Uspensky attributed great importance to The Power of the Land. Drawing parallels with Émile Zola's Terra novel, he wrote to translator and publisher V.E.Genkel on 13 February 1888. "You see, the real power [of the land] here belongs to the people. My concept of the Land is not as crude and cynical as that of Zola. He mixes the two modes of life, as indeed they have been mixed in the European countries: people living off the land, making money. In Russia it is different: you're either on land without money, or with money but without land."
