According to Leo Tolstoy's original plan, he planned to travel abroad at the beginning of the next year. The tragic defeat in the Crimean War gave many young people like him a deep sense of crisis. Only more than 20 years ago,
In 1814, Britain and France had left Russia far behind and were able to beat Russia from all dimensions. This made the Russian youth who were intoxicated by the victory in 1814 deeply anxious.
For the first time, they realized that we were so backward and failed, and for the first time they discovered that the greatness of Russia had been ruthlessly crushed.
This makes more people want to take a look abroad to see how big the gap is and how to catch up.
Tolstoy was no exception. After returning to St. Petersburg, he joined the literary world, began to have more contact with progressive scholars, and made some preparations for going abroad in the future. Of course, his literary enthusiasm was more aroused during the war.
, hoping to use his own writing to awaken the great awakening of the Russian nation.
It's just that these plans were disrupted by the rebellion in Ukraine. After hearing about the serf uprising, he was different from the ordinary nobles. He was not thinking about how to suppress the rebellion, but "Oh, finally there is a rebellion." He had a feeling that his boots would inevitably fall.
a feeling of.
The reason is also very simple. Whether in Wallachia or on the way back to St. Petersburg, he saw too much suffering among the people, saw the hungry Ukraine and the greedy aristocratic landowners.
To be honest, he was very confused and painful, because he sympathized with the unfortunate serfs, but at the same time he was a member of the aristocracy and enjoyed the privileges of the aristocracy all the time. Needless to say, there were thousands of people in the manor under his name.
A serf, without the hard work of these poor people, let alone the upper class society, he would have problems eating and clothing.
If the serfs were liberated, how would they be able to maintain the decent life of the nobility in terms of what they would eat and wear?
He does not lack compassion, but at the same time he is not willing to lower his quality of life. This is very contradictory and makes him a little at a loss...
After thinking for a long time, he decided to return to the army again and go to Ukraine to have a look. He wanted to know whether things were really that bad and whether it was really time to make a choice.
Tolstoy was leaning lazily on the carriage, and his adjutant was directing a few soldiers to repair bearings. As an artillery officer, this was his first time responsible for surveying and mapping. To be honest, it was a boring job, measuring and recording data over and over again.
Then I marked it bit by bit. To be honest, it was really boring.
Less than a day after leaving the headquarters, he was already tired of it and was too lazy to do it himself. After simply teaching a few literate soldiers, he spent more time thinking about his novel.
He originally wanted to write some stories about wars. He wanted to boost low morale and let everyone remember that they had defeated an arrogant enemy in extremely passive and difficult circumstances. Since they could do it once
Why can't we create a second miracle?
But as he wrote, he realized that there were too many things he wanted to express. Heroes naturally need to be praised, but do those ugly things in society need to be exposed and whipped?
To be honest, this requires courage, and he always feels that his brushstrokes are not deep enough and cannot fully express what he wants to express.
This made him very depressed and distressed, and the situation in front of him made him feel very confused!
He was very worried because Ukraine was worse than what he saw when he returned last year. It was almost a bare land with no living people for thousands of miles. This was even worse than the situation in Crimea.
When they were besieged in Sevastopol, although the situation was desperate, they still had hope in their hearts at that time, knowing that as long as they continued to rely on Ukraine and Russia as a whole, they would still have a chance to make a comeback.
But now, Ukraine, which is a big granary in the rear area, is half-dead. Where is the hope?
Tolstoy could not see hope, and what made him even more desperate was the attitude of the aristocratic officers. These people were indifferent to the desolation and poverty of Ukraine. Day after day, they just complained about their low treatment, lack of delicious and exquisite meals, and not enough food.
Comfortable accommodation, no salon, no alcohol, no women, in short they complained that they enjoyed every treatment.
Objectively speaking, the treatment of officers is indeed not very good. Not to mention compared with life in St. Petersburg, it is even incomparable with life in the rural areas on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.
Tolstoy was not used to all this, but after seeing the serfs struggling in hell, he deeply felt that being well fed and clothed was already a paradise. They had no right to complain, but should be grateful and imagine those serfs.
Poor people who don't have enough to eat or wear or keep warm should have compassion and compassion.
But he soon discovered that he was an out-and-out outlier among aristocratic officers, especially middle- and senior-level officers. These people had no sympathy at all and did not consider how difficult the actual situation was. They just wanted to complain or not.
Satisfied, as if feeling that one was born to receive preferential treatment.
This made Tolstoy feel distressed and he had several quarrels with his colleagues about this, but he soon discovered that this was meaningless. The officers who were really in power still went their own way and even vaguely began to attack and exclude him.
He also fought for this, but soon found that it was useless, because even if these guys in power couldn't argue with him, they would always try to use nonsense like tradition to argue. In the end, they would even use the authority of their superiors.
Force him to shut up.
Tolstoy knew that there was no point in quarreling and debating with these people, because they could not listen to anything, they refused to change, refused to give in, and were as greedy as vampires.
So he simply hid out and went out to do surveying and mapping with the low-level officers. Although these people may not agree with what he said, they still had some compassion.
"The axle is broken, it seems we can only spend the night in the village ahead!"
Tolstoy nodded. As the person with the highest military rank and the highest title here, he had the power to give orders. Although he felt that several other experienced old officers did a better job than him, and they could be responsible for the command.
But tradition is tradition. Although he has tried his best to resist this tradition, it will be difficult to improve for a while.
"Okay, then you will take command of the camp and do a good job in security protection. According to the intelligence, there should be a large mob activity nearby!"
The old officer nodded, saluted and left quickly. Under his command, the team performed their duties in an orderly manner. Tolstoy also changed his horse and headed towards the village ahead...