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When the terrible character of the evil could no longer be
disputed, the Government began to take steps for its relief.
They issued circulars to all the village authorities, who were to
fill in the required details and return them to headquarters.
From this information they expected to know who needed help,
and to distribute the relief accordingly.
Count Tolstoi, in criticism of these measures, pointed out
that the failure on the part of the Government to understand the
true causes of the distress made them unable to devise effective
means of relieving it. Bad crops were not the cause, which
lay deeper than the palliatives proposed by the Government
could reach.
“The activity of the Government, having for its outward
object the feeding and preservation of the well-being of forty
millions of men, is met (as we have seen) by insurmountable
obstacles.
“First. It is impossible to determine the degree of the
people’s need, since they may, in order to support themselves,
show either a maximum of energy or complete apathy.
“Second. Even were this determination possible, the amount
of bread and money required for this purpose (at least one
thousand millions of roubles) is so great that there is no hope
of acquiring it.
“Third. Granting the possession of this money, the gratuitous
distribution of bread and money among the people would only
weaken its energy and activity, which, more than anything
else, is at this difficult time necessary, to maintain its
well-being.
“Fourth. Allowing the distribution to be so made as not to
weaken the activity of the people, there is no possibility of
distributing the relief justly, and in consequence those who
are not needy will get the share of the really poor, the
majority of whom will remain all the while without help, and
perish.”
In another of his articles on the famine, which were not
allowed to be published in Russia, he says: “It is in this vicious
circle that the Government is moving, and there is no getting
out of this circulus vitiosus. For the task that the
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