Reprinted from Russian Language Journal, vol. 31, no. 109(1977):67-78.

L. N. TOLSTOJ'S NARODNYE RASSKAZY

Gary R. Jahn

Tolstoj's Narodnye rasskazy [1] have a quantitatively significant place in the literary work of his last thirty years. The stories comprise a very large part of his artistic work in the 1880s. It was with these stories, in fact, that Tolstoj returned to fiction from exclusive concentration of the religious writings which followed the personal crisis he underwent in the late 1870s. Scholarly studies of these stories have appeared, but infrequently, especially as compared to the masses of published materials devoted to other segments of his work .l This paper offers a descriptive analysis of Tolstoj's Narodnye rasskazy accompanied by a sketch of their precedents in 19thcentury Russian literature and the literary context of which they formed a part.

Tolstoj's stories for the people are part of a current in 19th‑century Russian literature called "narodnaja literatura" This broad designation subsumes a variety of related concepts. It includes, first, the literature of the people. This means, mainly, the narrative forms of folklore: the heroic songs, fairy tales, religious legends, and the like. This category of popular literature was produced among the common people themselves. It assumed written or printed form only through the efforts of folklorists and other transcribers of its oral performance.. Once such works became known it was not long before stylizations of them followed. These were works inspired by folk models but created by writers of the upper classes. Such works are clearly not "of the people" but are meant to approach as closely as possible the spirit and forms of their models. These stylizations seem to be the result of an upper class writer recognizing the artistic power present in folklore and seeking simply to participate in it rather than to turn it to his own purposes. Stylizations, particularly of the skazka, are well represented in 19th‑century Russian literature. Well‑known examples are Pushkin's "Skazka o rybake i rybke," V. F. Odoevskij's "Moroz Ivanovich," S. T. Aksakov's "Alen'kij cvetochek," and P. P. Ershov's "Konek‑gorbunok."

Second, popular literature includes literature about the people. Here we deal with works produced by and for the educated sectors of society. The origins of this sort of writing are to be found in the late 1820s and early 1830s, motivated to some

extent by the penetration of Russian intellectual life by German philosophy and particularly Herder's ideas about the "nation." This trend in literature received further impetus from Belinskij and blossomed into the "Natural School" of the mid‑1840s. From this point on its main characteristics became the realistic style and a tone sympathetic to folk life, an early example being certain of Turgenev's Zapiski oxotnika. Literature about the people gained renewed support from the populist critics of. the 1870s and 1880s, especially

N. K. Mixajlovskij, and has continued to be a powerful movement in literature even to the present day. A main tenet of Socialist Realism is that same sympathetic and realistic approach to the lives of common folk for which Belinskij called in the 1840s.

Third, popular literature means works written for the people, that is, works created by the educated sector of society and directed at the popular audience. It is this category of popular literature which is most closely related to Tolstoj's stories for the people, although there are undeniable points of contact between them and the literature of and about the people as well.

In the 1880s (the period during which most of Tolstoj's stories for the people were written) there were two main categories of literature for the people. The more successful was purely commercial. It began in the early 18th century when, because of the developing literary taste of educated society, there began to be an unmet demand for works to satisfy the relatively static taste of the general population. Song books, books on the interpretation of dreams, casual collections of folklore, and stories of romance and adventure were the main commercial inventory. The second category was more idealistic. It consisted of works which sought to enlighten or edify the masses rather than to profit by entertaining them. Its first success was the journal Sel'skoe chtenie, published 1843‑48) by V. F Odoevskij and A. P. Zablockij‑Desjatovskij. [2] In the late 1850s and 1860s the efforts of A. F. Pogosskij, who published such magazines as Soldatskaja beseda,[3] Narodnaja beseda, and Dosug i delo, enjoyed some popular success. In the 1870s, interest in raising the quality of the literature available to the people led to the formation of enterprises devoted solely to this goal. The most representative of these was V. N. Marakuev's "Narodnaja biblioteka," founded in 1872 and engaged mainly in the production of inexpensive editions of the classics of Russia and other nations.

