly in 1828 on September 9th to August 28th old style Toltoy was born at Yaznaya Polana in the government of Tula Russia.

[00:02:29]For several centuries his wealthy and noble family was distinguished in military and state affairs as well as in literature. One of his ancestors Peter Toltoy having been the intimate of Peter the Great. Lio's father, Nikolai, and his mother, the Princess Vconsky, died while he was yet a lad, leaving him in charge of an aunt. He inherited a rich estate which his father had succeeded in thriftily disenumbering from the debts of extravagance contracted by his own father. The future author was educated at home, spent some time, 1843 to 44 at the University of Kazan, did further private work at home for a while, studied law in St. Petersburg alternated between his estates and the social life of the great cities and eventually entered the army in 1851. It was during this period that he gathered much of the material for his early stories, notably the cosaxs, a short novel of unmistakable power and insight and the rambling autobiographical stories, childhood, boyhood, and youth generally combined under the first title. When the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Toltoy was transferred to the army of the Danube and distinguished himself for bravery before Sevastapole as well as by his three notable sketches which bear the name of this great siege.

[00:03:38]Sevastapole in December, Sevastapole in May, and Sevastapole in August.

[00:03:44]Toltoy's life as a soldier was that of a rake in which he differed not at all from the young noblemen of the period.

[00:03:50]But this wild career does not seem to have interfered with his fondness for moralizing, nor with his conviction that he was the spiritual Moses, divinely commissioned to lead the Russian people out of the wilderness. His youthful diary confesses that the three passions to which he yielded, gambling, sensuality, and vanity, were moral stumbling blocks. And with naive premonition, he wrote, "There is something in me which makes me think that I was not born to be just like everybody else. But the most remarkable youthful forecast is found in the words which professor Phelps quotes from Toltoy's journal of this period. The man who has no other goal than his own happiness is a bad man. He whose goal is the good opinion of others is a weak man. He whose goal is the happiness of others is a virtuous man. He whose goal is God is a great man. In these cumulative epigs, we have a summary of Toltoy's creed. However far a field he wandered in middle years, distressed by doubts and confused by jangling voices, the sturdy seeking soul of him, followed this great light with the single eye of an honest man. And this altruistic doctrine he preached with increasing loftiness through excommunication and charges of insanity down to the very end. That so extreme a theory should lead him often into blind avenues, and that the phantoms of many inconsistencies should challenge his way was inevitable. Yet Toltoy stands before the world today as a good man and an earnest one who never lay upon a couch of down while he preached obnigation for others.

[00:05:19]An insatiable psychological curiosity possessed the Russian master from youth to the close of his fiction writing years. In the exercise of this minute observing power, he is as amazing a realist as was Balzac. and when he confines his examinations to humans, he is quite as profoundly interesting but rather tiresome when he records the numberless details of inanimate nature.

[00:05:40]A character so given to scrutiny would naturally be introspective so that his novels are marketkedly autobiographical, and it is always the struggling set upon brooding character which the novelist chooses through which to depict his own nature. How different from the romantic self-exloitation of Byron in childhood.

[00:05:57]Nicolenko is Toltoy himself as Oolenini is in the Cossacs. So too in Lavine of Anna Karenina Pausnichef of the Croitz sonata and Neclov of resurrection his final creed summary we have pictures of the self-recognized characteristics and beliefs of the author. Each of these distinguished novels exhibits the same loosely knit diffuse and digressive literary method and the same marvelous perfection of character analysis and description. Each also advances a step toward that morbid idealism which was always seeking a new expression for a philosophy which was never finally set but remained a shifting formulary to the last.

[00:06:37]War and peace is a huge study of the times of Napoleon and Alexander brilliant and tedious by turns and requiring leisure for its reading. In the last analysis a really great novel.

[00:06:48]Anna Corenina treats with great frankness and high moral purpose contemporaneous Russian society. Both these remarkable books abound in striking comparisons, witty comments, well- differentiated character work, and convincing pictures of their times.

