Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1920-05-20
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Great
World War? "..' ,. .
LAND QUESTION IN RUSSIA
Natural Desire of Peasants to Parti-
cipate in Ownership OF Soil
They Till Is Root Of the
Revolution.
Article XVII
BY FRANK coMERFoRD.

In talking with people about Russia,
I have discovered that most people in
America have only faint, uncertain,
vague idea Of the country. Gar Mich
olas, the last of the self-proclaimed au-
tocratS, was monarch of S,660,O0O
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. 1t is
almost entirely confined to the cold
and temperate zones.
Three seas bound it on the north
White, Barents and Kara Of the arctic;
the seas of Boring, Okhotsh and Japan
of the northern Pacific bound it on the
east. The Baltic sea, the CULTS of
BOthnia and Finland limit 1t on the
northwest; two sinuOus lines of land
front separate it 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 100 miles; on the
east side of the same sea it zigzagS
from the Black sea to the Caspian,
utilizing the river Aras for part of
the distance. AS the Caspian is vir-
tually a 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
MRS. 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
it has skirted the north of Manchuria,
being separated from it by the river
Amur.
The total length of the frontier line
OF the Russian empire by land is
$500 miles in Europe and nearly 49,
900 miles in Asia, and by sea, over
1000 miles in Europe and between
10000 and 10000 miles in Asia-a
frontier of $4,000 miles.
Empires Vast Population.
The population of the empire, &C
cording to the 1915 census, was esti-
mated at 1S2, $4,000. According to the
same census this population was dis
tributed as follows: In European Rus
STA, 131 ,796,S00; in Poland 12,125,000;
in Caucasus, 10, 900; in Siberia, 49,
337, 900; in the central Asian provinces,
11,125,0O0; Finland, 3,125,000.
Over so per cent of the people of
Russia are peasants The land is their
problem. 1t 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 a
stranger in his own country. The
man who tills the soil and lives on the
land and yet never owns an acre Of
it IS 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 l believe that they have Suf-
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, a hearth
question to them.
Crime in Land Distribution.
Some idea of the land crime in Rus
STA is told in the startling figures show
ing the actual distribution of arabic
land, forests and meadows in Euro
pean Russia. The following table is
only one count in the indictment:
European Russia.
Percent
Acres age
Arabic land minimum. 3O1, $4,000 26
Meadows and pastures 1S5. $4,000 16
20 nn