Tolstoj's interest in literature for the people is well-attested. In February, 1884, he wrote to V. G. Chertkov that the literature for the people which was then being produced not only was not good, but was not even useful. Indeed, he wrote, some of it was actually harmful. [4] The first statement summarizes his view of the idealistic category of literature for the people, the second his view of the commercial category. In that same

year Tolstoi, Chertkov, and P. I. Birjukov (later Tolstoj's biographer) founded "Posrednik," a publishing house for works intended for the popular audience. Their motive was to blend the distribution methods of the commercial producers of literature for the people (a combination of re ional distribution centers and a network of itinerant peddlers with the goals of the idealistic category. Their efforts succeeded to an extent previously unheard of in the realm of educative literature for the people. Birjukov estimated that in the 1890s "Posrednik" distributed some 3,500,000 copies of various works per year. [5]

Thus we have the state and dimensions of the popular literature of the 19th century of which Tolstoj's stories for the people form a part. The question of which of Tolstoj's stories are to be classed as stories for the people has not been satisfactorily resolved. There is fairly general agreement, however, that a number of stories written in the 1880s are stories for the people. In comparing the contents of four of the more complete editions of Tolstoj's collected works, it was found that in each of them a volume or clearly marked section of a volume was designated Narodnye rasskazy. [6] While there were differences in the selections included in the various editions, the following sixteen stories appeared in each of them: "Chem ljudi zhivy," Devchonki umnee starikov, Dva brata i zoloto, Dva starika, "Gde ljubov', tam i Bog," "Il'jas," "Kajushchijsja greshnik," "Kak chertenok krajushku vykupal," "Krestnik," "Mnogo li cheloveku zemli nuzhno " "Skazka ob Ivane durake " "Svechka " "Tri starca " "Upustish' ogon'‑‑ne potushish'," "Vrazh'e lepko, a Bozh'e krepko," and "Zerno s kurijnoe jajco."[7] There is further evidence to corroborate this selection. In 1887 Tolstoj consented to the publication by "Posrednik" of a volume to be titled Narodnye rasskazy. The book was forbidden by the censorship and never appeared. The proposed contents, however, included all of the stories listed above, with the exception of "Kajushchijsja greshnik." [8]

The narrative mode of each of these stories is the third person. Most commonly the voice of the narrator is popular and his tone is sympathetic to his characters. The degree of the narrator's sympathy is variable, however. Often, as in "Chem ljudi zhivy," "Dva starika," and "Skazka ob Ivane durake," there is considerable identification between the narrator and the characters. Occasionally the narrator's tone approaches neutrality, as in "Dva brata i zoloto." In no case is sarcasm, so characteristic of Tolstoj's other work, found in the narrative tone.

The major characters tend to be drawn from among the common people, the most frequent type being the peasant. Characters drawn from other backgrounds appear in major and sympathetic roles only when they are muted by distance in space and time from the audience for whom Tolstoi was writing or by the generalized quality of their presentation. For example, a king

has a major role in "Zerno s kurijnoe jajco," but the story takes place in the distant past. In "Il'jas," where a rich landowner has a major role, the setting, vaguely middle‑eastern, is remote in space. Supernatural characters, both angels and demons (including the Devil himself), appear in all but three of the stories. Other late works by Tolstoj tend to offer popular characters only in supporting, often comparative roles, e.g., the servant Gerasim in Smert' Ivana Il'icha, Nikita in Xozjain i rabotnik. The supernatural is almost never introduced, and when it is, as in Plody prosveshchenija, it is ridiculed. [9]