[00:07:03]Shortly after finishing these works, Toltoy emerged from his groping, pessimistic, skeptical, nihilistic philosophy, and discovered the sermon on the mount. Thence forward, he was the preacher. It is true that, as his devoted wife playfully said, he changed his views every two years. Yet his devotion to his altruistic creed, the creed of his youth, as we have seen, was so firm that neither the dying agurations of his friend Togganev nor the clamors of the 45 peoples into whose separate languages his writings have been translated could induce him to return to fiction. He felt that the mantle of a new spiritual leadership was upon his shoulders, and then forward the storyteller's art, when exercised at all, was to be merely a means to the ulterior end of teaching.

[00:07:44]A great number of didactic essays wearing the transparent gores of fiction came from Toltoy's pen in this period as well as many religious and ethical treatises besides one astounding ideal smashing discussion. What is art?

[00:07:56]Radicalism is the native heir of reform and our author was fond of drastic measures in practice and in theory. The communism of his middle period found new emphasis in the later long essay what then must be done. Yet his was a directly contrary individualism of personal philosophy. Contradictory again was his abandonment of the city and adoption of the peasant life on his own estates. Indeed, one looks in vain for consistency in the working out of his whole career. And yet, while the general course swerved startlingly time and again, no one could doubt the naive sincerity of this sophisticated simple mind, this nobleman peasant, this iconoclastic gentle man, this nihilistic Christian, this pessimistic idealist, this contradictory soul of single purpose, this incarnation of selfish unselfishness. For there can be no doubt that Toltoy's character was greater than his confused system of ethics, just as his intellect was greater than his philosophy. Think of the supreme selfless egoism that could permit a wife with whom he lived as with a sister for years, probably ever since he propounded his extreme marital theories in the Croitzer sonata, to copy as often as 10 times the myriad pages of his works, all laboriously by hand. And yet because his followers demanded that he should exemplify his doctrines, and partly also because this 82-year-old father of 10 children could not live peacefully under stress of the divided beliefs of the home. He broke the heart of this devoted woman by leaving home secretly by night and died thus in retreat shortly after November 20th. Old style, November 7th, 1910. For 4 days, the Countess Sophia was beneath the roof where her husband lay ill. Yet only at the last did she venture to come into his room, drop on her knees by his bedside, and kiss the hand that for conscience's sake had smitten her. Strange contradiction of human life when this idealizer of family love, this apostle of gentleness, this generous soul who could withhold nothing from the needy, make over his estate to his family years before he died, refused to receive royalties from his books, beg the public to forget his masterpieces of fiction, and raid only his trackctates, labor in the fields, and eat peasant bread. when this great soul could love starve the aged helpmeat who had been his strength for three score years in the midst of so many vague and divergent expressions throughout his whole literary career and especially in my religion and resurrection it is difficult to crystallize what Toltoy taught but this seems to me to be the gist we have two natures the animal nature which decays and dies and the spiritual which lives forever life consists in doing those things which gratify by our desires and thus bring happiness. But when we attempt to live and gain happiness by the gratification of our animal natures, we meet only disappointment. For animal desires can never be really satisfied. Therefore, we need to be regenerated, which is nothing more than the enthronement of our spiritual natures and the denying or casting out of our animal natures. The gratification of our spiritual selves is found in love, the only good. And the essence of love consists not in self-pleasing but in seeking our happiness in the happiness and well-being of others. Thus do we obey the law of God and become one with him.

[00:11:02]In the exercise of our desires for the well-being of others, we will not only deny ourselves all carnal desires, but never oppose force by force. Love will be sufficient to overcome all enemies.

[00:11:13]We must not even flee from suffering, danger, or death, but accept each as good, whereupon it will cease to have power to harm us. This life of love is opposed to all selfish acquisition of property. To be truly happy, we must get back to the soil, abandon the artificialities of city life, labor for our food, and give to others.

