‘No, Selwyn, it’s not,’ said Frank. ‘Lev Nikolaevich tried to give away all his possessions.’ ‘That was to make the peasants richer, not to make himself poorer.’ Tolstoy’s Moscow estate was only a mile or so away from Lipka Street. In his will it had been bequeathed to the peasants, who, ever since, had been cutting down the trees to make ready money. They worked even at night, felling the trees by the light of paraffin flares.
