Note 303 — 1898

The former estate of Count I. L. Tolstoi in Cherni, the province of Tula, to which Tolstoi went to help the famine-stricken peasants. As in the year 1891 when Tolstoi helped the famine-stricken peasants of the province of Riazan, he considered the establishment of soup-kitchens as the most sensible form of help, for which he set himself to work upon his arrival in Grinevka. On May 2, 1898, in his letter to the Countess S. A. Tolstoi, Tolstoi wrote in reference to his activity that “the work which was being done was necessary and is advancing. There is no famine, but the need is killing, cropless, very difficult, and it helps us to see it.” (Letters of Tolstoi to his Wife, Moscow, 1913, pages 542 and 543.)