Article On The Census In Moscow | Page 5

root of all this? To what do the revolutionists point? To poverty, to
inequality in the distribution of wealth. To what do the conservatives
point? To the decline in moral principle. If the opinion of the
revolutionists is correct, what must be done? Poverty and the inequality
of wealth must be lessened. How is this to be effected? The rich must
share with the poor. If the opinion of the conservatives is correct, that
the whole evil arises from the decline in moral principle, what can be

more immoral and vicious than the consciously indifferent survey of
popular sufferings, with the sole object of cataloguing them? What
must be done? To the census we must add the work of affectionate
intercourse of the idle and cultivated rich, with the oppressed and
unenlightened poor.
Science will do its work, let us perform ours also. Let us do this. In the
first place, let all of us who are occupied with the census,
superintendents and census-takers, make it perfectly clear to ourselves
what we are to investigate and why. It is the people, and the object is
that they may be happy. Whatever may be one's view of life, every one
will agree that there is nothing more important than human life, and
that there is no more weighty task than to remove the obstacles to the
development of this life, and to assist it.
This idea, that the relations of men to poverty are at the foundation of
all popular suffering, is expressed in the Gospels with striking
harshness, but at the same time, with decision and clearness for all.
"He who has clothed the naked, fed the hungry, visited the prisoner,
that man has clothed Me, fed Me, visited Me," that is, has done the
deed for that which is the most important thing in the world.
However a man may look upon things, every one knows that this is
more important than all else on earth.
And this must not be forgotten, and we must not permit any other
consideration to veil from us the most weighty fact of our existence.
Let us inscribe, and reckon, but let us not forget that if we encounter a
man who is hungry and without clothes, it is of more moment to succor
him than to make all possible investigations, than to discover all
possible sciences. Perish the whole census if we may but feed an old
woman. The census will be longer and more difficult, but we cannot
pass by people in the poorer quarters and merely note them down
without taking any heed of them and without endeavoring, according to
the measure of our strength and moral sensitiveness, to aid them. This
in the first place. In the second, this is what must be done: All of us,
who are to take part in the census, must refrain from irritation because
we are annoyed; let us understand that this census is very useful for us;
that if this is not cure, it is at least an effort to study the disease, for
which we should be thankful; that we must seize this occasion, and, in
connection with it, we must seek to recover our health, in some small

degree. Let all of us, then, who are connected with the census, endeavor
to take advantage of this solitary opportunity in ten years to purify
ourselves somewhat; let us not strive against, but assist the census, and
assist it especially in this sense, that it may not have merely the harsh
character of the investigation of a hopelessly sick person, but may have
the character of healing and restoration to health. For the occasion is
unique: eighty energetic, cultivated men, having under their orders two
thousand young men of the same stamp, are to make their way over the
whole of Moscow, and not leave a single man in Moscow with whom
they have not entered into personal relations. All the wounds of society,
the wounds of poverty, of vice, of ignorance--all will be laid bare. Is
there not something re-assuring in this? The census-takers will go about
Moscow, they will set down in their lists, without distinction, those
insolent with prosperity, the satisfied, the calm, those who are on the
way to ruin, and those who are ruined, and the curtain will fall. The
census-takers, our sons and brothers, these young men will behold all
this. They will say: "Yes, our life is very terrible and incurable," and
with this admission they will live on like the rest of us, awaiting a
remedy for the evil from this or that extraneous force. But those who
are perishing will go on dying, in their ruin, and those on the road to
ruin will continue in their course. No, let us rather grasp the idea