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16

(1897) [MARC] Author: Jonas Jonsson Stadling Translator: Will Reason With: Gerda Tirén, Johan Tirén - Tema: Russia
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entire number of serfs at the emancipation.[1] And I do not
dare to affirm that the life of our agricultural proletarians is
more tolerable than that of the former serfs.”

It must be remembered that in Russia the agriculturists
form the great bulk of the industrial population. In France
the non-agricultural labourers form 23 per cent., in Italy 25
per cent., in Austria 27 per cent., in Germany 32 per cent.,
and in England 53 per cent. of the whole population; in
Russia they only form 11/7 per cent. These figures, moreover,
show no signs of increase, but rather of diminution. From 1866
to 1885 the non-agricultural industrial classes have decreased
by 0.08 per cent. Of the 110,000,000 of inhabitants only 11/7
millions are non-agricultural labourers. In fact, the
agricultural labourers of Russia are almost equal in number to the
entire (non-agricultural) industrial population of the rest of
Europe.

Owing to the impossibility of earning a living at home,
explained above, the Russian peasantry is increasingly “on the
move.” In some governments, e.g., Nishni Novgorod, entire
villages thus migrate with the women and children. Cattle
they usually have none. A few years before the late famine
of 1891-2, more than 60 per cent. of the Russian peasants
did not possess either horse or cow. No wonder that in many
places the women drag the plough!

The peasants are, as a rule, clever at handicrafts, which
they practise on the large estates as they wander through
the country, but the blessings of increasing “free”
competition cut down their pay to a minimum, so that they often
have to beg their way. Meantime their home goes to ruin,
family ties are loosened, their plots of land are left untilled,
their houses and implements are either seized for taxes or fall
into the hands of the kulacks (usurers). Numbers emigrate
to Siberia, but this is hampered by unreasonable regulations,
and many are sent back. Meanwhile the mortality continues
increasing, being now generally 40-60 per 1,000.

To describe in detail the whole system which has reduced



[1] In 1858 the serfs of the landlords numbered 10,447,149 “male souls”
the “serfs of the State,” 9,149,891; and the “serfs of the domains,” 842,740.

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