Need

 

Image: Illustration to “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy. ‘Pahóm Running to the Hillock’ by Arkady Plastov (1952), watercolour and gouache on paper. The Leo Tolstoy State Museum, Moscow. 

Reflections for the Second Sunday in Lent, the 16^th of March 2025, in the pew notes at St Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne.  Written by Philip Harvey.

 James Joyce, who wrote the funniest novel in the English language, regarded Leo Tolstoy’s short story ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need’ as “the greatest story that the literature of the world knows.” It is a story about being tempted with the promise of owning the world.

 Pahóm, a villager, listens to his wife argue with her sister, who comes from the city. The elder sister praises town life (fine clothes, good food, theatre) while the younger sister says she would not trade her peasant life; she and her husband may never grow rich, but they will always have enough, whereas rich people often lose all they have. The city, she says, surrounds people with temptations from the Devil. Pahóm agrees with his wife, but also thinks they do not have enough land. If he had more land, even the Devil would not be able to tempt him. The Devil, who is sitting unseen in the room, hears this boast and decides to give more land to ensnare him.

 And so Pahóm raises money to buy 40 acres of a deceased estate. Happiness reigns until he starts fining other peasant landowners who let cattle roam onto his land. This causes resentment. Trials are held with no outcome other than further quarrels, bribes, and ill-feeling. Soon Pahóm hears of promises of even better land some distance away on the other side of the River Volga. Selling his land, he moves there, further away from home. Crops are good, life is fine, but he then learns from a passing dealer of even better land, and cheaper, in a province 300 miles away. He takes a punt and travels all that way, taking a servant but leaving wife and family behind.

 Negotiations with the chiefs of this region, who flatter and entertain him, lead to a deal: the price of their land will be one thousand rubles a day. Pahóm is puzzled by what this means, so it is explained that he can have as much land as he can walk around in a day. If he fails to return to his starting point within that time, he will forfeit his thousand rubles. The night before the Big Walk, Pahóm in a dream meets a man who is laughing outside his tent. It’s the Chief, but he then sees it is also the land dealer of long ago and, in fact, the Devil and that at his feet is a dead man: Pahóm.

 Waking up he goes out early to walk the perimeter of the land he wishes to own. The chiefs watch, the day is hot, and he walks for a long time, morning into afternoon then evening. Exhausted, he goes faster and faster and breaks into a run, discarding his coat, boots, and flask. The sun is close to the horizon as he rushes towards the chiefs and collapses in front of them, touching the Chief’s cap, in which his money lies. The Chief declares that Pahóm has acquired a lot of land. However, when Pahóm’s servant runs to him, he finds that Pahóm is dead. The servant digs a grave and buries him.

 After striving for so long to acquire land, all the land Pahóm needs now is six feet.