Published in
1886, Leo Tolstoy’s short story, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?,” speaks to
this moment. A President constrained only by his own “morality.”
Our
main character, Pahóm, a
peasant in a small
village, is frustrated. Throughout the story, we hear his thoughts. This first
one is a killer.
“Our only trouble is that we haven’t land
enough. If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself.”
The Devil hears that boast and decides to
act.
A small landowner is selling 300 acres. When
Pahóm
learns that others are buying up portions, he is envious. He and his wife raise enough to
purchase 40 acres.
“So now Pahóm had land of his own.”
Soon there are disputes with neighbors. Pahóm decides, “I am still too cramped
to be comfortable.”
He hears of a new settlement far away. He
sells the first property and acquires 125 acres in this distant region.
“He was ten times better than he had been.
He had plenty of arable land and pasturage …”
And yet it is not enough. To sow more wheat,
he rents land from a dealer.
But he wants more control.
“If it were my own land, I should be independent
….”
A stranger stops by Pahóm’s house. He claims to have just bought
13,000 acres of land for only 1,000 rubles, from the Bashkirs, a nomadic tribe.
Pahóm travels several hundred miles to see
for himself. He meets the Chief and prepares to make a deal.
“Our price,” the Chief tells him, “is always
the same: one thousand rubles a day.”
Pahóm is puzzled.
“As much as you can go round on your feet in
a day is yours, and the price is one thousand rubles a day.”
The promise (or warning) is this: “You may
take as large a circuit as you please, but before the sun sets you must return
to the place you started from … if you don’t return on the same day to the same
spot when you started, your money is lost.”
“Pahóm was delighted.”
He will start early the next day. That night
he can hardly sleep. Just before sunrise, he dreams of the land deals he has
made, and the Devil appears, laughing at a dead man. Pahóm realizes he is that man.
He rises with the sun and hurries to the small
hill where his walk will begin.
The Chief stretches out his arm towards the
plain. “See, all this, as far as your eye can reach, is ours. You may have any
part of it you like.”
“Pahóm’s eyes glistened; it was all virgin soil, as flat as the palm
of your hand, as black as the seed of a poppy…”
Pahóm sets out to stake his new property with three posts. He
walks six miles before establishing his first post. He turns left and walks another
good distance. The sun is high overhead. The second post is set.
He has taken too long with the first two
sides. The third side is shorter. He begins to panic.
“I
must hurry back in a straight line now. I might go too far, and as it is I have
a great deal of land.”
“… he
now walked with difficulty. He was done up with heat, his bare feet were cut
and bruised, and his legs began to fail.”
Ten miles to go.
“Oh dear, if only I have not blundered
trying for too much! What if I am too late?”
He begins to run.
“What shall I do? I have grasped too much
and ruined the whole affair. I cannot get there before sun sets… “
He is breathless.
“After having run all that way, they will
call me a fool if I stop now.”’
The sun is sinking.
The Bashkirs are waiting at the top of the
hill. He hears them “yelling and shouting to him, and their cries inflamed his
heart still more.”
He lurches on.
“The sun was close to the rim, and cloaked
in mist looked large, and red as blood.”
As he climbs that final hill, it suddenly grows
dark. But at the top, where the Chief is waiting, “it was still light.”
Pahóm staggers up. He reaches the top just in time – and
collapses.
The
Chief exclaims: “He has gained much land!”
But Pahóm is dead.
His servant digs a grave, “long enough for Pahóm to lie in,” and buries him.
And Tolstoy’s final sentence.
“Six feet from his head to his heels was all
he needed.”
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