Select the correct answerwhat opinion about russian society does leo tolstoy express in this excerpt from the death of ivan ilyich? the awful, temble act of his dying was, he could see, reduced by those about him to the level of a casual, unpleasant, and almostindecorous incident (as if someone entered a drawing room defusing an unpleasant odour) and this was done by that very decorum whichhe had served all his life long. he saw that no one felt for him, because no one even wished to grasp his position. only gerasimrecognized it and pitied him. and so ivan ilyich felt at ease only with him. he felt comforted when gerasim supported his legs (sometimesall night long) and refused to go to bed, saying: "don't you worry, ivan ilyich. i'll get sleep enough later on," or when he suddenly becamefamiliar and exclaimed: "if you weren't sick it would be another matter, but as it is, why should i grudge a little trouble? " gerasim alone didnot lie; everything showed that he alone understood the facts of the case and did not consider it necessary to disguise them, but simplyfelt sorry for his emaciated and enfeebled master. once when ivan ilyich was sending him away he even said straight out "we shall all ofus die, so why should i grudge a little trouble? "-expressing the fact that he did not think his work burdensome, because he was doing itfor a dying man and hoped someone would do the same for him when his time came. o a. the peasant class in nineteenth-century russia was full of honest and compassionate peopleb. educated professionals gained influence in russian society in the nineteenth centuryc. in the nineteenth century, middle-class russians were rich and well-educated. od. peasants more readily accepted unpleasant facts of life, while the middle class tried to deny them.