---
id: samara
recordStatus: draft
liveStatus: new
type: place
title: Samara
titleEn: Samara
titleRu: Самарская губерния
nameAlternatives:
  - name: "Самара"
    type: variant
    language: ru
  - name: "Samara Government"
    type: translation
    language: en
description: "The steppe province of A Confession (1879–82): the 1862 kumys stay with the Bashkirs, the estate behind the question “six thousand desyatinas in Samara province, three hundred head of horses — and then?” («6000 десятин в Самарской губернии, 300 голов лошадей, а потом?..»), and the Molokans of a draft."
placeType: region
country: Russia
region: Samara Governorate
city: Samara
coordinates:
  lat: ""
  lon: ""
  approximate: false
significancePeriod: "1862–1881 (as attested in these sources)"
roleInTolstoyLife: other
periodOfAssociation:
  from: "1862"
  fromOldStyle: "1862"
  to: ""
  toOldStyle: ""
  notes: "First kumys stay May–July 1862 (OS); an estate in the governorate by the time of A Confession; a letter from «Хутор на Моче» on 25 July 1881 (OS). Purchase date and end of the association: NEEDS PRIMARY SOURCE."
synopsis: "Samara Governorate is where the 1862 kumys stay in A Confession took place, in a Bashkir camp. Later an estate there stands, in chapter III, among the plans that met the question «а потом?..». A draft of chapter XV adds the Molokans of Samara."
worksWrittenHere: []
relatedArticles:
  - leo-tolstoy
  - yasnaya-polyana
relatedWorks:
  -
    id: confession
    relationshipType: source
themes:
  - Tolstoy residences
  - the question of the meaning of life
identifiers:
  wikidata: ""
  geonames: ""
  openStreetMap: ""
fieldSources: {}
---

Samara Governorate (<span lang="ru">Самарская губерния</span>) appears in [[A Confession]] (1879–82) twice: as the steppe of the 1862 kumys stay, and as the estate behind the question "and what then?". A draft adds the Molokans of Samara.

## The 1862 kumys stay

Chapter III tells of a year of arbitration work, the schools and the magazine, ending in exhaustion: "I fell ill, mentally rather than physically, threw up everything, and went away to the Bashkirs in the steppes, to breathe fresh air, drink kumys, and live a merely animal life."[^1] Kumys, Maude's note explains, is "a fermented drink prepared from mare's milk".

The PSS commentary adds the details: the first journey for kumys to Samara Governorate, begun 26 May 1862 (OS: 14 May), with two pupils of the Yasnaya Polyana school, Vasily Morozov and Egor Chernov. He lived in a Bashkir nomad camp on the Karalyk, in Nikolaevsky uezd (district) of the governorate, and was back at [[Yasnaya Polyana]] on 12 August 1862 (OS: 31 July). Morozov later wrote down his memories of the stay, published by Posrednik in 1917.[^2]

## The estate and "what then?"

In chapter III the estate comes first among the occupations that now needed a reason: "occupying myself with my Samara estate, the education of my son, or the writing of a book, I had to know *why* I was doing it".[^3] Then the question: "Well, you will have 6,000 desyatinas of land in Samara Government and 300 horses, and what then?"[^4] A desyatina, Maude notes, is about 2¾ acres.

The figures are in the future tense ("you will have"). When the estate was bought, and its size: NEEDS PRIMARY SOURCE.

## The Molokans in a draft

A draft of chapter XV, on the schismatics, names Samara: "In Samara, where I lived, there are many Molokans." It recalls one old Molokan "who gave away all his property to the needy and from rich became poor, only to follow the rule: give to him that asks".[^5] The final chapter XV keeps the Molokans only in a general list — "Catholics, protestants, Old-Believers, Molokans, and others" — with no Samara and no old man.[^6]

## Open questions

- When the estate was bought, its size at purchase, its exact location, coordinates, and its later history: NEEDS PRIMARY SOURCE.
- Whether "the farm on the Mocha", from which a letter to [[Sophia Tolstaya]] was written on 25 July 1881, is the estate of chapter III.[^7] The letter shows a stay there in the summer the commentary says *A Confession* already existed in finished form.
- How the 1862 camp on the Karalyk relates to the later estate.

## Dive provenance

- [1879-1882-a-confession](../works/non-fiction/personal-papers/1879-1882-a-confession/index.md) — the ch. III passages, commentary note 19, and draft variant No. 20; Johan's annotation III.15 ("Samara (the steppe estate): wikilink to be") asked for this page. The 1881 letter is from the [stories-for-the-people](../themes/stories-for-the-people/index.md) dive (E02).

[^1]: <span lang="ru">«я заболел более духовно, чем физически, — бросил всё и поехал в степь к башкирам — дышать воздухом, пить кумыс и жить животною жизнью»</span> (PSS 23:10). English: Maude.

[^2]: PSS 23, commentary, note 19.

[^3]: <span lang="ru">«Прежде чем заняться самарским имением, воспитанием сына, писанием книги, надо знать, зачем я это буду делать»</span> (PSS 23, ch. III). English: Maude.

[^4]: <span lang="ru">«Ну хорошо, у тебя будет 6000 десятин в Самарской губернии, 300 голов лошадей, а потом?..»</span> (PSS 23, ch. III). English: Maude.

[^5]: <span lang="ru">«В Самаре, где я жил, много молокан»</span>; <span lang="ru">«который роздал всё свое имение неимущим и из богатого стал бедным, только для того, чтобы последовать правилу: просящему дай»</span> (PSS 23:488–511, variant No. 20; page not pinned). Our translation.

[^6]: <span lang="ru">«католиками, протестантами, старообрядцами, молоканами и др.»</span> (PSS 23, ch. XV). English: Maude.

[^7]: <span lang="ru">«Хутор на Моче»</span> (PSS 83:297–300).