How Much Land Does a Man Need

Although “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” has its origins as a folktale, Tolstoy drew on personal experience in depicting the Bashkirs. He knew the Bashkirs and their land well. In 1862, he had a bout of ill health, and his doctor recommended that he travel several hundred miles southeast of Moscow to Samara, where the nomadic Bashkirs lived in felt tents and drank kumiss. Kumiss (also written as “kumys”) is a fermented drink that is sometimes compared to beer, although it contains less alcohol. It was believed that drinking kumiss produced health benefits. In A Confession, an essay Tolstoy wrote in 1882, he describes an unhappy time in his life when he was confused about the purpose of life, and he states that the illness he suffered was mental rather than physical. He writes that he “threw up everything, and went away to the Bashkirs in the steppes, to breathe fresh air, drink kumys, and live a merely animal life” (Tolstoy, Leo. A Confession, in A Confession, The Gospel in Brief and What I Believe, translated by Alymer Maude. Oxford University Press, 1967, pp. 14). Tolstoy stayed with the Bashkirs for nearly two months, adopting their customs, talking history and religion with their elders, and running and wrestling with the younger men.