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the taxes and the last copeck. The poor men sold all they had,
in their fright, till everything was paid, except two villages,
where there was nothing left to sell. But it was of no avail.
More than fifty peasants were first flogged and then thrown
into prison. This happened on June 1, 1891, and is reported
in the Petersburg paper Nedjela for June 21. In the same
number you will find that the district officials, when they heard
of the deficit, imprisoned the village starosta also, because, in
official language, ‘he had been guilty of negligence.’”
“How can the peasants put up with all this?” I asked.
“They are far from satisfied with it,” he said. “They make
war in their fashion against the landowners and capitalists,
steal from them all they can, and take every opportunity of
defrauding them. They are in a great majority, but have no
combination. On the other hand, the landlords and capitalists
are allied with the soldiery, police, and authorities in general.
It is already a war between two hostile forces, whose interests
are opposed to each other, and it is only a question of time
for this conflict to assume a fierce aspect. Tolstoi and his
friends, and the different sections of the Liberals throughout
the country, are working for peaceful reform; the revolutionary
party, on the contrary, desire an upheaval by any means
whatsoever.”
I myself saw something of this pitiless exaction of taxes
during my stay among the famine-stricken districts, notably
in the case of a poor widow. One of my mushik acquaintances
informed me that the ispravnik (chief of police) was coming to
the village to collect arrears of taxes, and would seize the last
cow of this poor woman. I put my Kodak under my cloak, and
hurried to the place. The ispravnik had not yet come, but was
expected every moment. The poor woman was standing with
her arm thrown over the neck of the cow, which she had
managed by great struggles to keep through the famine, and now it
was to be taken from her “to support the State.” I took a Kodak
picture of her as she stood, but when the ispravnik approached
I judged it prudent to take myself and photographic apparatus
off, much as I should have liked a portrait of the official
himself. Afterwards I saw his man leading the cow away, and
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