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178 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1896
“What do you think about yourself?” my father went on. “By the time they are your age, young men have a secure social position, while look at you: you are a proletarian, a beggar, a burden on your father!”
The poplars, covered with dew, filled the air with soft fragrance. I was sad, and did not want to go away from the town. I was fond of my native town. It seemed to be so beautiful and so snug! I loved the fresh greenery, the still, sunny morning, the chiming of our bells; but the people with whom I lived in this town were boring, alien to me, sometimes even repulsive. I did not like them nor understand them.
We talked, and when we got upon manual labour I expressed this idea: that what is wanted is that the strong should not enslave the weak, that the minority should not be a parasite on the majority, nor a vampire for ever sucking its vital sap; that is, all, without exception, strong and weak, rich and poor, should take part equally in the struggle for existence, each one on his own account, and that there was no better means for equalizing things in that way than manual labour, in the form of universal service, compulsory for all.
They took the new wheels off our carts and replaced them with old ones, stole our ploughing harness and actually sold them to us, and so on. But what was most mortifying of all was what happened at the building; the peasant women stole by night boards, bricks, tiles, pieces of iron. The village elder with witnesses made a search in their huts; the village meeting fined them two rubles each, and afterwards this money was spent on drink by the whole commune.
Lice eats grass, rust eats iron, and lying the soul.
"Era robusto, corpulento, y tenía un apetito de lobo; pero rara vez
podía satisfacerlo, y casi siempre estaba hambriento. Quizá debido a eso
no ha extrañado nunca que la gente del pueblo hable de comer casi
constantemente y sólo piense en el pan cotidiano. El hambre es el motor
principal de la actividad humana." (III)
"Macha, Stepan y los demás tenían, naturalmente, razón: los campesinos
vivían como cerdos, se emborrachaban, eran a menudo estúpidos, engañaban
al prójimo..., y, sin embargo, yo advertía que en la vida campestre había
una base sólida, real, una base de que carecía la vida ciudadana. Viendo
al campesino trabajar la tierra olvidaba uno su estupidez, sus
borracheras, y descubría en él una gravedad, una importancia que no
existía en Macha ni en el doctor Blagovo; aquel campesino sucio, bestia y
borracho aspiraba a la justicia, tenía la convicción profunda de que sin
justicia la vida es imposible." (XIII)