[00:11:34]Though Toltoy turned so often and finally without backsliding to the peasant class, he did not so much champion their cause as he gemmed a crown for the obscure life as such. He could not pity those whose ways were laborious, because to him no other career than bodily toil could bring the highest good. The outbursting, fiercely passionate soul of all his later years was for the pitiable masses who still chose swords rather than plowshares, who preferred a lawsuit to a loss, who loved the city more than the country, who saw joy in the factory and none in the farm.

[00:12:05]Those who have only a shivering admiration for the terrors of Russian fiction in general, will find in Toltoy's short stories much that is sweet and gentle. Yet, being the most Russian of all Russian fiction writers, he could but cry aloud with the pity of his people. But greater than his pity was his passion for preaching.

[00:12:22]Sermons big and little lurk in every corner of his stories to fix you with their relentless eyes. Even when the tale is not clearly didactic, a swift vision of moral relations is sure to come to him who reads. For an instance, take my dream, the story of a Russian prince whose daughter runs away with a married man and bears him a child. At length, the sister-in-law of the prince pleads with him to forgive his daughter.

[00:12:44]Here is his severe reply. I have suffered enough. I have now but one desire and that is to put her in such a position that she will be independent of others and that she shall have no further need of communicating with me.

[00:12:56]Then she can live her own life and my family and I need know nothing more about her. That is all I can do.

[00:13:03]But the woman heart crystallizes the teaching of the story when she replies Michael you say nothing but I. She too is I.

[00:13:13]There is a fine high spirit too in where love is their god is also.

[00:13:19]Martin Andish was an honest Russian cobbler whose wife and children had died leaving him with but one child a small boy upon whom he had set his heart but that child also died and Martin reproached God. At length a pilgrim monk directed him to the gospels and the cobbler became a devout follower of their teachings.

[00:13:37]One day he heard a voice which bade him look tomorrow into the street for Christ would come to him. The Lord did not appear, however, and for a long while the only one with whom Martin conversed was a chilled old snow to whom the cobbler gave hot tea to drink as he explained to him the gospel, after which the grateful old man left. Martin continued to look for Christ, but he did not come, though he did see a poorly clad woman with a little child. These he fed and warmed, hearing her story, and bestowing an old jacket to cover her thin summer garments. He next acted as mediator between an old woman and a mischievous boy who had stolen her apples. And to her also he expounded the new truth which had possessed him, the doctrine of love. Thus all day long he had looked for the Christ and had not seen him. Time 075s.

[00:14:24]But now as he returned to his cellar, a presence declared itself as he who had said, "In as much as ye have done it to the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." And Martin then understood that his dream had not deceived him and that the savior had really come to him that day and he had really received him.

[00:14:45]One of the stories in Toltoy's earlier style is a prisoner in the caucuses.

[00:14:50]Schillin was an officer in the caucuses in wartime. His aged mother persuaded him to come home once more to see her and to marry the girl she had chosen to be his bride. The roads were impossible.

[00:15:01]The Tartas killed or carried into the mountains all Russians they captured.

[00:15:05]For this reason, a military escort passed twice a week from fortress to fortress. Traveling thus, Gillin became impatient at delays and decided to ride on alone. Costwillin, another mounted officer, decided to go with him. They had not gone far when they were taken by the Tartas, bound and held in a Tarta village for ransom. After many weeks, they escaped only to be retaken and brought back to the village. And now the hut in which they were thrown and their food were worse than before. Again, after many weeks, Jillin, with the aid of a Tarta maid, escaped and finally reached the fortress. You see, he told his comrades, I was going home to be married. But no, that is evidently not to be my fate. Eventually, he and his comrades ransomed Costulin for 5,000 rubles.

[00:15:51]I relate this perfectly plotless tale to show how on a slender thread of actual incident Toltoy could hang a tremendous weight for this story with its naked truthtelling as to conditions force the government to act by the sheer force of public opinion and this is a miracle in Russia.

