Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian novelist wrote this book in 1892. It is not a novel but a piece of research into hunger in late nineteenth-century Russia. His findings are interesting for he asserts that although there is a fuel shortage and there had been a bad harvest of some crops, other crops like rye and potatoes had been good. It seems that he links destitution and starvation more to the character of those in this situation than to their circumstances.