Towards summer he got ready and started. He went down the Volga on a steamer to Samara, then walked another three hundred miles on foot, and at last reached the place. It was just as the stranger had said. The peasants had plenty of land: every man had twenty- five acres of Communal land given him for his use, and any one who had money could buy, besides, at fifty-cents an acre as much good freehold land as he wanted. There's no need for me to leave my land,' thought Pahóm. 'But some of the others might leave our village, and then there would be more room for us. I would take over their land myself, and make my estate a bit bigger. I could then live more at ease. As it is, I am still too cramped to be comfortable.' Having done this, Pahóm chose out a farm of forty acres, some of it wooded, and went to the lady to bargain for it. They came to an agreement, and he shook hands with her upon it, and paid her a deposit in advance. Then they went to town and signed the deeds; he paying half the price down, and undertaking to pay the remainder within two years. Enough? Yes, if you like to share with the pigs and the calves! What do you know of elegance or manners! However much your good man may slave, you will die as you are living-on a dung heap-and your children the same." Why should I suffer in this narrow hole, if one can live so well elsewhere? I will sell my land and my homestead here, and with the money I will start afresh over there and get everything new. In this crowded place one is always having trouble. But I must first go and find out all about it myself. Pahom, p. 10

Enough? Yes, if you like to share with the pigs and the calves! What do you know of elegance or manners! However much your good man may slave, ​you will die as you are living—on a dung heap—and your children the same.' Well, what of that?" replied the younger. "Of course our work is rough and coarse. But, on the other hand, it is sure; and we need not bow to any one. But you, in your towns, are surrounded by temptations; today all may be right, but tomorrow the Evil One may tempt your husband with cards, wine, or women, and all will go to ruin. Don't such things happen often enough?" What pleases me best here," answered Pahom, "is your land. Our land is crowded, and the soil is exhausted; but you have plenty of land and it is good land. I never saw the like of it." Tolstoy’s short story – “How much land does a man need?”— is a religious-morality tale which can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but which seems primarily concerned with the destructive consequences of human ambition. The story is about a man named Pahom – a peasant farmer — who desires to acquire more land, acquires some land, but is not satisfied and needs to acquire more. Eventually he over-reaches, forfeits all his accumulated wealth and causes his own death. (*See below for a Summary of story). The message to take from the story may be as simple as a warning against biting off more than you can chew, or we could say simply that the story shows how human nature pushes us to want more and more. We are never content with our lives, no matter how well off we may be; and , while trying to improve our standard of living, we put ourselves in danger of ending up with nothing. There now," thought Pahom, "with my one thousand roubles, why should I get only thirteen hundred acres, and saddle myself with a debt besides. If I take it out there, I can get more than ten times as much for the money."Pahom often attributes dissatisfaction with his properties to their perceived crowdedness, as shown in this quote. The motif of entrapment underscores Pahom’s fervent desire for a grander, more isolated freehold property. Pahom believes that his estate's spatial constraints prevent him from attaining independence, which he imagines achieving through massive, unlimited land ownership. This quote illuminates Pahom’s full immersion into conflating his free will and self-worth with material assets and wealth. With this, we know that Pahom’s quest for more land—and "start[ing] afresh"—is ultimately ill-fated: he will never attain the amount of land or freedom he thinks he needs. After becoming so enraptured with material gain, his greed and feelings of entrapment and inadequacy are perpetual and virulent. In the winter the news got about that the lady was going to sell her land, and that the keeper of the inn on the high road was bargaining for it. When the peasants heard this they were very much alarmed. Although he feared death, he could not stop. 'If I stopped now, after coming all this way - well, they'd call me an idiot!'

