The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-06-17
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Skel man being in the
"a Vol world today is not the
Ban HGI car of Russia or any
I'm I&4 member Of the house
tZSfCSSI of Romanoh. The dis
NSzSS2 z@=ZS=I appointed and nerve
less autocrat. struggling vainly to close
his eyes and ears to the menaces of the
long outraged populace, is no longer the
central figure in the drama which occu-
pies the European stage. The tiny heir
to the magnidcence of the Muscovite
absolutism and all the state and exclu-
siveness which surround the Russian
throne are in the far background.
A strange personality, uncouth and
unkempt, stands in the full limelight
He is the Russian mOujik, heretofore
unreckoned and viewed contemptuous-
IL. He it is. vested with the convincing
power of numerical supremacy who
may rise like an unheralded specter in
the midst of the capitals Belshazzar's
feast. All the world. tremulous and ex-
pectant, is asking, What viii he doE
When Peter the Great was building
his new city at the delta of the Neva it
occurred to him that in order to carry
out his scheme of supplying his empire
with a capital free from the peculiari- I
ties which belonged to existing AIuscO- 4
vite cities he must have a different pop /
ulatiOn. His first idea was to go out
side of the empire proper, compelling
the conquered peoples of the non-Slavic /
provinces to settle at the mouth of the
Neva. Finally, however, he made up !
his mind to populate his city with the
peasantry of his own country. With |
that end in view he permitted no one
who had ever lived in a Russian city to |
dwell in St. Petersburg and filed his /
town with country folk brought thither !
BY means of inducements or threats /
Thus it happens that the lower classes
OF the capital, the descendants Of the +
rural pioneers. are stiu unlike those of
any other Russian city, especially those
Of Moscow.
Let it be borne in mind also that the /
Russian empire has the largest rural /
population of any country on the earth.
It has been called the biggest farm in
the world and the designation is not
wide of the mark. It includes One-sixth
of all the land upon the globe In Eu
ropean Russia alone there are more
than 100000 peasants actively en-
gagged in tilling the soil, the greater
part Of them with farming utensils as
ancient as those mentioned in the
Scriptures. Even in this enlightened /
age the Russian pillow is little better
than a pointed stick. The sokha, used
in the black earth zone of southern
Russia, has two iron shares, but no
point. In other parts of the empire
heavy and awkward two wheeled I
wooden pIOws are still used. It is only /
in western Russia and Poland that iron
plows are found, and they are clumsy /
affairs of German manufacture. Other /
farming implements are rarer and more /
primitive still. The wooden hand rake
IS the only one in common use, and
most Of the grain is sown broadcast by /
hand. /
Notwithstanding their numerous dis I
advantages and lack of modern agri- T
cultural conveniences, these peasants, /
so great is their number and so undi- ]
versifed is their occupation, have made |
Russia one of the greatest grain pro /
ducing nations in the world In Europe
alone it harvests an annual crop of over /
100000 600 bushels of rye, oats, wheat
and corn. The chief product is rye.
which supplies the peasant tillers of
the soil with their chief article of food,
the black bread that nourishes the
most sturdy race of people under the
sun. The average yield of this cereal
As more than 735 900 900 bushels, much
more than is consumed in the empire
Some of it finds a market in Germany.
where it forms a leading item of the
food supplied to the army. On some of
the large landed estates belonging to
the nobility steam thrashers have been
introduced, but most Of the immense
grain crop is still separated from its
straw by hand or foot Millions of