What to Do? Thoughts Evoked By the Census of Moscow

In this reflective essay, Tolstoy turns his keen eye toward the stark contrast between the bustling capital and the countryside he once knew. The narrator’s first months in Moscow uncover a bewildering, almost theatrical kind of urban poverty—beggars who never lift a pouch, whose silent pleas hinge on a fleeting glance. Interwoven with biblical verses, the piece interrogates the moral responsibilities of those who have “two coats” and invites listeners to reconsider how wealth and compassion intersect in everyday encounters.

Through vivid, almost cinematic sketches—a policeman escorting a swollen peasant to a cab, a dignified gentry beggar bowing his hat—the author exposes the hidden mechanics of charity and disdain that shape city life. The work challenges the listener to question prevailing attitudes toward almsgiving, while offering a timeless meditation on the tension between material need and spiritual integrity.