Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-03-24
Social Conditions.

THE old subdivisions of the population
into orders possessed of UNEQUAL rights IS
people-S1. 6ee-belong to the peasant order.
the others being: Nobility. 1Sso; clergy, o.;
tary, 81. Thus more than IS millions of
the Russians are peasants. Half of them
1S5s)-the remainder being state peasants
(s.194.s91 males in 1858. exclusive of the
Archangel governmenD and DOMAIN peas
ants (S42,740 males the same year)
THE serfdom which had sprung up IN
Russia in the sixteenth century. and became
consecrated by law in 1909 taking: however.
nearly $50 years to attain it's full growth.
abolished in 1851. This act liberated the
serfs from yoke which was really terrible,
even under the best landlords. and from this
point of view it was obviously an immense
benefit. But it was far from securing cor
responding economic results.
THE present condition of the peasants
according to official acknowledgements to
be follows: In the twelve central GOV
ernments they grow. on the average: sufh-
cient rye-bread for only 200 days in the
year-often for only $50 and 100 days. One.
quarter of them have received allotments OF
only 80 per male, and one half less
than SIS to ia acres-the normal size of
the allotment necessary to the subsistence
of a family under the three-fields system
being estimated at 2S to AZ acres Land
must thus of necessity be rented from the
landlords at fabulous prices The aggregate
value of the redemption and land taxes often
reaches 1S5 to 2751o of the normal rental
value of the allotments, not to speak OF
taxes for recruiting purposes. the church,
roads, local administration and so on, chiefly
levied from the peasants. The arrears IN
crease every year; one fifth of the inhabitants
have left their houses; cattle are disappear
ing Every year more than half the adult
males Gin some districts three-fourths OF the
men and one-third of the women) quit their
homes and wander throughout RUSSIA III
search of labor
I'm the governments of the black-earth
region the state of matters is hardly better.
Many peasants took the 'gratuitous allot-
ments,' whose amount was about one-e1ghth
of the normal allotments.
THE average allotment in Kherson is only
O90 acre, and for allotments from 80 to So
acres the peasants pay to 10 roubes of re-
demption tax. The state peasants are bet
masses 1t is only in the steppe governments
that the situation is more hopeful. In Little
Russia, where the allotments were personal
(the mir existing only among state peas
ants), the state of affairs does not differ for
the better, account of the high redemp-
ton taxes. In the west provinces, where the
land was valued cheaper and the allotments
somewhat increased after the Polish insur-
rection. the general situation might be better
were it not for the former misery of the
peasants Finally. in the Baltic provinces
nearly all the land belongs to the German
landlords. who either farm the land them
selves, with hired laborers. or let 1t IN small
farms. Only one-fourth of the peasants are
farmers, the remainder being mere 1aborers
who emigrating in great numbers
The situation of the former serf-propr1e-
tors is also unsatisfactory. Accustomed to
the use of compulsory labor, they have failed
to accommodate themselves to the new con-
ditions The millions of roubles of redemp-
ton money received from the crown nave
been spent without any real or lasting agrl-
cultural improvements having been affected.
landlords are prospecting who exact rack
rents for the land without which the peas
ants could not live upon their allotments.
From the Encyclopaedia Britannica.