[00:16:08]Another plotless story whose 10,000 words pile up a tremendous impression of character is an old acquaintance. The narrative told in the first person by Prince Nel Shaludov is of how during an expedition in the Caucasus he met an acquaintance from Moscow, the splendor of the night in the open and the recreations of the officers are given in gems of description.

[00:16:30]During a game of Skittles, Guskov, a cashier officer who now lives with the agitant, comes to the prince, who seems faintly to recollect having met him before. After some general conversation, the officers retire for either sleep or gambling, leaving the prince and Guskov alone. Upon being asked if they had not met before, Guskov reminds the prince of their having met at the home of Guskov's sister in Moscow, and this leads to further reminiscences.

[00:16:56]During a long walk that night, Guskov, who constantly by his own story exhibits his weakness of character, tells how he once was of the highest society of St. Petersburg, but had been through a liaison and a resulting jewel put under arrest and later cashiered. But this weakness is further shown when he goes on to lament his treatment at the hands of other officers with whom he comes in contact. He expresses a feeling of great disgust at their mode of spending their leisure hours. He admits that he is a moral coward which is proven later. At length, after further conversation, which inspires a mixed feeling of disgust and pity in the prince, Guskov borrows from him some money. Suddenly, the bursting of a shell causes Guskov to cringe in abject terror. And in the confusion, he disappears. But later is seen by the prince in a tent, offering in a mlin voice the money which he had borrowed, and boasting of how his friend, the prince, was rich, and how he had just gotten 10 rubles from him.

[00:17:50]Perhaps the pity of life and the tragic results of its sins are nowhere more piercingly set forth than in Toltoy's short story Corny Vasilv structurally is most perfect little fiction for generally situation rather than plot makes the stronger appeal to our author.

[00:18:07]Corny, a wellto-do merchant, after a temporary absence, is returning to his home. While on route, Koosma, his driver, tells him that Martha, Corn's wife, has taken a new workman in the house, Yevstiki, her former lover, and that she is again living with him. The affair, says Koosma, is the talk of the village.

[00:18:25]Corny does not know whether to believe the unreliable Koozma, but on arriving home sets out to find out for himself.

[00:18:31]He distributes the presents he had brought back with him. One for his little daughter Agatha, one for his son Theodore, one for his wife, and so on.

[00:18:38]At bedtime, no longer able to restrain himself, he blurts out his suspicions to his wife, who first ridicules them. But finally, under her husband's blows, admits their truth and spitefully suggests that little Agatha is not a child of Cornies, but of yeistikis. The child coming into the room is brutally used by him, her arm being broken. At the end of this violent scene, Corny leaves his home.

[00:19:00]After 17 years, now a broken old man, Corny is returning home, begging his way. After he left his wife he had taken to drink, spent all his money, and being unreliable, no one would keep him long at work. The idea takes hold of him that it is his wife who has been the cause of all his misery. And his one thought is, before she dies, to go to her and show her what she has made of him. He is very weak, but manages to make his way to a village where a kindly young peasant woman, seeing his plight, takes him in for the night and gives him food, drink, and shelter. Noticing that she has a lame arm, he mentions it and the fact is revealed that she is Agatha in whose eyes he recognizes Yviki. He breaks down but does not reveal himself though in his heart he is sorry for what he did to the girl.

[00:19:42]In the morning he trudges on toward his wife's village. He knocks on the door and a woman comes out. He recognizes his wife but how old and haggarded she has grown. She who had been so beautiful and so strong and all the resentment vanishes from his heart and in its place springs up a terrible pity. Everything else about the place seems also to have undergone change. Even after he says appealingly, "Martha, let us die together." She still pretends not to recognize him, takes him for a and tells him to go from the door.

[00:20:10]However, his son Theodore, an image of his father when he was young, takes pity on the old man, not knowing who he is, and angry at his mother for her unkindness, brings to the old man some black bread. The father is touched and even weaker than he was, drags himself back to Agatha's village and begs for shelter, which is given him.

