In 1870, Ge again returned to Saint Petersburg where he turned to Russian history for subject matter. The painting "Peter the Great Interrogates Tsarevich Alexey at Peterhof" (1871) was a great success, but his other historical paintings were met with little to no interest. Ge wrote that a man should live off of farming and art should not be for sale. He bought a small khutor (farm) in Chernigov gubernia (currently Ukraine) and moved there. Ge became acquainted with Leo Tolstoy around this time and became a follower of his philosophy.