I have now to advise you that I have to-day drawn the above sum in favor of
the St. Petersburg Commercial Joint Stock Bank, and that the proceeds of the
draft will be distributed as directed.
An account of the same will be rendered to the Department as soon as the
acknowledgments from the recipients reach me. The Department having
transmitted several contributions made in the United States for the relief
of the famine sufferers in Russia, with directions to forward the same, or
part of them, to Count Leo Tolstoi, to be used by him in his efforts to help
the afflicted, interest may be found in a report of his charitable work
recently published in a Russian newspaper, The News.
I therefore inclose herewith a translation of this report, and am, sir,
etc,
[Inclosure in No.
191.—Translation.]
A report, from the News, of Count Leo Tolstoi’s
relief work among the famine stricken of Russia.
It is known what efforts of energy and abnegation have been displayed
this winter by private benevolence in the provinces suffering from
famine.
It has been the landed proprietors who have done most to alleviate the
distress about them and their estates, and among them no one has labored
on a larger scale than Count Leo Tolstoi, seconded by the members of his
family. In view of the similitude of the character of the activity of
the count, and of that of most of the landowners, the report of his
philanthropic enterprise, published by the illustrious writer in the
News, is of interest.
This report embraces the activity of six months. The count and his two
daughters have worked in four districts, Epiphane, Efremoff, Dankoff,
and Skopine. They have there organized 187 refectories for 9,003
persons. Besides this they have founded since February eighty asylums
for very young children, in which babes at the breast and children of
less than three years of age receive milk and gruel.
The alimentation of one of these children costs, on the average, 60
copeks (about 30 cents) per month. Up to the 12th of April 800 of them
were cared for, and this branch of benevolence is increasing
rapidly.
The activity of Count Tolstoi is not limited to providing food for the
people, but is extended to the generality of wants of the needy
peasant.
From all sides flow in offerings, by means of which he has disposed of
vast resources for the extension of his grand projects. Without counting
the sums sent to his three sons, who are working for the same purpose in
the province of Sumara and the district of Tehern, the celebrated writer
has himself collected, coming from Russia, as well as from abroad, the
sum of 142,597.92 rubles, equal to about $71,298.96. Resides money the
count received many gifts in kind, firewood, hay, straw, flax, etc. The
sum total of the donations made for the work undertaken by Count Leo
Tolstoi and his family is estimated at about one million rubles
($500,000.)
Thus he has not only succeeded in supporting the population within the
radius of his activity, but also in protecting them from the cold.
To the least suffering he sold firewood at a low price; to others he
distributed it gratis. The poorest also received materials necessary for
clothing and foot-covering. He has, besides, supported 426 horses
belonging to peasants, and in urgent cases has distributed small sums of
money for the burial of the dead, payment of debts, maintenance of small
schools, buildings, etc.
With the approach of spring, the activity of Count Tolstoi became
greater. It was necessary to distribute the seed of oats, potatoes,
hemp, millet, as apart from the regular spring planting, in many places
replowing and replanting had to be done over, at times as much as
one-third of the winter fields.
It became, also, urgent to obtain horses. Up to April sixteen horses had
been purchased at 25 rubles each; since then one hundred more have been
bought. Every peasant who receives a horse gratis is obliged to plow the
lots of land of two other peasants who possess no horses. The Gazette of
St. Petersburg (Russian) states that the report of Count Tolstoi
produces an excellent impression, being the demonstration of what
private initiative is capable of accomplishing, without taking into
consideration (abstraction faite) that the
initiative of the illustrious writer is, by its extent, variety, the
degree of success, and practical sense shown therein, without example in
the annals of private philanthropy in Russia.
