2–8 June 1856

Got up after ten, went to Mdsha and the children. Had a very nice chat with Turgenev, played Don Juan } After lunch went for a row on the river, then dined and drove away. Mdsha and Valeridn accompanied me. Met Voron6v, who having visited Petersburg has developed a great respect for me.

Trinity Sunday. Arrived towards five, and after passing through the house, the whole of which was full of a nasty smell, found great pleasure at the window opening on to the garden. Read Pushkin’s Don Juan. Enchanting. Truth and power I had never expected in Pdshkin. Lay down, and woke up at one. Mdlle Vergani arrived with the children and Auntie. The triviality that surrounds Masha does not offend me, but Tatiana Alex- androvna makes me indignant. Received a letter from Aunt Paulina. Went for a walk with the Ars&iev boy and after dinner rode out and bathed at Grumont. Sweetly sad memories keep flowing into my soul. There was no meeting in the evening, but I hear from Vasili that the peasants suspect a fraud and think that freedom will be given to everybody at the coronation, and that I want to bind them by contract. That it is a “ deal ”, as he expressed it.

Got up at five, went for a walk with, I confess, very erotic feelings. Read Pushkin’s first poems. Then sorted my old notebooks ; incomprehensible but sweet nonsense. Decided to write A Landlord's Diary , The Cossacks , and a comedy. Will begin with The Cossacks . Lunched, slept, dined, walked, bathed in the Voronka, read Pdshkin, and went to the peasants. They don’t want their freedom.

Rose at six, went with 6sip to bathe, then to the fields. Returned, read through and made a few corrections in The Cossacks , and sauntered about in the garden. . . . Did nothing, felt disinclined to rewrite it and also to continue. To-morrow will begin afresh, using what is written only as material. Went to Gfmbut’s in the evening. A wonderful Russian maiden — Begicheva. His wife is a little crow, not silly but affected and antipathetic.

Got up at seven, went to bathe, and to A little river at Ydsnaya Polydna. Grumont. Terrible lust amounting to a physical illness. Returned at ten and did nothing all day except a short, awkwardly written draft of a project. Only one thing happened : I am so used to yielding to influence in estate management that I may do awkward things. I Struck & bargaifl with Kustin to sell him the peaches and accepted a deposit. Afterwards Push came and offered more, and I nearly returned the deposit. A good thing I felt ashamed to do it. In the evening went again to bathe at Grumont. ... In the evening again did nothing, especially as a passion for idleness, in the guise of playing patience, has returned.

Slept till eleven and woke up refreshed. Again gadded about the garden and vegetable plot, and to Grumont. . . . Read the second and third parts of Pushkin. The Gipsies are as delightful as when I first read them, the rest of the poems, except Onegin, are dreadful rubbish. In the evening talked with some of the peasants, and their obstinacy drove me to anger, which I repressed with difficulty.

Got up after nine, gadded about in the garden. A very pretty peasant woman, whose beauty is extremely pleasing ! I am insufferably disgusting in my weakness and inclination towards vice. Vice itself would be prefer- able. Did gymnastics, bathed, gadded about in the forest, made useful mental alterations in The Landlord' s Morning. I believe I’ll set to work on it. Rode to Grumont to bathe and am going to bed morally sick, dissatisfied with my weakness, and with a pain in the small of my back brought on by an awkward jump. Met Durova who was riding all alone and I did not speak to her.