A Landlord's Morning

“The Morning of a Landowner” is Tolstoy’s autobiographical story about how young Prince Nekhlyudov leaves university and moves to the countryside with the intention of making his serfs’ lives easier. The futility of his attempts was explained most accurately by Turgenev I. S.: “...as long as the system of serfdom exists, there is no possibility of closeness and understanding between both sides, despite the most selfless and honest readiness to come together…”