The setting of the stories is either popular and Russian or far enough removed (again by space, time, or vagueness) from contemporary life that it has a legendary or exotic appearance. "Vrazh'e lepko, a Bozh'e krepko" is called a parable,[10] and its setting is nonspecific; "Dva brata i zoloto" and "Il'jas" have exotic settings; "Zerno s kurijnoe jajco," while Russian in a general way, is, as noted above, set at a point in the distant past.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the stories for the people is their language, and this is reflected in the rather considerable comment that the style of the stories has inspired. A. G. Cejtlin described them as exhibiting a dual linguistic image. On the one hand, he associated popular language with the "realistic" aspects of the stories (actions and speech of characters), yet on the other hand, he noted the presence of archaized and Biblical forms of speech in Tolstoj's presentation of the "ideological" content.[11] L. D. Opul'skaja agreed. She considered the language of the stories to be simple, expressive, unmixed with any kind of jargon, and genuinely popular. She noted that the popular language used in the stories was generalized; that is, it did not usually include the representation of phonetic peculiarities or generally incomprehensible regionalisms. Finally, she noted that the narrator and the characters in these stories speak roughly the same variant of language.[12] R. R. Gel'gardt also emphasized the duality of the language in these stories, but he preferred to contrast the folklore (rather than popular) element to the Biblical, archaic element. He mentioned Tolstoj's frequent use of proverbs as well as many of the devices of folk poetics (alliteration and assonance, for instance) in contrast with the numerous scriptural quotations and such devices as the repetition of initial i.[13]

Much attention has been devoted to the popular and folkloric elements in the language of the stories for the people. N. N. Apostolov considered the popular element to be present in the voices of both the narrator and the characters and isolated the use of lexical items with popular associations as the cornerstone of this popular element.[14] L. M. Myshkovskaja perceived a combination of elements working together to provide the popular coloring of the language. Chief among these were laconism,

a high proportion of colloquial lexical items, and, in general, a close relationship to the language of fairy tales and religious legends.[15] A. I. Popovkin observed the following popular elements in the language: repetition, simple comparisons, inversion of the normal subject‑verb order, lexical items with popular associations, popular expressions, proverbs, and the frequent use of H as the first word in a sentence.[16] Popovkin connects the latter device with the popular strain of language in the Narodnye rasskazy while Gel'gardt maintained it was archaic and Biblical.

S. P. Bychkov regarded the stories for the people as a remarkable stylistic departure from Tolstoj's earlier work. He noted in this new style an almost complete absence of complex metaphorical language, maximally simplified syntax, peasant words and expressions, and the use of many devices from folklore.[17]

A fairly consistent description of the language of these stories emerges. There is a consensus that Tolstoj's use of language was studied, conscious, deliberate, and directed at the creation of a popular tonal quality. The language of the stories varies within certain limits. In no case does Tolstoj's "literary" style, with its tendency to syntactic and lexical complexity, foreignisms, and lengthy periodicity, appear.

The basis of the language of all of the stories is the simple sentence, pruned of all but essential elements and frequently elliptical. In longer sentences, the tendency is markedly toward the simple linking of principal clauses and away from the use of subordinate constructions.

This language base has either Biblical or popular coloring, or both. In most of the stories, the narrative is markedly popular. The popular flavor is achieved by the consistent inversion of literary word order in the sentence (e.g., "Ne mog eshche ja ponjat' . . ." instead of "ja eshche ne mog ponjat' . . .") and the use of popular lexical material. This material is often proverbial and sometimes from folklore, for example, the traditional opening phrase of the skazka "zhil‑byl," which appears in many of these stories. In a few stories the use of the language of the common people is less marked. An example is "Vrazh'e lepko, a Bozh'e krepko." The inverted sentence structure is preserved, but the number of popular turns of phrase is reduced and a more formal lexicon and grammar is introduced. One discovers such lexical items as d'javol and soblaznjat', subordination in syntax, and the use of the verbal adverb (XXV, 59). The result is a language of solemnity similar to the language of the Bible. Actual Biblical language is present in quotations in nine of the stories, either in text or as epigraph. The influence of Biblical language affects nearly all of the stories. This is clearest in the language of divine characters (the angels in "Chem ljudi zhivy" and "Dva brata i zoloto," the heavenly voice in "Gde ljubov', tam i Bog") and generally

whenever the narrative touches directly upon the underlying thematic sense of the work, as in the moralizing conclusion of "Svechka."

