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than with us. But, as a matter of fact, one-fourth of the
peasants received only 0.8 hectares to “each male soul” (i.e.,
adult able-bodied man), and about one-half received from two
to three hectares. Even if free from debt and taxation, the
peasants could not live on these plots more than 150-180 days
in the year. Either then they must rent land, which is only
accessible to them at unreasonably high prices, or leave their
homes and become proletarians or slaves. But, of course, they
were started with a heavy debt, and the taxes are ruinously
oppressive. The annual “redemption money” has amounted
to 185-275 per cent. of the real rentable value, and the taxation
for the Army, the Church, and other Imperial purposes
increases yearly. Moreover, the increase of population has
led to a still further decrease in the size of the allotments,
making the position of the unhappy mushiks still worse.
For it must be noticed, pace Malthus, that miserable
conditions of life, so far from being a “check” to population,
are direct stimuli, except in the case of sudden and
overwhelming disaster. According to official statistics, collected
by the Government in 1878, the allotments in fifteen governments
averaged only 1-2 hectares per “male soul”; in some
parts it did not even reach one hectare.
In the third place, the landlords have taken advantage of
the ignorance and misery of the peasantry and their own
authoritative positions to cosen, cajole, or terrify them out of
their most valuable pasture and forest land, and have
afterwards rented it out to them again at prices they could fix at
will.
Prince Vasiltchikoff, Chairman of the Agricultural Congress
at Petersburg in 1886, speaking of the position of the
peasants, said: “Since that time (1871) the agricultural
proletariat has increased with alarming rapidity. Through
statistical researches, made by the State authorities in
Moscow, it has been proved that the agricultural proletariat
has increased by 25 per cent. This shows that one-fifth of
the entire population of the Empire, and one-third of the
rural population in Russia proper, or about twenty millions
of souls are agricultural proletarians, i.e., as many as the
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