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absurd. The positive in it is a mass of dates and names of no
value. The death of Prince Igor, the snakes that bit the hero
Olef, &c.,—what are those things but nursery tales, and who
needs to know if Ivan the Terrible married the daughter of
Tomruck exactly on the 21st August, 1562, or if his fourth
marriage, with Anna Alexijevna, took place in 1572? And
yet they require of me that I shall know all this by heart; if
not, I get a shameful “one” on my certificate. And how they
write history! All is arranged after a given pattern. . . .
Ivan the Terrible, e.g., of whom Professor Ivan has had so
much to tell us, was suddenly changed in 1560—something
that has no interest whatever either for you or me—from a
noble, virtuous, and wise ruler, into a mad, licentious, and
terrible tyrant. Why? How? About this you may not even
ask a question.”
Small wonder that the young student, athirst for truth,
sympathising warmly, though as yet half-consciously, with
the downtrodden and oppressed, regarded this “temple of
learning” as a useless institution. No doubt his lack of
interest in many of the subjects had something to do with his
being “plucked” at an examination, but it is also certain that
this was largely brought about by one of those intrigues so
common in a corrupt society. A hostile professor—hostile
because of family reasons—refused to give him his due where
he was incontestably efficient. This incident strengthened his
determination to leave the university and give himself up to
the work of elevating the peasants on his paternal estate,
which had, by a combination of causes, not necessary to detail,
passed into his hands.
He returned to Jasnaja Poljana in 1816, and flung all his
energy into the task of raising both the economical and moral
standard of peasant life. He failed, in spite of his ample
means, warm heart, and indomitable pluck. The peasants
would not let him pull down their rotten, old tumble-down
huts, even to put up new and convenient ones at his own
cost; they also refused to send their children to school.
He found, as so many others have done, that good
intentions alone are not sufficient to cope with ingrained evil,
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