The presentation of characters and events is consistent. Characters are most often developed through their actions and words. Occasionally the narrator characterizes his heroes directly, but usually he confines himself to brief physical descriptions. Very rarely and nowhere at length, are the psychological processes of the characters described directly by the narrator. This is another important distinction between the stories for the people and other late works, where one continues to encounter the frequent use of devices such as interior monologue and stream of consciousness. The reason for this is surely to be found in Tolstoj's desire to remain true to the spirit of folklore in developing his popular style. Events are presented in a straightforward chronological manner, although there may frequently be found such conventional al folkish artifices as events in groups of three, found in "Km ljudi zhivy," "Gde ljubov', tam i Bog," "Skazka ob Ivane durake," and several others. Thus, plot in these stories does not take on the complex forms with which Tolstoj experimented in such non‑popular late works as Smert' Ivana Il'icha and Voskresenie, with their use of flashbacks and shifting points of view on the events described.

Finally, all the stories for the people are more or less openly didactic and may even present a moral formally, as in "Krestnik."

Based upon this description, it is clear that the Narodnye rasskazy form a cycle or sub‑genre unto themselves within Tolstoj's ouevre as a whole. The factors which unite them are both stylistic and thematic and were consciously employed by Tolstoj to this end as can be seen from a letter which he wrote to F. F. Tishchenko (an aspiring writer of popular stories) in early 1886.[18] Tolstoj advised that an author of stories for the people must desire to be of service rather than to gain profit, thus indicating which of the two camps within literature for the people he preferred. He noted that it was necessary to write expressly for the popular audience, making no concession to the expectations of the educated reader. In particular, he urged a simplification of language, to be achieved by liberation from the "harmful" influence of the literary tradition of the recent past and by the avoidance of lexical and, we may assume, syntactic elements which were foreign to the Russian of the common people. He demanded that exposition be logical and straightforward and stressed the importance of brevity and economy. Finally, he stated that the most suitable subject matter was that which was based upon one or another of the ethical teachings of Christ.

The thematic unity of the Narodnye rasskazy develops from their common relevance to the Christian teaching as Tolstoj had come to understand it in the late 1870s and 1880s. In his long

essay, "V chem moja vera," he reduced the Christian teaching to five moral imperatives, derived from the "Sermon on the Mount" (Matt. v‑vii and parallels). Briefly stated, the five commandments are: (1) do not be angry; (2) do not lust; (3) do not swear, that is, do not, through an oath, surrender free moral choice to the will of others; (4) do not resist the evil doer with force; and (5) love all people alike. These commandments, their corollaries, and the effects of disobeying them (or, more generally, the will of God which they represent) provide a complete thematic summary of the Narodnye rasskazy and provide the basis of their thematic unity.

The commandment to avoid anger is prominent in "grave lepko, a Bozh'e krepko," "Upustish' ogon'‑‑ne potushish'." and "Devchonki umnee starikov"; its corollary, forgiveness, is the theme of "Kajushchijsja greshnik." The injunction against lust never appears in the Narodnye rasskazy. We may surmise that Tolstoj discerned no need to preach this commandment among the people, and, judging by the frequency of the sexual theme in the nonpopular late works (Otec Sergij, Krejcerova sonata, Voskresenie, and others), that he regarded infractions of this commandment as an essentially upper‑class phenomenon. The wrongness of oath‑taking appears as a theme in "Skazka ob Ivane durake" when the devil is unable to raise an army in Ivan's kingdom because the people refuse to promise allegiance. In "Dva starika, Elisej, who proves to be the morally superior of the two old men, attaches little importance to the vow he has sworn to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land when it conflicts with an obligation to assist others who are in need. The fourth commandment is the subject of "Svechka," "Skazka ob Ivane durake," and "Krestnik." The only positive commandment, to love all men alike, is at the heart of most of the best known Narodnye rasskazy: "Chem ljudi

zhivy," "Dva starika," Tri starca," and "Gde ljubov', tam i Bog."

