All the Russias- travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia (1902) (14781006911)

Identifier: allrussiastravel01norm (find matches)
Title: All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Norman, Henry, 1858-1939
Subjects: Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910 Eastern question (Central Asia)
Publisher: New York, C. Seribner's sons
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



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me. It is no longer safe to beout after dark, and once Miss Tolstoy and a friend were pursuedin their own woods by ruffians. This is the seamy side of Rus-sias industrial development. Estate by estate is passing out ofthe hands of those who inherited it from a long line of ancestors,into the possession of the rich merchants and manufacturers ofthe city, who are careless as to produce and seek only the socialprestige that land alone gives in old countries. Miss Tolstoy ispessimistic this morning, for she goes on to say that even of these,the third generation is always ruined and has to begin again. No Russian, she avers, ever founds a family, as you say. LEO, THE SON OF NICHOLAS 51 A man makes a fortune, his son lavishes it, his grandson dispersesit. In his youth, Tolstoy was a mad sportsman, from dawn tonightfall in the saddle, or with gun and hound. Then this estatewas watched and cherished for the chases sake; now he thinksof it but as an appanage of the people which he monopolises.
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The Gateway of Yasnaya Polyana. But here he comes, walking sturdily down the narrow woodway,his dog leaping joyously about him. Count Tolstoys face is as familiar as that of any crownedruler of to-day. Everybody knows of his simple habits, his peas-ants blouse, his avoidance of meat, wine and tobacco—in a word,of his practical embodiment of a curiously primitive form of Chris-tian faith. But his appearance makes an impression no whit lesskeen because it is exactty what you have long known. He isseventy-two, and his broad strong face is deeply seamed, his eyes 5^ ALL THE RUSSIAS see visions from far beneath heavy bushy brows, his beard is snowwhite. He wears a round soft felt cap, and a black blouse witha strap at the waist, and his shoes are in a strange state of dilapi-dation for the feet of a man who, by birth a nobleman, has be-come from conviction a shoemaker. The photograph reproduced here, which he afterward per-mitted me to take, shows him precisely as he appeared that day—