Year: 1875




/ RaSSia-


\ writer in the Cologne Gazette gives
an account of the results of the elnanci-
patton of tine Serfs in Russia, so far as
they have manifested themselves after
fourteen years experience of the new re-
lations established between tie peasant
ry and their former masters. IF one
travels, lie says, Through the govern
ment of Russia proper, from the Volga
districts to the extreme south, visiting
the villages and observing the family life
of the peasants, one is driven to the sad
conclusion that the condition of the Rus
sian peasantry has not only not i'm
| proved, but has, iii several respects, both
moral and material, become unquestion-
ably worse. 1t is sufficient to visit any
village to become convinced that the
prosperity of the peasants has diminished
to such degree that great number of
them have been reduced to absolute pow
erty. Their moral condition is even
more lamentable, and drunkenness has
become far more prevalent than it was
before the emancipation. The results
are listless indifference, unwiIlingness to
work, and an increasing discomfort which
manifests itself in brutal acts of destruc-
ton and incendiarism. In the south
western governments, and especially in
those of Pensa, Kursk and Voronej, a
day rarely passes without the sky is red
dened with the flames of burned viii
lage. The reason of this state of things"
proceeds the writer, sis not to be found
in any peculiarities of the Russian peas
ants character, though it frequently
prompts him to misuse his liberty, but
chiefly in the unfavorabIe position in
which he has been placed by ,he new
system of administration, wlach n-akes
a number of officials whom he is obliged
to pay out of his own pocket. The ru-
raj commune has unlimited power over
both the person and the property of the
peasant, so that he has in reality only
changed his master, and his present de-
pendence on the commune is not much
better than his former state of serfage.


He is bound to pay a fixed sum to his
former master as redemption money for
the house in which he lives and the land
on which it stands. This, to a certain
extent, restricts his freedom of action,
but it is rendered quite illusory by the
circumstance that the land that he culti-
Yates for himself and his family, and for
which he must pay, is not his own, but
the property of the commune, which may
dispose of it at pleasure. Thus Ivan, after
devoting all his care to the cultivation of
piece of land allotted tC him, may find
it in the following year transferred by
the commune to another peasant, while
he himself gets in exchange field which
is perhaps not so well situated or neg
ligently cultivated. Nor is this all. The
commune is responsible for the paymenst
due from the peasants, and if any of
these fell into arrear through the insult
ficiency of the means of the poorer mem-
bers, those who are better off have to
make up the deficiency, failing which,
the commune seizss their horses and
cows. Another restriction on the per-
sonal liberty of the peasant in Russia is
the right of the commune to refuse him
a pass when he wishes to seek service
away from his village. The grant of
these passes often depends on the arbi-
trary will of the clerk, who refuses il
from motives of personal hostility, ORE
quires bribe before he will give it. 1t
very frequently happens that peasants
who have obtained passes for St Peters
burg or Moscow are called back for some
trifling reason, and if they refuse to re-
turn they are taken back by the police
like common criminals, without even
being given the opportunity of winding
up their business in the town.


Such are the circumstanees-witho
the slightest security for the produce of
ones labor, and the constant fear of
what the next day will bring forth-in
which not hundreds of thousands but
millions of people live in Russia"