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- VI. Spring Scenes in Samara
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CHAPTER VI.
SPRING SCENES IN SAMARA.
On the Cars—Conditions of Russian Travel—A Prison Car—Relief Work in
the City of Samara—Railroad Punctuality—Mushik Hospitality—A
Molokhan Meeting—My Lodgings with Count Lyeff Tolstoi—Famine
Scenes—A Wakeful Night—“Vot Klop!”—Visit to Petrovka—In a
Snowdrift—Von Birukoff—Feeding on Clay—“He must be the Devil!”—Orphaned
Children—Upper-class Opinion and Government Opposition—An
Address of Thanks—Birukoif and the Priest—A Lenten Service—The
Popes and the Villagers—A Cheap Marriage—The Pope and the
Bell—A Peasant’s Burial—The Burnt Sheepskin—Fine Feathers—The
Rouble Note—Eastertide—Visit to a Horse-Farm—A Stormy Night—Black
Thoughts—A Peasant Superstition—“Christos Voskresje!”—Lack
of Seed—A Farewell Visit—Count Lyeff Tolstoi—The Honest
Physician!
Early in March, 1892, on a bitterly cold morning, I left
Count Tolstoi’s headquarters in the Government of Rjasan,
to accompany his son Lyeff Lvovitch and another young
nobleman, Paul von Birukoff, to the young Count’s centre of
operations in the government of Samara. “Where shall we
meet next?” said Tolstoi to me as we parted; “perhaps in
Sweden, or beyond the Mississippi!”
As we went towards the railway station of Klekotki in our
sleighs, we met a longf oboz, or baggage-train, of more than a
hundred horses, bringing fuel and food for the relief work.
Our own train, according to the habit of Russian railways,
was several hours late. We travelled third-class, following
the Tolstois’ usual custom, taking our baggage into the car
with us. Long distances prevail in this country, so a
traveller’s equipment usually consists of portable bedding, food,
and a tea-set: you can get hot water on the cars. Every nook
and corner of the train was crowded with luggage and
packages of different kinds. The passengers, also, were of
assorted varieties—Russians proper, Mordvinians, Tcheremiss,
Tatars, and Bashkirs. Of these, the Tatars held a
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