The five remaining stories deal with the evil that comes from ignorance of or disobedience to the Christian teaching. Their theme is excess. In "Mnogo li cheloveku zemli nuzhno it is in the form of greed for more land than needed, in "Kak chertenok krajushku vykupal" it appears in the misuse of an excessive crop to produce strong drink, in "Il'jas" it is shown in the contrast between the hero's contentedness with poverty and his former anxiety with wealth. In "Dva brata i zoloto" and "Zerno s kurijnoe jajco," the use of money as a replacement for active human concern is attacked.

The stylistic unity of the Narodnye rasskazy is the product of a number of linguistic and larger structural devices which they share. Proverbs, sayings, and other bits of popular wisdom were incorporated into the stories. As early as 1862, Tolstoj stated that he intended to write a series of brief stories, each of which was to be inspired by, and offer an explanation of, a striking popular saying (VIII, 302). Often such sayings were used as the titles of stories, for example, "Gde ljubov',

tam i Bog," "Bog pravdu vidit, da ne skoro skazhet," and "Upustish' ogon'‑‑ne potushish".11

The majority of the stories are reworkings of existing popular narratives, such as those of the famous skazitel' V. P. Shchegelenok, from whom Tolstoj obtained the subjects of "Chem ljudi zhivy" and "Dva starika."[19] Another familiar model used by Tolstoj was the lubok or illustrated text. The word 'lubok (from lub the inner bark of the lime tree, or from lubochnaja koroba, the name given to the box used by peddlers to transport their goods) was known from the early 17th century. While not itself a form of folklore, it was well‑known to the popular audience. Essentially, the lubok consisted of a picture (or a series of pictures) accompanied by a printed text which might be explanatory or narrative as the case required.[20] Many of the shorter Narodnye rasskazy (e.g., Devchonki umnee starikov," "Vrazh'e lepko, a Bozh'e krepko," and "I1 'j as") were modelled on the lubok and printed, often as separate sheets, with an accompanying picture.[21] Finally, Tolstoj made use of folklore anthologies as sources for the stories. "Krestnik," "Kajushchijsja greshnik." "Rabotnik Emel'jan i pustoj baraban," and "Kak chertenok krajushku vykupal" are all closely modelled on religious legends or fairy tales found recorded in the collections made by A. N. Afanas'ev.

Besides the use of popular models, several elements common to folk narratives (and not found in Tolstoj's usual literary style) are encountered regularly. Such are the angels and demons which are so frequently present in these stories and the structuring of events and characters in groups of three (in distinct contrast to Tolstoj's 's preference in his "literary" style, pointed out long ago by Shklovskij, for comparison and contrast nourished by groups of two). Also, there is evidence in the form of notebooks kept by Tolstoj, especially in the late 1870s, of his deliberate attempt to study and later to employ striking turns of phrase which he encountered in talks with common folk.[22]

Finally, Tolstoj quoted freely from scripture and adopted some mannerisms typical of the Bible and other religious literature.[23] This element is most frequently found in the epigraph (where it has a significance not unlike that of the proverbs used as titles) or at the climax of the story, or, where there is such, in the passage where the moral to be gained from the story is explained. Quite possibly Tolstoj hoped to supply the moral didacticisms in his stories with an air of sanctity and religious authority, assuming that to the popular, Orthodox reader Biblical language would be both familiar and authoritative.

