As far as the author has been able to observe in the course of his life, most people, even the most educated, have neither any awareness nor any understanding of the fact that they exist in history.  The majority think that everything will always be the way it is today.  And if a historical event happens to have taken place before their very eyes, they see the reason for its occurrence in a temporal coincidence of misunderstandings.  And it seems to them that everything can be put back the way it was.  Some of them hope for this and others fear it.  Aglaya hoped and Shubkin feared, but neither of them understood that history does not make any reverse moves.  For better or for worse, a process was under way, and the further it proceeded, the more illusory Aglaya’ hopes appeared and the more pointless Shubkin’s fears became.  Of course, things did not actually go so far that Aglaya was punished for ruining the peasantry and Shubkin was glorified for the injuries he had suffered, but by and large there was a definite movement in a certain direction, …