Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow Irina Reyfman (snow like ashes .TXT) 📖

same way. At the plowing he has a hundred hands for each mouth, while I have two for seven mouths, you know how to count. Why, even if one busted a gut working for the landowner they’ll never say thank you. The landowner will not pay the poll tax17 for you; he will not let you off the hook for a single sheep or chicken; nor a piece of canvas or butter. For us it’s a good life when the master collects the quitrent, even better if he does not have an estate manager. It is true that sometimes even good owners collect more than three rubles per soul; but still, this is better than the corvée. Now a new arrangement has also come into use, it is called letting villages out for rent. But we call this ‘complete betrayal.’ A poor tenant skins the peasants alive, he even helps himself to our best season. In the winter he bars us from the carrier trade and from seeking work in the city. You work no end for him because he pays the poll tax for us. What a diabolical idea it is to lend one’s own peasants to another for work. At least you can complain about a bad estate manager, but to whom do you complain about a renter?” “My friend, you are mistaken, the laws prohibit the tormenting of people.” “Tormenting? This is true; nonetheless, Master, I venture you would not want to be in my skin.” Meanwhile the plowman harnessed the other horse to the plow and, after starting another strip, parted from me.

The conversation of this landworker aroused in me a multitude of thoughts. The first to come to mind were the inequalities within the peasant estate. I compared state peasants with serfs.18 Both one and the other live in villages; but one group pays a fixed amount, while the other must be prepared to pay what the owner wishes. One set are judged by their equals, while the others are dead in the eyes of the law except in criminal matters.—It is only when he breaks the social bond, when he becomes a malefactor, that a member of society acquires the recognition of the government that protects him! Such an idea made my blood boil.—Be afraid, hard-hearted landowner, I see your condemnation on the brow of each of your peasants.—Plunged into these meditations, I unwittingly turned my gaze to my servant who, seated in front of me in the carriage, was swaying from side to side. Suddenly, I felt coursing through my blood a rapid chill that, by driving the heat upwards, forced it to spread across my face. The shame I felt in my very innards caused me nearly to weep.—In your rage, I said to myself, you are fixated on the proud owner who wears out his peasant in his field. But do you not do the same, if not worse? What crime has your poor Petrushka committed so that you prevent him from availing himself of sleep, the sweetener of our woes, the greatest gift of nature to an unfortunate man?—He receives payment, is fed, clothed, I never whip him with birches or a truncheon (O moderate man!)—and you think that a piece of bread and scrap of woolen cloth give you the right to treat a being who is your equal like a spinning top, and the only thing of which you can boast is that you do not strike him so often as to make him spin faster. Do you know what is written in the first law code of all, in the heart of each person? If I strike someone, he too may strike me.—Recall that day when Petrushka was drunk and was not in time to dress you. Recall the slap you gave him. Oh, if he had come to his senses while drunk and answered you in proportion to your demand!—And who gave you power over him?—The law.—The law? And you dare abuse this sacred name? Unfortunate one! …—Tears trickled from my eyes and this was the state I was in when the postal nags dragged me to the next station.

CHUDOVO

No sooner had I entered the postal cabin than I heard from the street the sound of the postal bell, and several minutes later my friend Ch…walked into the cabin. When I left him behind in Petersburg he had had no intention of leaving there immediately. An extraordinary event had prompted a man with the quick temper of my acquaintance to leave Petersburg, and here is what he recounted to me:

“You were already set for your departure when I left for Peterhof. I spent the holidays enjoyably, insofar as it is possible to enjoy oneself amidst hubbub and intoxication. But eager to turn my journey to benefit, I took the decision to make the trip to Kronstadt and Sisterbek19 where I had been told great changes had taken place. In Kronstadt, I stayed for two very pleasurable days, feasting my eyes on the multitude of foreign ships, the stone-clad fortress of Kronstadt, and the buildings that were going up rapidly. I had been curious to see the plan of the new Kronstadt and with pleasure envisaged the beauty of the projected construction. In a word, the second day of my visit ended happily and pleasantly. The night was calm, clear and the salubrious air filled my feelings with a certain tenderness that is easier to feel than to describe adequately. I decided to turn the beneficence of nature to my advantage and, for at least once more in my life, to take pleasure in a magnificent view of a sunrise, one which I had not yet managed to catch on a smooth watery horizon. I hired a twelve-oar sloop and departed for S…

“We sailed successfully for about four versts.* The monotonous sound of the oars incited in me a doziness, and my languid gaze barely came to life at the passing shimmer of drops of