The Narodnye rasskazy were written to exemplify certain ethical models. In this sense they resemble the other late works of Tolstoj, for there, too, we find didactic purpose. It is not, perhaps, even too much to say that the early works also reflect the didactic proclivities of Tolstoj, at least to the

extent that he consciously, from an early date, sought to portray the "truth," as he understood it, in his fiction.[24] Thus, it is not the themes or the motives of Tolstoj which ultimately set the Narodnye rasskazy apart from the rest of his work, but their style, which was developed specifically and consciously as an apt and accessible medium for conveying moral concepts to the popular audience.

It may be thought unlikely that works so overtly burdened with didactic purpose and directed at so specific an audience would have much chance of being artistically memorable. In the case of many of these stories, especially the very brief ones, this prediction proves all too accurate. Yet such stories as "Chem ljudi zhivy," "Ova starika," "Tri starca," "Gde ljubov', tam i Bog," and "Mnogo li cheloveku zemli nuzhno" do possess artistic value.[25] They represent a masterful achievement in the development from heterogeneous, although related; elements of a unified style which yet permits a modicum of flexibility and is singularly well adapted to its solemn moral purpose.

The Narodnye rasskazy have a unique place in the context of It narodnaja literatura." Just as they represent a synthesis of various elements on the stylistic level, so too in the broader context they represent a synthesis of various types of popular literature. They are "of the people" in their language, their devices, and often in their sources. They are "about the people" in their emphasis on popular characters and settings and the patent tone of sympathy with the lot of the narod. And of course, they were "for the people," written primarily for their improvement and appreciation, and we should not forget that as he wrote these stories, Tolstoj was already convinced that the common folk were the most discriminating of artistic audiences.

In the last thirty years of his life Tolstoj's activity was threefold. He was an artist, producing fictions in various genres and with various ends in view. He was also a religious thinker and publicist, developing and explaining a philosophical system which was mainly ethical in its emphasis. Finally, he was an aesthetician, elaborating a theory of universally comprehensible art which, in effect, provided the theoretical framework within which the artist and the religious thinker could cooperate. A final aspect of the unity of the Narodnye rasskazy is that they represent the unique confluence of these three modes of activity: the moralism of the religious thinker was presented in a manner which both pleased the artist and satisfied the requirements of the aesthetician.

NOTES

1. Among the most important studies of Tolstoj's Narodnye

rasskazy are the following: (1) R. R. Gel'gardt, "K izucheniju jazyka i stilja narodnyx rasskazov L. N. Tolstogo," Izvestija Tverskogo pedagogicheskogo instituta, V (1929), 89‑106; (2) G. V. Krasnov, "Narodnye rasskazy 70‑x godov," in L. N. Tolstoj: Stat'i i materialy (Uchenye zapiski Gor'kovskogo universiteta, vyp. 77, Gor'kij, 1966), 201‑211; (3) Z. S. Melkix, "Tolstoj i fol'klor (Narodnye rasskazy 70‑80‑x godov)," in Voprosy literatury (Minsk: Izdatel'stvo Belgosuniversiteta im. V. I. Lenina, 1960), pp. 3‑20; (4) L. M. Myshkovskaja, "Narodnye rasskazy," in her Masterstvo L. N. Totstogo (Moscow: Sovetskij pisatel', 1958), pp. 369389; (5) A. I. Popovkin, Narodnye rasskazy L. N. Totstogo (Tula: Muzej‑usad'ba L. N. Tolstogo "Jasnaja poljana," 1957).

2. This periodical was distinguished by such contributors as M. N. Zagoskin, A. F. Vel'tman, and V. I. Dal'.

3. In 1854 Tolstoj himself entertained the idea of publishing a journal for soldiers to be called Sotdatskij vestnik.

4. L. N. Tolstoj, Polnoe sobranie sochinenij, ed. V. G. Chertkov et at. (Moscow, 1928‑56), LXXXV, 30. All volume‑page references from Tolstoj are in the text to this edition.

