Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-02-25
RUSSIAN SERFDOM.


effect, shall we know the results of the eman-
Cipation Of thirty millions Of serfs. While
among the peasants, journeying from one part
to another, about the time. of the first edict on
the subject tried to ascertain what value the
peasants themselves set on the promised boon
but | could not find my way far into the
mass Of their ignorance and apathy. One
day had the following conversation with a
serf, who brought me a MESSAGE
"Your name is Evan VosiOyitch; to whom
do you belong?'
81 am the serf of KarmOritch."
GLOW many are your
"Two thousand souls are we."
"GOu will soon be free"
He looked at me from the corners of his
eyes and drawled out:
eyes. If God and our father Wills
sit will be better for you Evan; will it
mott"
"God knows baron how should know ?"
elbow much obrok do you pay?"
"Thirty roubes year"
"Do you pay for it in work, or in money!"
81 work four days in week in the sugar
fabric to pay the obrok, passport and taxes?''
GLOW much are the passport and taxes"
"About three roubles and half, besides
other things"
THAT is thirty-tlree roubes and half you
have to pay, and for this you work four days
every week Ill lne sugar mil!
sit is so, and hard work it is"
"When you get your freedom you will
not require to pay obrok, or to work for it.
Your time will be all your own, to cultivate
your ground Will that not be better for
your"
''God give it. 1 don't know. But 1 am
tired of working"
elbow much land have your"
Three and one half deciatines." CTen
acres.)
"Well, that is plenty to keep your family
on. fyou spend all your time on it and pay
no obrok, is it not plenty?"
81 don't know, baron, but l am tired of
working in the fabric"
''Now tell me, Evan, what do you intend to
do when you get your freedom? Will you re-
main here and work your ground, or will you
seek bread somewhere else?'
He turned his eyes first up, then down, then |
on both sides, as if seeking to evade an an
swer, gave the peculiar peasants shrug, and |
muttered = |
81 shall sleep, baron,"
"And after you have slept, Evan"
81 shall eat, baron"
"And sitter you have eaten, Evan?"
81 shall sleep again, baron"
"Aud when the black bread is gone, and |
when the pig and poultry are all eaten, and |
the potatoes, carrots and cabbages are eaten, |
and there is no firewood nor pasture, what will |
you do then, Evan?"
"Then | will tell you, baron. Now, may |
God give you health, and thank you for the |
tea money you are going TO give Give |
you good day"
believe that this is the case of nearly all |
the serfs. The condition of many of these |
people at this time may be judged from the |
following account of himself | got with some |
difficulty from peasant who worked in cot |
ton mill.
81 earn four roubes Twelve and sixpence) |
a month. My time is all spent in the mill, |
from five O'Clock in the morning until eight |
o'clock at night My wife and two daughters |
work on the fields belonging to the baron, |
five days every week in the summer. They |
get no wages. In winter they do any kind of |
work required of them by the steward. My |
son, who is seventeen years old, works also |
in the mill, and gets two roubles month. |
We have three deciatines of land. 1t is our |
own, so is the house. We can only raise a |
few potatoes, cabbages and carrots. The wo- |
men do this work. We keep pig and we !
have some ducks. We eat them. We get |
black flour from the econome (the stewards |
tommy -shop;) this is deducted from our
wages. We pay no obrok from these wages |
nor taxes. Our work is counted for this the |
steward manages all that. Somehow am al |
ways in debt to the office. | have worked |
ten years in the mill, and am good spinner. |
| don't know what we shall do when we get |
our freedom. We shall not work any more l |
suppose. am now unfit for outdoor work,
but my son is able; let him cultivate the land.
We are three thousand souls on this estate; a
thousand nearly are away, and pay forty rou-
beS obrOk each year. They pay their own
passports and taxes besides
This is sorry but true picture. Eleven
pounds year had this man and his family to
live on! For this sum the father and son gave
all their time in the mill, and the mother and
two daughters five days a week in other work.
In a free mill worked on the free principle,
the father and son alone were worth, and were
sure to receive, about sixty pounds, and the
two daughters thirty; but they could be forced
to pay out of that what their masters chose to
exact for obrok and taxes. Many of the serts
are better off, and some are worse. Theserts,
belonging at one time to the crown, are now
free and those possessed by the rich old fam
lies have paid five roubles obrok, and done
what they pleased with their ground or them
selves. Some of them are immensely rich
and could purchase their freedom at fabulous
sums, but great mobiles sometimes choose to
retain them, either as a reserve fund in case
OF need or from foolish vanity in the possess
sion of serf worth half a million of roubles.
Such instances, however, are by no means
common.
Intelligence reached us one day that some
thing serious had happened among the serfs
at place called the White Village, twenty
miles off. | started off to the place, in com
pany with my Scotch friend, Saunderson, who
was then my visitor. The White Village was
a village of considerable size, and the houses
seemed to have once been of more comfort
able class than had seen in those parts. Now
twas a most desolate picture of extreme men.
ury and woe soldiers were in possession of
every door; Cossacks patroled the streets and
the adjacent roads, so that but for my friends
clever assistance we should not have been al
lowed to enter The stewards house, with
all his property and stores, had been burnt
down. and he himself had been murdered. His
family Ga wife, SON. and two daughters)
could nowhere be found. Some ten peasants
were dead, and many were wounded. gang
of serfs i'll irons, or bound with ropes, follow
ed by screaming women, some with babies in
their arms, were leaving the place under es-
cort of Cossacks, who were jeerng the poor
wretches and probing them with lances, on
their way to the government town prison,
whence they would pass ultimately to the ST.
berian mines, no doubt.
This is the story of the outbreak
Gen. Obrassotf died and left his widow two
estates this of the White Village, which had
come into his possession only short time be-