THE MOSCOW CENSUS--FROM "WHAT TO DO?"
by Count Lyof N. Tolstoi




Translated from the Russian by
Isabel F. Hapgood




ARTICLE ON THE CENSUS IN MOSCOW. [1882.]



The object of a census is scientific. A census is a sociological
investigation. And the object of the science of sociology is the
happiness of the people. This science and its methods differ sharply
from all other sciences.

Its peculiarity lies in this, that sociological investigations are
not conducted by learned men in their cabinets, observatories and
laboratories, but by two thousand people from the community. A
second peculiarity is this, that the investigations of other sciences
are not conducted on living people, but here living people are the
subjects. A third peculiarity is, that the aim of every other
science is simply knowledge, while here it is the good of the people.
One man may investigate a nebula, but for the investigation of
Moscow, two thousand persons are necessary. The object of the study