Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-02-13
RUSSIA.
Condition of the Peasants and Ex-
Serfs.


Condition of the Peasants and Eek.
Serfs.
The incompleteness of q national re-
form is always proportional to its VIC
lence, and a few favorite abuses are
wont to linger long after the rest have
vanished. More especially is this the
case with Russia. Nine-tenths of the
abuses swept away by the great tide
of reform that flowed unchecked from
1861 to 1870 affected not the bulk of the
Russian people, but merely the limited
section of it compressed into the large
towns. The popular belief that the Oars
decree of February, 1861, turned %, 000,-
600 slaves into freemen is q grievous
error. All that it did was to substitute
for the capricious tyranny of q master
the organized tyranny OF system. In
some respects, no doubt, the Russian
"mouiik" has profted by the change.
He can no longer be scourged, tor
tured or killed with impunity. His
term of military service has been vast
ly abridged and lightened, and he has
become, to some extent at least, land
holder and a citizen. But he is as far
from being really free as in the savage
old days when Russia was wilderness
infested with certain beasts Of prey
called mobiles, who alternated between
tearing each other and devouring the
beasts of burden called peasants. He
has been changed from well fed slave
to half-starved freeman. Though no
longer rooted like tree to the soil on
which he was born, he is so hampered
by official restrictions ON one side and
adverse circumstances on the other as
to have practically just as little freedom
of action as ever. Thanks to his ILL
Judged haste in borrowing money TO
purchase land, his ignorance of farming
and his utter want of thrift, he has
passed from the power of master,
whose interest it was to take good care
OF him, only to fall into that of IA
pacious usurer, whose interest il is to
suck his blood to the last drop. In
word, his so-called elderly" is merely
that of convict who has been allowed
the run Of the prison courtyard.
Such are the conditions under which
10000, 900 Russians-23, 900, 600 freed
serfs and 10000, 900 free peasants-are
now living and have been living for
years past. Naturally sluggish and
fatalistic, and hindered from seeking
betttr fortune elsewhere, the mouiik
makes no effort to devise o remedy for
his troubles, but vegetables on his unpro-
ductive land in state Of helpless resig-
nation, without fear and without hope.
Moreover, to the evils Of compulsory res
idence are not infrequently added those
of compulsory migration. 1t is the
greatest curse of despotism, that, while
resisting all moderate and rational
changes, it is subject to q periodical
mania for enforcing other changes Of the
most violent and abnormal kind, as if 10
assert its own superiority over the very
laws of nature. When any district Of
the Russian empire seems too thinly
peopled its rulers meet the difficulty
by simply decanting SO many souls from
one province to another, wholly
ignoring such trifes as difference Of soil
and climate, insufficient transport, phys
ical weakness, or want of supplies. Any
traveller who has encountered one ofthese
dismal caravans on the great plains Of
Siberia or Central Asia will not easily
forgot the sight. Men plodding through
the burning sand with bare and bleeding
feet; haggard, fever-stricken women toss
ing restlessly among the sacks and chests
of an unsheltered wagon, beneath YER
teal sun; half-clad children, their eyes
red and swollen from want OF sleep
their lips cracked and blistered witt
thirst, their poor little faces black will
dust and sand flies, looking wistfully VI
rs if wondering why no one tried to hell
4 and comfort them; worn-out sufferer
dropping down ON the march to die ant
be buried in the drifting sand, only t,
to be dragged forth again and torn piece
meal by vultures almost before thei
comrades are out of sight, and all thes
horrors going on day after day, and weel
after week, through journey Of seyera
thousand miles.