So Pahóm began looking out for land which he could buy; and he came across a peasant who had bought thirteen hundred acres, but having got into difficulties was willing to sell again cheap. Pahóm bargained and haggled with him, and at last they settled the price at 1,500 roubles, part in cash and part to be paid later. They had all but clinched the matter, when a passing dealer happened to stop at Pahóm's one day to get a feed for his horse. He drank tea with Pahóm, and they had a talk. The dealer said that he was just returning from the land of the Bashkírs, far away, where he had bought thirteen thousand ​acres of land all for 1,000 roubles. Pahóm questioned him further, and the tradesman said: All right,' thought the Devil. 'We will have a tussle. I'll give you land enough; and by means of that land I will get you into my power.' As soon as Pahóm and his family arrived at their new abode, he applied for admission into the Commune of a large village. He stood treat to the Elders, and obtained the necessary documents. Five shares of Communal land were given him for his own and his sons' use: that is to say—125 acres (not all together, but in different fields) besides the use of the Communal pasture. Pahóm put up the buildings he needed, and bought cattle. Of the Communal land alone he had three times as much as at his former home, and the land was good corn-land. He was ten times better off than he had been. He had plenty of arable land and pasturage, and could keep as many head of cattle as he liked.

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All one need do is to make friends with the chiefs. I gave away about one hundred rubles' worth of dressing-gowns and carpets, besides a case of tea, and I gave wine to those who would drink it; and I got the land for less than twopence an acre [3]. And he showed Pahóm the title-deeds, saying: That night, Pahom dreams that the traveling peasant, dealer, and Bashkir chief each transform into the Devil, who then laughs at a dead body at his feet. Pahom discovers that he is the dead figure and wakes up, alarmed. He shrugs off the nightmare and awakes the Bashkirs, declaring that he is ready to start covering his land.

How much wealth and power does a society need? At what point does it become inconsistent with a good life for the citizens? So Pahom began looking out for land which he could buy; and he came across a peasant who had bought thirteen hundred acres, but having got into difficulties was willing to sell again cheap. Pahom bargained and haggled with him, and at last they settled the price at 1,500 roubles, part in cash and part to be paid later. They had all but clinched the matter, when a passing dealer happened to stop at Pahom's one day to get a feed for his horse. He drank tea with Pahom, and they had a talk. The dealer said that he was just returning from the land of the Bashkirs, far away, where he had bought thirteen thousand acres of land all for 1,000 roubles. Pahom questioned him further, and the tradesman said: While the Bashkírs were disputing, a man in a large fox-fur cap appeared on the scene. They all became silent and rose to their feet. The interpreter said, 'This is our Chief himself.'Religious aspect: The story teaches that humans need to the state of their soul, rather than material wealth, with an eye to eternity rather than temporal, earthly reality. All one need do is to make friends with the chiefs. I gave away about one hundred roubles' worth of dressing-gowns and carpets, besides a case of tea, and I gave wine to those who would drink it; and I got the land for less than two cents an acre. And he showed Pahom the title-deeds, saying: A pair of short stories about greed, charity, life and death from one of Russia's most influential writers and thinkers.

Thank you for your kind words,' he said aloud. 'You have much land, and I only want a little. But I should like to be sure which bit is mine. Could it not be measured and made over to me? Life and death are in God's hands. You good people give it to me, but your children might wish to take it away again.' Here, the narrator describes the Bashkirs’ lifestyle and values to sharply magnify Pahom’s moral degradation throughout the story. Pahom has abandoned his family and previous communes out of sheer self-interest and greed. He no longer latches on to ideas of family and community—intangible markers of a rewarding, fulfilling life—and instead prioritizes the ownership of immensely sized estates and higher socioeconomic standing in turn. Pahóm, the master of the house, was lying on the top of the oven, and he listened to the women's chatter.The main character is a man named Pahóm. At the beginning of the story, he is a peasant farmer, a man of humble means who lives a decent life. But, after his sister-in-law has bragged that city folk have a much better life than country peasants, Pahom bemoans the fact that he does not own land. He states that “if I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” Little does he know that the Devil is sitting close by and listening. He went on in the same way for three years; renting land and sowing wheat. The seasons turned out well and the crops were good, so that he began to lay money by. He might have gone on living contentedly, but he grew tired of having to rent other people's land every year, and having to scramble for it. Wherever there was good land to be had, the peasants would rush for it and it was taken up at once, so that unless you were sharp about it you got none. It happened in the third year that he and a dealer together rented a piece of pasture land from some peasants; and they had already ploughed it up, when there was some dispute, and the peasants went to law about it, and things fell out so that the labor was all lost. "If it were my own land," thought Pahom, "I should be independent, and there would not be all this unpleasantness." The Devil says: “All right! We shall see about that. I’ll give you land enough; and by means of that land I will get you into my power.”