[00:20:29]In the meantime, Martha's conscience gives her no peace, and learning what direction Old Corny has taken, she follows. arrived at her daughter's house. She finds a crowd there mourning the old man who has died. And from his dignified old face, she does not know whether he had forgiven her or not.

[00:20:46]The story that follows in translation is one of the most representative of all the Russians shorter work. It speaks its own praises.

[00:20:55]A long exile.

[00:20:59]Early title, God sees the truth but besides his time by Leof Toltoy.

[00:21:07]In the town of Vladimir, there lived a young merchant, Axenof by name. He owned two shops and a home. Axenof was a fair, curly-headed, handsome fellow, always jolly and singing. In his youth, Axenof drank much, and when he was intoxicated, his ways were rough. Since his marriage, however, he had stopped drinking except upon rare occasions.

[00:21:27]One day in summer, Axenov prepared to go to Nijni Nogarod to the fair. When he was bidding goodbye to his wife, she said to him, "In Ditravich, don't go this time. I dreamt a bad dream about you."

[00:21:39]Axenof laughed and replied, "You are always afraid that I might get a bit jolly at the fair."

[00:21:46]His wife said, "I myself hardly know why I'm afraid, but I dreamt evil. I dreamt that you came home from town and took off your hat and I saw that your head was gray.

[00:21:58]Axenof laughed. Well, that means good luck. You'll see. I'll make some nice bargains and bring fine presents home.

[00:22:07]He bid his family farewell and departed.

[00:22:11]In the middle of his journey, he met a merchant he knew, and they took lodgings together for the night. First, they drank tea, and then they went to sleep in separate rooms which were near each other. Axonov was not a heavy sleeper.

[00:22:22]Awaking in the middle of the night and wishing to take advantage of its cool for traveling, he roused the driver and ordered him to harness the carriage.

[00:22:29]Having paid his host, he took his departure.

[00:22:32]After he had covered some 40 verss, he stopped again for food, and having rested and had his dinner in the shelter of the hotel, he ordered tea, got hold of a guitar, and began to play.

[00:22:42]Suddenly, there arrived a troker, jingling its bells, and from the carriage descended an official accompanied by two soldiers. He approached Axenoff and asked, "Who are you? Where are you from?" Axonoff answered properly and invited the official to tea. The latter, however, persisted in his inquiries. "Where did you sleep the past night? Alone or with the merchant? Did you see the merchant in the morning? Why did you depart so early from the hotel? Axenov told all as it happened and added, "Why do you ask all these questions? I'm not a thief or a highway man. I'm traveling on my business, and I do not see why I should be asked questions."

[00:23:17]It was then that the official called to the soldiers and said, "I am a police official and I am asking these questions because the merchant with whom you lodged the past night has been found murdered. Show us your things. Search him."

[00:23:34]They entered the room, seized his traveling bag and sack, and started to unbind and search. Suddenly, the official brought forth a knife from the sack and roared out, "Whose knife is this?

[00:23:46]Axenof looked and saw that a knife smeared with blood had been taken out of his sack and he was frightened.

[00:23:53]"And why is there blood on this knife?"

[00:23:56]Axenov wished to reply, but he couldn't utter a word. I I don't know. I The knife is I not mine.

[00:24:06]Then the official said, "This morning the merchant was found stabbed in his bed. It wasn't possible for anyone else to do it. The house was locked from the inside and there was no one else in the house but you. Besides, the knife covered with blood has been found in your sack and your face too shows it.

[00:24:24]Tell me, how did you kill him? And how much money did you get?

[00:24:29]Axenof swore that he was not the guilty man, that he did not see the merchant after he had had tea with him, that the 8,000 rubles in his possession were his own money, and that the knife was not his. But his voice quavered, his face was pale, and he trembled from head to foot like one guilty.

