"God Sees the Truth, But Waits" (, "Bog pravdu vidit da ne skoro skazhet", sometimes translated as Exiled to Siberia and The Long Exile) is a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy first published in 1872. The story, about a man sent to prison for a murder he did not commit, takes the form of a parable of forgiveness. English translations were also published under titles "The Confessed Crime", "Exiled to Siberia", and "The Long Exile". The concept of the story of a man wrongfully accused of murder and banished to Siberia also appears in one of Tolstoy's previous works, War and Peace, during a philosophical discussion between two characters who relate the story and argue how the protagonist of their story deals with injustice and fate. Along with his story The Prisoner of the Caucasus, Tolstoy personally considered this work to be his only great artistic achievement. Summary In the Russian town of Vladimir, Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov lives as a successful merchant with his wife and young children. One summer, as Aksionov sets off for Nizhy Fair to sell his goods, Aksionov's wife warns him not to go, for she has had a nightmare in which he returned with grey hair. Aksionov laughs off her concern that the nightmare was a premonition and interprets the dream as a sign of luck. Halfway to the town, Aksionov encounters a fellow merchant, whom he befriends. The two stop for the night at an inn, where they have tea together and sleep in adjoining rooms. Aksionov rises before dawn and sets off with his horses and coachman while the air is cool. After twenty-five miles, he stops to feed his horses. During this break, two soldiers, accompanied by an official, arrive and question Aksionov about his relationship with the merchant he met the previous night, before revealing to him that the merchant was found dead with his throat slit. Since the two rooms were next to each other, it seems only natural that Aksionov might know something. Aksionov trembles in fear when the official searches his belongings and removes a bloodstained knife. The men bind and arrest Aksionov. His wife visits him in jail and faints at the sight of him dressed as a criminal. He says they must petition the czar, to which she says she has already tried to no avail. She asks him if he committed the murder,