Part II
Close to the village there lived a lady, a small landowner, who had an estate of about three hundred acres. She had always lived on good terms with the peasants, until she engaged as her steward an old soldier, who took to burdening the people with fines. However careful Pahom tried to be, it happened again and again that now a horse of his got among the lady’s oats, now a cow strayed into her garden, now his calves found their way into her meadows-and he always had to pay a fine.
Pahom paid, but grumbled, and, going home in a temper, was rough with his family. All through that summer Pahom had much trouble because of this steward; and he was even glad when winter came and the cattle had to be stabled. Though he grudged the fodder when they could no longer graze on the pasture-land, at least he was free from anxiety about them.
In the winter the news got about that the lady was going to sell her land, and that the keeper of the inn on the high road was bargaining for it. When the peasants heard this they were very much alarmed.
“Well,” thought they, “if the innkeeper gets the land he will worry us with fines worse than the lady’s steward. We all depend on that estate.”
So the peasants went on behalf of their Commune, and asked the lady not to sell the land to the innkeeper; offering her a better price for it themselves. The lady agreed to let them have it. Then the peasants tried to arrange for the Commune to buy the whole estate, so that it might be held by all in common. They met twice to discuss it, but could not settle the matter; the Evil One sowed discord among them, and they could not agree. So they decided to buy the land individually, each according to his means; and the lady agreed to this plan as she had to the other.
Presently Pahom heard that a neighbor of his was buying fifty acres, and that the lady had consented to accept one half in cash and to wait a year for the other half. Pahom felt envious.
“Look at that,” thought he, “the land is all being sold, and I shall get none of it.” So he spoke to his wife.
“Other people are buying,” said he, “and we must also buy twenty acres or so. Life is becoming impossible. That steward is simply crushing us with his fines.”
So they put their heads together and considered how they could manage to buy it. They had one hundred roubles laid by. They sold a colt, and one half of their bees; hired out one of their sons as a laborer, and took his wages in advance; borrowed the rest from a brother-in-law, and so scraped together half the purchase money.
Having done this, Pahom chose out a farm of forty acres, some of it wooded, and went to the lady to bargain for it. They came to an agreement, and he shook hands with her upon it, and paid her a deposit in advance. Then they went to town and signed the deeds; he paying half the price down, and undertaking to pay the remainder within two years.
So now Pahom had land of his own. He borrowed seed, and sowed it on the land he had bought. The harvest was a good one, and within a year he had managed to pay off his debts both to the lady and to his brother-in-law. So he became a landowner, ploughing and sowing his own land, making hay on his own land, cutting his own trees, and feeding his cattle on his own pasture. When he went out to plough his fields, or to look at his growing corn, or at his grass meadows, his heart would fill with joy. The grass that grew and the flowers that bloomed there, seemed to him unlike any that grew elsewhere. Formerly, when he had passed by that land, it had appeared the same as any other land, but now it seemed quite different.
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— Owl Eyes Editors
Pahom’s desire for more land may seem illogical, given that his solution to being burdened with fines is to go into debt—that is, to live beyond his means in order to privately acquire more land like his peers. However, his thought process suggests that the Commune does not function in the best interest of its peasants through equal land distribution. Peasants were typically trapped into farming their plots of land in order to pay taxes or, as in Pahom’s situation, fines that were doled out by wealthier landowners.
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— Owl Eyes Editors
Tolstoy’s depiction of the Evil One “sow[ing] discord among [the peasants],” which results in the division of land among each individual, could be perceived as a subtle denunciation of capitalism. Private property rights are integral to a capitalist economy that depends on the free trade of goods and services, all of which must be privately owned in order to be traded. Conversely, one of the core tenants of a political philosophy like communism is that all things—including land—are commonly owned. Here, the division of land seems to symbolize the division among the community, which is not in the best interest of the peasants as a group.
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— Owl Eyes Editors
The noun “Commune” refers to a typically rural community of people who collectively own their land. Such communities were common among peasants in the Russian Empire during the 19th century. Communes were governing bodies as well as cooperatives, and an important function of a Commune involved dividing arable land among the peasants. Though Pahom and his family live on their own strip of land, he is dissatisfied and wishes to obtain more for himself.
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— Owl Eyes Editors
During the summer, Pahom’s cattle eat the grass from the “pasture-land,” which presumably does not cost Pahom anything. During the winter, however, there is no grass for the cattle to eat and therefore Pahom must buy the feed, or “fodder.” However, Pahom is so anxious about the taxes imposed upon him by the landowner’s steward in warmer months that he does not mind so much.
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— Owl Eyes Editors
The noun “steward” refers to a person employed in a large estate to perform tasks such as tax collection, supervising servants, or other household responsibilities. From the peasants’ perspective, the steward is a tyrannical figure perceived as “burdening” them with fines that may sometimes be justified, as in the case of Pahom’s livestock damaging the lady’s property. The peasants’ dislike of the lady’s steward, as well as of the landowning class in general, exemplify the stark divisions between the socioeconomic classes in their Commune.
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— Owl Eyes Editors
This first sentence contains alliteration, or the repetition of the same consonant sound. The repeating consonant sound “l” in “close,” “village,” “lived,” “lady,” “small,” and “landowner” emphasizes the words containing it, therefore encouraging readers to connect these words to overarching themes in the text. Here, each alliterative word builds to the noun “landowner,” the status that Pahom wishes to achieve.