Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1905-08-30
HOW RUSSIAN PEA ANT LIVES
AND THE CAUSET OF SAME
BY Prof. Peter Korotzky

The poverty of the Russian peasant is pitiable, their
.ack of cleanliness is indescribable, their ignorance is as
t~onshng and their sanitary condition is deplorable. In
many districts the official statistics prove nearly all the
inhabitants are professional beggars and even the own
es Of land are. in years when the crops fail, forced to
beg.
The ordinary food Of the peasant is bread made from
rye meal mixed with coarse bran, straw and very often
with sand. To this comes at rare occasions potatoes,
onions and cabbage in places where there is no market
where he can dispose of these vegetables. In the summer
he eats watermeons, if he has any.
AS for meat, he knows only salt meat, and that he
tastes only twice a year, at Easter and Christmas. He
drinks only kvas, in which he soaks his indigestible
bread.
Statistics show that while laboring people of Germany,
for instance, eat both meat and eggs, besides consuming
on an average 800 Kilograms of bread, the Russian peas
ant, who gets no other food, consumes only about 200 kill
The taxes in Russia ruin the peasant, not because
they are too high, but because of the manner in which
they are levied.
AS a rule the taxes under which the peasants are
grooming surpass their income, and their decreasing re
sources make the deficit grow larger every year and
produce chronic famine.
OF the revenue from the amount of ground possessed
by the ordinary peasant, which averages about 45 rou.
bles ($22.5O) a year, he pays % roubles and so kopeks in
direct taxes, while the indirect taxes on vodka, tea. su-
gar, matches and kerosene amount to A roubles.
The lack of sufficient land, with enormity of the
taxes, forces the minority of the young people to leave
the villages. Many emigrate to Siberia, suffering all
kinds of privations. Professor Isaleff, who has studied
the conditions of the people who go to Siberia to take
up land, says that 1,499 families arrived at Tomsk, poss-
essing less than ten roubles, 500 families had between
10 and 50 roubles, $50 families owned between so and
100 roubles, seventy families had between 100 and 300
roubles, and eight families had more than 800 roubles.
Only the smallest part of these people succeed in
Siberia, the others return to Russia as beggars. Many
go to the cities where there is no more work for them
than in the villages, and where they live in the deepest
misery.
The young women join the ranks of prostitution. The
majority of prostitutes under police surveillance in st.
Petersburg are peasant girls.
Often men and women returning to the villages are
suffering from contagious diseases, and under the condi.
tons of peasant life-sleeping from two to half a dozen
in one bed and eating from the same dish-these diseases
spread with alarming rapidity. There are villages where
every man, woman and child is suffering from these I'M
mentionable diseases.
To this disease come eczema and other skin diseases,
scurvy, scrofula and many other and the economic condi.
tons make it impossible to do anything to fight them,
The district which the average country physician in Rus
STA has to visit has a radius Of $50 to 200 miles and there
is only one physician for every 10000 inhabitants.
Add to all this the evil of drink and it is easy to per.
ceiye the reasons of the degeneration of the Russian PEG
pie. 1t is the government itself which encourages the
peasants TO drink, The government revenues from alco
hoic beverages figure in the budget at S40OOOOO0O
The majority Of the population can neither read nor
write G9 per cent according to latest statistics) and it is
therefore difficult for them to make any progress. The
government also endeayors to keep the people in ignor
ance.
On an annual budget which averages under normal
conditions about $li0O0,0OO,0OO, only about 100000 are
spent for education-far less than is spent on the main
tenance of the secret service. Besides this the greater
part Of the schools are in the hands of the clergy to the
extent Of about seven to one. And most Of the schools
in fact, exist only on paper. l may later give some ex
amples Of the ignorance Of the clergy which surpasses al
Imagination.
In his recent book on modern Russia, Prince VOL
kouski says:
In the house of one of the grand dukes one day af
ter dinner We We're discussing the necessity of improv
ing the education Of the priests, many Of us deploring
their ignorance. NJ. Pobiedonostseff, however, said;
This is impossible II the priests We're less ignoran
they would teach the people, and that would mean ou
downfall. Even without this We are sliding toward al
abyss
Good books are not within the reach of the people
The government does everything in its power to isolate
the intellectuals. Every time an intellectual tries to &c
into touch with the peasants he is put down by the pOlic'
as a suspicious person and placed in a situation which il
no without danger.