Which Tolstoy short story asks, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”

Leo Tolstoy’s short story is titled How Much Land Does a Man Need?

Tolstoy wrote the story in 1886, and it was published in 1886 in the Russian periodical Severny vestnik. Its central character, the peasant Pakhom, believes that owning more land will make him secure and happy. His desire steadily expands as opportunities for acquiring property appear.

The story’s famous final calculation gives the title its moral force. Pakhom is promised as much land as he can walk around in a day, but the bargain contains a dangerous condition: he must return to his starting point before sunset. His ambition pushes him beyond what his body can sustain.

The tale is often read as a parable about greed, property, and the limits of human desire. It is not a novel and should not be confused with The Death of Ivan Ilyich, another Tolstoy work concerned with mortality and moral awakening. The story’s compact structure has made it one of Tolstoy’s most widely anthologized shorter works.