On receiving Sviyazhsky’s letter with an invitation for hunting, Levin had thought of that at once, but in spite of it he had decided that Sviyazhsky’s designs on him were only his own absolutely unfounded surmise, and therefore he would go all the same. Besides, in the depths of his soul he wanted to test himself, to measure himself against this girl again. The Sviyazhskys’ domestic life was also pleasant in the highest degree, and Sviyazhsky himself, the best type of zemstvo activist that Levin had ever known, had always greatly interested him.
Sviyazhsky was one of those people, always astonishing to Levin, whose reasoning, very consistent though never independent, goes by itself, and whose life, extremely well defined and firm in its orientation, goes by itself, quite independent of and almost always contrary to their reasoning. Sviyazhsky was an extremely liberal man. He despised the nobility and considered all noblemen secret adherents of serfdom, who did not express themselves only out of timorousness. He considered Russia a lost country, something like Turkey, and the government of Russia so bad that he never allowed himself any serious criticism of its actions, but at the same time he served the state and was an exemplary marshal of nobility, and when he travelled he always wore a peaked cap with a red band and a cockade. He held that life was humanly possible only abroad, where he went to live at every opportunity, and along with that, in Russia he conducted a very complex and improved form of farming, followed everything with extreme interest and knew everything that was going on. He considered the Russian muzhik as occupying a transitional step of development between ape and man, and yet at zemstvo elections he was most willing to shake hands with muzhiks and listen to their opinions. He believed in neither God nor devil, but was very concerned about questions of improving the life of the clergy and the shrinking number of parishes, taking particular trouble over keeping up the church in his village.
In the woman question he was on the side of the extreme advocates of complete freedom for women, and especially of their right to work, but he lived with his wife in such a way that everyone admired the harmony of their childless family life; and he arranged his wife’s existence so that she did not and could not do anything but concern herself, together with her husband, with how better and more gaily to pass the time.
If it had not been in Levin’s nature to explain people to himself from the best side, Sviyazhsky’s character would have presented no difficulty or problem for him; he would have said ‘fool’ or ‘trash’ to himself, and everything would have been clear. But he could not say ‘fool’ because Sviyazhsky was unquestionably not only a very intelligent but a very educated man and bore his education with extraordinary simplicity. There was no subject he did not know, but he showed his knowledge only when forced to. Still less could Levin say that he was trash, because Sviyazhsky was unquestionably an honest, kind, intelligent man, who cheerfully, energetically, ceaselessly did things highly appreciated by all around him and most certainly never consciously did or could do anything bad.
Levin tried but failed to understand and always looked on him and on his life as a living riddle.
He and Levin were friends, and therefore Levin allowed himself to probe Sviyazhsky, to try to get at the very foundations of his view of life; but it was always in vain. Each time Levin tried to penetrate further than the doors to the reception rooms of Sviyazhsky’s mind, which were open to everyone, he noticed that Sviyazhsky became slightly embarrassed; his eyes showed a barely noticeable fear, as if he was afraid that Levin would understand him, and he gave a good-natured and cheerful rebuff.
Now, after his disappointment with farming, Levin found it especially pleasant to visit Sviyazhsky. Apart from the fact that the mere sight of these happy doves in their comfortable nest, so pleased with themselves and with everyone, had a cheering effect on him, he now wanted, since he felt so displeased with his own life, to get at the secret in Sviyazhsky which gave him such clarity, certainty and cheerfulness in life. Besides that, Levin knew that at Sviyazhsky’s he would meet neighbouring landowners, and he was now especially interested in talking, in listening to those very farmers’ conversations about crops, hiring help, and the like, which he knew were normally regarded as something low, but were now the only thing he found important. ‘This may not have been important under serfdom, or may not be important in England. In both cases the conditions themselves are defined; but with us now, when all this has been overturned and is just beginning to settle, the question of how these conditions ought to be settled is the only important question in Russia,’ thought Levin.