[00:24:46]The official called the soldiers, ordered him bound and taken into the carriage. When, with his feet fast, he was thrust into the carriage, Axenof crossed himself and began to cry.

[00:24:56]Axenof's things and money were taken from him, and he was sent to prison in a nearby city. Inquiries were made in Vladimir to find out what sort of man he was, and it was generally agreed among the merchants and inhabitants of the city that while from the time of his youth Axenof drank and had had a good time, he was a good-hearted man. Then began his trial. The charge against him was that he had killed the merchant and had stolen his 20,000 rubles.

[00:25:20]Axenof's wife suffered intensely and did not know what to think. Her children were still young, won a suckling. She took them all with her and arrived in the city where her husband was imprisoned. At first she was refused admission, but after many petitions she was led to her husband. When she saw him in prison apparel, in chains among a lot of cutthroats, she fell to the ground, and it was a long time before she came to herself. Then she placed her children around her, sat down at his side, and began to tell him all about the domestic affairs, and to ask him about all that had happened to him. After he had told her all, she said, "Well, what's to be done now?"

[00:25:56]He replied, "It is necessary to send a petition to the Gaza. It is wrong to let an innocent person suffer."

[00:26:03]To this, his wife said that a petition to the Kazar had already been sent, but that it had not reached him. Thereupon Axenof grew silent and seemed much downcast. Then she reminded him, "There was something, after all, in that dream, do you remember? In which I saw you gay-headed there, from sorrow you've really grown gray. You shouldn't have gone on the journey."

[00:26:25]And as she ran her fingers through his hair, she said, "Vana, my dear one, tell your wife the truth. Didn't you really do it?"

[00:26:34]Axenof replied, "And you too believe it.

[00:26:37]Time 0.8." He covered his face with his hands and wept. Later, a soldier entered and said that it was time for the visitors to depart, and Axenof, for the last time bid farewell to his family.

[00:26:51]After his wife had gone, Axenof began to recall his conversation with her. When he remembered that his wife too suspected him and asked him whether he had killed the merchant, he said to himself, "Now I see that except God, no one can know the truth, and that it is only to him we must appeal and then await his mercy." From that time on, Axenov ceased to send petitions, ceased to hope, and only prayed to God.

[00:27:18]Axenov was sentenced to the nout and hard labor.

[00:27:22]The sentence was carried out. He was lashed with the nout and when the wounds healed, he was driven with other convicts to Siberia.

[00:27:31]In Siberia, the convict lived 26 years doing hard labor. The hair on his head grew white like snow, while his beard grew long, sparse, and gray. All his joy was gone. He was bent, walked slowly, said little, never laughed, and prayed to God often.

[00:27:49]In prison, Axenof learned to make boots, and with the money earned thereby, he purchased the books of the martyrs, and read them when there was sufficient light in his cell. But on holidays, he attended the prison chapel, read the apostles, and sang in the choir. His voice still remained good. The authorities liked Axenof for his quiet behavior. While his prison comrades held him in esteem and called him grandfather and holy man. When the prisoners had any petitions to make to the authorities, they always sent Axenof as their spokesman. And when they had any quarrels among themselves, they always came before Axenof for judgment.

[00:28:24]From home, Axenof received no letters, and he did not know whether or not his wife and children were alive.

[00:28:31]Once a new batch of convicts arrived at the prison in the evening, all the old convicts gathered around the new arrivals and put all sorts of questions to them as to what town or village they had come from and for what crime they had been sentenced. Axenof also sat down on a bench near the new convicts and hanging his head listened to what was being said. Among the new convicts was a tall, robust old man of 60 with gray trimmed beard. He was telling why he was sent away. He said, "Well, brothers, it wasn't for anything that I've got here.

[00:29:01]I unharnished a horse from a shed, got caught, stole the horse, they said. I only wished to get there quicker, said I, and I let the horse loose, and the driver was a friend of mine. Besides, there's nothing wrong in that, said I.

