The Wrangell sentinel., 1920-07-29
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction in Europe Follow the Great
 World War;
LAND QUESTION IN RUSSIA
Natural Desire of Peasants to Parti. eipate In Ownership of Soil They Till Is Root of the
 Revolution.
Article XVII
By FRANK coMERFoRp.

In talking with people about Russia, I have discovered that most people in America have only faint, uncertain, vague idea of the country. Czar Nich- olaS, the last of the self-proclaimed au- tocrats. was monarch of S660,00O square miles, one-sixth of the entire land surface of the earth. The great Russian empire is spread over part of two continents, Europe and Asia. It Is almost entirely confined to the cold and temperate zones.
 Three seas bound 1t on the north White, Parents and Kara of the arctic the seas of Boring, Okhotsh and Japan of the northern Pacific bound 1t on the east. The Baltic sea, the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland limit 1t on the northwest; two sinuous lines of land front separate 1t respectively from Sweden and Norway on the northwest, and from Prussia, Austria and Rou- mania on the west. On the south and east the frontier has changed frequent ly, according to the expansion and con- traction of the empire under the pres sure of political exigency and eXpedi- ency. The Black sea is the princi- pal demarcating feature on the south of European Russia. On the west side of that sea the south frontier touches the Danube for some 120 miles on the east side of the same sea 1t ZigZags from the Black sea to the Caspian, utilizing the river Aras for part of the distance. AS the Caspian is vir- tually Russian sea, Persia may be said to form the next link in the south ern boundary of the Russian empire, followed by AfghaniStan. On the Pa mfrs, Russia has since 1885 been CO., terminous with British India, but the boundary then swings away north round Chinese Turkestan. and the north side of Mongolia and since 1905 1t has skirted the north of Manchuria, being separated from 1t by the river Amur.
 The total length of the frontier line of the Russian empire by land is 2.s00 miles in Europe and nearly 10- GOO miles in Asia, and by sea, over 11.0O0 miles in Europe and between 19,0O0 and 10000 miles in Asia-a frontier of 6s,OOO miles.
 Empires Vast Population.
 The population of the empire, ac- cording to the 1915 census, was esti. mated at 1s2, 1s2,e0O. According to the same census this population was dis tributed as follows: In European Rus sia, 131, ,796, 800; in Poland, 12.125.000; in Caucasus, 13,125,0OO; In Siberia. 12,- 337 7,9OO in the central Asian provinces. 11,125,OOO; Finland, 3,125OOO.
 Over so per cent of the people of Russia are peasants. The land is their problem. It means home to them work. life. Their one dream has been to own the land. Land ownership Is their definition of freedom, their idea of happiness.
 The Russian peasant has been stranger in his own country. The man who tills the soil and lives on the land and yet never owns an acre of 1t Is a foreigner, even though his forbears may have been native to the country for centuries. The Russians have felt this; they are simple. home loving people. From the conversations have had with Russians of the peas ant class I believe that they have sui. fered more because they never had a chance to own their own homes, their own farms, than from the denial to them of political freedom. The land question is heart question, hearth question to them.
 Crime in Land Distribution.
 Some idea of the land crime in Rus sia is told in the startling figures show ing the actual distribution of arable land, forests and meadows in Euro pean Russia. The following table Is only one count In the indictment:
 European Russia.
 Percent
 Acres age Arable land ............ 301. .435. 600 2S Meadows and pastures 1S, ,49S.000 IS Forests 3b2, 152 39