5. George Rapall Noyes, Tolstoy (New York: Duffield, 1918), p. 287. See also Thais Lindstrom, "From Chapbooks to Classics: The Story of the Intermediary," ASEER, No. 2 (1957), pp. 190‑201.

6. The following editions were consulted in obtaining the list of stories for the people: (1) Vol. XI of the eleventh edition (1904) of Tolstoj's collected works (the titles given under the heading Narodnye rasskazy); (2) Vol. XVI of the first complete collected works (P. I. Birjukov, ed., 1913), under the heading Povesti i rasskazy dlja narodnyx izdanij; (3) Vol. X of Polnoe sobranie xudozhestvennyx proizvedenij (B. Ejxenbaum and K. Xalabaev, eds., 1930); (4) Vol. XXV of Polnoe sobranie sochinenij (V. G. Chertkov, ed., 1928‑56) under the heading Narodnye rasskazy.

7. If all of Tolstoj's finished short stories are compared with the description offered in this paper it appears that a complete list of Tolstoj's stories for the people includes, besides the sixteen stories given here, the following: "Alesha Gorshok," "Bog pravdu vidit, da ne skoro skazhet," "Tri syna," and "Rabotnik Emel'jan i pustoj baraban." For the particulars of the process of comparison and segregation used in arriving at this conclusion the reader is referred to the author's dissertation, "L. N. Tolstoj's Stories for the People on the Theme of Brotherly Love" (University of Wisconsin, 1972).

8. The proposed volume was banned by the censorship in conformance with a policy of minimizing the spread of Tolstoj's ideas among the populace. The value of this source must be regarded as merely corroborative in that: (1) all that is known is that Tolstoj assented to its publication; it is not known to what degree, if any, Tolstoj assisted in the selection of the titles to be included, (2) the selection is inconsistent as regards genre, including a play, Pervyj vinokur, among the stories.

9. In fact, Tolstoj felt it necessary to offer a defense of the supernatural in his art. See his essay "0 pravde v iskusstve" (1887).

10. Tolstoj understood the term pritcha to mean "allegory."

11. Istorija russkoj literatury v trex tomax, D. D. Blagoj, ed. (Moscow, 1964), III, 573.

12. Istorija russkoj literatury; literatura 70‑80‑x godov XIX‑go veka (Moscow, 1956), II, 566.

13. Gel'gardt, p. 101.

14. Tvorcheskij put' L. N. Tolstogo (Moscow, 1962), p. 414.

15. Myshkovskaja, Masterstvo, p. 382.

16. Popovkin, pp. 42‑43.

17. L. N. Tolstoj. Ocherk tvorchestva (Moscow, 1954), p. 356.

18. That is, at the period when Tolstoj was most diligently at work on the stories for the people. Between March, 1885, and March, 1886, he wrote seventeen items for publication by the newly founded "Posrednik." (For the text of the letter to Tishchenko see LXIII, 325‑27.)

19. See Ju. M. Sokolov, "Lev Tolstoj i skazitel' Shchegelenok," in L. N. Tolstoj: K 120‑letiju so dnja rozhdenija (1828‑1948), N. N. Gusev, ed., (in Letopisi, 12 [Moscow, 1948], II, 200208).

20. For further information and examples see V. Baxtin and D. Moldavskij, Russkij Lubok (Moscow, 1962).

21. "Kajushchijsja greshnik" was also intended as lubok but was never printed in that form (XXV, 701).

22. See V. I. Sreznevskij, "Jazyk i legenda v zapisjax L. N. Tolstogo," S. F. Ol'denburgu: Sbornik statej (Leningrad, 1934) and K. S. Shoxor‑Trockij, "Zapisnaja kniga 1879 goda," Literaturnoe nasledstvo, Kn. 37‑38 (1939), pp. 103‑116.

23. Tolstoj drew especially on Prolog whence he also derived the subject for "Dva brata i zoloto."