Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [460]
Sergei Ivanovich and Katavasov began talking simultaneously with ready-made objections.
‘That’s the hitch, my dear, that there may be occasions when the government does not carry out the will of the citizens, and then society declares its will,’ said Katavasov.
But Sergei Ivanovich obviously did not approve of this objection. He frowned at Katavasov’s words and said something different.
‘The question shouldn’t be put that way. There is no declaration of war here, but simply the expression of human, Christian feeling. They’re killing our brothers, of the same blood, of the same religion. Well, suppose they weren’t even our brothers, our co-religionists, but simply children, women, old men; indignation is aroused, and the Russian people run to help stop these horrors. Imagine yourself going down the street and seeing some drunk beating a woman or a child, I don’t think you’d start asking whether war had or had not been declared on the man, but would fall upon him and protect the victim.’
‘But I wouldn’t kill him,’ said Levin.
‘Yes, you would.’
‘I don’t know. If I saw it, I would yield to my immediate feeling, but I can’t say beforehand. And there is not and cannot be such an immediate feeling about the oppression of the Slavs.’
‘Maybe not for you. But for others there is,’ said Sergei Ivanovich, with a frown of displeasure. ‘There are stories alive among the people about Orthodox Christians suffering under the yoke of the “infidel Hagarenes”.9 The people heard about their brothers’ suffering and spoke out.’
‘Maybe so,’ Levin said evasively, ‘but I don’t see it. I’m the people myself, and I don’t feel it.’
‘Neither do I,’ said the prince. ‘I was living abroad and reading the newspapers, and I confess, before the Bulgarian atrocities I simply couldn’t understand why the Russians all suddenly loved their brother Slavs so much, while I felt no love for them. I was very upset, thought I was a monster, or that Karlsbad affected me that way. But I came here and was reassured - I see there are people interested just in Russia and not in our brother Slavs. Konstantin for one.’
‘Personal opinions mean nothing here,’ said Sergei Ivanovich. ‘It’s no matter of personal opinions when all Russia - the people - has expressed its will.’
‘Forgive me. I just don’t see that. The people know nothing about it,’ said the prince.
‘No, papa ... how could they not? What about Sunday in church?’ said Dolly, who was listening to the conversation. ‘Give me a napkin, please,’ she said to the old man, who was looking at the children with a smile. ‘It can’t be that everybody ...’
‘And what about Sunday in church? The priest was told to read it. He read it. They understood nothing, sighed, as they do at every sermon,’ the prince went on. ‘Then they were told the church would take up a collection for a charitable cause, and so they each got out a kopeck and gave. But for what, they themselves didn’t know.’
‘The people cannot help knowing. A consciousness of their destiny always exists among the people, and in such moments as the present it becomes clear to them,’ Sergei Ivanovich said, glancing at the old beekeeper.
The handsome old man with streaks of grey in his black beard and thick silver hair stood motionless, holding a bowl of honey, looking down gently and calmly from his height upon the masters, obviously neither understanding nor wishing to understand anything.
‘That’s quite so,’ he said to Sergei Ivanovich’s words, shaking his head significantly.
‘There, just ask him. He doesn’t know or think anything,’ said Levin. ‘Have you heard about the war, Mikhailych?’ He turned to him. ‘What they read about in church? What do you think? Should we go to war for the Christians?’
‘What’s there for us to think? Alesander Nikolaich, the emperor, has thought on us, and he’ll think on us in everything.