[00:29:14]No, they said, "You stole the horse, but they couldn't really say what and where I stole." "Well, I've done things in my time for which I should have got here long ago if they had only caught me at it. But this once, I've been driven here, not according to law. To be honest, I've been in Siberia, but didn't remain long.

[00:29:33]"Where do you come from?" asked one of the convicts. "I'm from the town Vladimir, native of the place. I'm called Mara, and my paternal name, Semenovich."

[00:29:44]Axenof raised his head and asked, "And have you heard Smenic in Vladimir Town?

[00:29:49]Of the Axenofs, merchants? Are they alive?"

[00:29:53]To be sure, I've heard they are rich merchants, though their father is in Siberia. a sinner like the rest of us.

[00:30:00]And you, old man, why are you here?

[00:30:03]Axenof did not like to talk about his sorrow, so he sighed and said, "For my sins, I've been here 26 years at hard labor."

[00:30:12]Maka, however, persisted. But what sort of sins?

[00:30:17]Axenov replied, "I must have deserved what I got." Further than that, he would not say, but the other prisoners told the newcomer why Axenof was sent to Siberia. They related how someone had murdered a merchant while on a journey and had foisted the knife upon Axonoff, who had been sentenced, though innocent.

[00:30:35]When Macarse Seoff heard this, he looked at Axonov, clapped his hands upon his knees, and exclaimed, "Well, that's strange. Certainly is strange. Time equals0.55 seconds/grater than you've grown old, grandfather."

[00:30:52]The rest began to ask him why he was astonished and where he had seen Axenof.

[00:30:56]But Maka Semanov made no reply. He only said, "A miracle, brothers, that we should meet here."

[00:31:03]And these words suggested to Axenof the thought that this man knew perhaps who had killed the merchant. He asked, "Tell me, Semanich, have you heard about my case before? And have you ever seen me before?" "Why shouldn't I have heard?"

[00:31:16]News flies quickly, but it was such a long time ago that what I had heard I had forgotten, said Makaov.

[00:31:22]Perhaps you've heard who killed the merchant," asked Axenov.

[00:31:26]Makaov broke into a laugh and said, "To be sure he killed him in whose sack was found the knife. And if someone else did slip the knife in the sack, not caught, not a thief. Besides, how could anyone have slipped the knife into the sack since it was at your very head?" You surely would have heard.

[00:31:45]When Axenof heard these words, the thought came to him that this very man had killed the merchant. He arose and went away. Axenof could not sleep the entire night. A melancholy came upon him, and images began to rise up before him. First he imagined he saw his wife the same as she looked when she saw him off to the fair for the last time. He saw her as in life. He saw her face and eyes, and heard how she spoke and laughed. Then he saw his children as they were then, little ones, one in a fur coat, another at the breast, and he recalled himself, as he had been once, joyous, young. He recalled, too, how he looked as he sat in the hotel when they arrested him, how he played on the guitar, and how happy he had felt at that moment. And he recalled the place of execution, where he was nouted, and the man with the nout, and the throng all around, and the chains, and the convicts, and all the 26 years of his prison life, and his old age, too, he recalled. and such a melancholy came upon Axenov that death itself would have been welcome and all on account of that scoundrel thought Axenov.

[00:32:47]Then came into his heart such a vindictiveness against Mara Seanov that he felt willing to die himself if only to revenge himself upon him. He read prayers the entire night but could not calm himself. Next day he did not go near Maka Semanov and did not look at him.

[00:33:03]so passed two weeks, Axenof could not sleep nights, and such a melancholy would come upon him that he did not know what to do with himself.

[00:33:12]Once at night, walking through the prison, he observed a stirring of soil under one of the sleeping bunks. He stopped to look. Suddenly, Mara Seoff leaped from under the bunk, and his frightened eyes looked at Axenof. Axenof wished to go on so as not to notice him, but Maka caught him by the hand and told him how he had dug a passage under the walls and how every day he disposed of dirt by carrying it out with him in his boots and emptying it in the street and sent out to work. He continued, "Only be silent, old man, and I'll show you the way out. But if you tell, I'll get a nouting which will be the worst for you. I'll kill you."

[00:33:51]When Axenoff looked at his enemy, he trembled from wrath, released his hand from Mac, and said, "I have no reason for escaping, and you can't kill me, for you've killed me long ago. As to telling on you, I may do it or not. As God wills it, so I shall do."

[00:34:10]The next day, when the convicts were sent out to work, the soldiers noticed that Marseman was emptying dirt out of his boots. They searched the prison and discovered a hole. Presently the superintendent arrived and questioned everyone who had dug the hole all denied it. Those who knew would not give Makov away because they knew that for this affair he would be nouted half to death.

[00:34:31]Then the superintendent turned to Axenov. He knew that the exile was a just man. And so he said to him, "Old man, I know you to be truthful. Tell me before God who did this."

[00:34:43]Mara Seof stood there as if nothing were happening. looked at the superintendent and did not even glance at Axenof.

[00:34:49]Axonov, however, stood with his hands and lips all a tremble. And for a long time he could not utter a word. He thought, "Suppose I should hide him, but why should I forgive him when he has ruined me? Why shouldn't I be revenged for my misery?" Then again, to tell on him would mean a noting. But what put the thought into my head? Would it make my burden lighter to bear?

[00:35:15]The superintendent repeated his question. Now come, old man, tell the truth. Who did the digging?

[00:35:23]Axenof glanced at Maka Seanov and said, "I can't tell, your honor. God forbids me to tell, and I won't tell. Do with me whatsoever you will. I'm at your mercy."

[00:35:37]The superintendent struggled with him.

[00:35:39]But Axenof would say nothing more.

[00:35:42]So they never knew who had dug the hole.

[00:35:46]The next night, when Axenof lay down in his bunk and had hardly closed his eyes, he became conscious that someone came near him and sat down at his feet. He looked into the dark and recognized Macar. Axenof spoke first.

[00:36:00]"What more do you want from me? What are you up to now?"

[00:36:04]Macarse remained silent. Axenof raised himself and said, "What is it you want?

[00:36:11]be gone or else I'll call a soldier.

[00:36:15]Macar Seoff bent over close to Axonov and said in a whisper, "Ivan Dmitri, forgive me."

[00:36:24]Axenof said, "Forgive you for what?"

[00:36:28]It was I who killed the merchant, and it was I who slipped the knife into your sack. I wish to kill you, too. But there was a noise outdoors and so I slipped the knife in and crawled out through the window.

[00:36:43]Axenof was silent and he did not know what to say. Maka let himself down from the bunk, performed a genulection and said, "Ivan Demitrivvich, forgive me.

[00:36:56]Forgive me for God's sake. I will let them know that I killed the merchant and they will let you go free. Then you can return home.

[00:37:06]Axenof replied, "It is easy for you to say that, but it is for me to suffer.

[00:37:12]Where can I go now? My wife is dead. My children have forgotten me. There is nowhere for me to go."

[00:37:22]Maka did not rise from the ground. He beat his head against the earth and continued saying, "Ivan Dmitri, forgive me. When they put the lash on me, it was much easier for me to bear than to look at you now and to think that you had pity on me and did not tell. Forgive me for the sake of Christ. Forgive me, a cursed wretch that I am.

[00:37:46]Then he began to weep.

[00:37:49]When Axenof saw that Macarse was weeping, he too wept and said, "God will forgive you. Perhaps I am a hundfold worse than you.

[00:38:00]And all at once he felt as if something were lifted from his soul. And he ceased to yearn for home and did not wish to leave the prison, but thought only of the final hour.

[00:38:12]Maka Semanov did not listen to Axenof and confessed his guilt. But when Axenof's release arrived, he was already dead.