THE CONDITIONS OF RUSSIAN 

 AGRICULTURE 



By J. VARGAS EYRE, Ph.D. 



Excepting a few commercial travellers, not many Englishmen 

 go so far afield as to visit Russia in their wanderings. In a 

 measure this is because a belief prevails that travelling is 

 rendered almost intolerable by the overbearing attitude of the 

 police and other officials. Moreover little information is avail- 

 able, in the ordinary way, which bears the stamp of personal 

 knowledge and the prospect of having to find his own way and 

 shift for himself is not an inviting one to the tourist. In short, 

 want of knowledge of the country has led most people to regard 

 Russia with suspicion, if not as forbidden ground. The accounts 

 presented in the daily papers do not in any way tend to mitigate 

 the feelings of mistrust of the people which undoubtedly exist; in 

 fact, our knowledge of Russia and the Russians is superficial 

 and often false and as we visit them so rarely and have so little 

 authentic information of their doings, this is not surprising. 



Those who wish to learn what Russia is should go there 

 with an open mind ; they should visit the peasant, the village 

 and the small town but not the cities ; above all they should 

 avoid St. Petersburg, which is the headquarters of officialdom — 

 a city of " Tchin," beautiful but not Russian, The true Russia 

 is to be found away in the vast and silent plains, where dwell the 

 peasants, who form seventy-five per cent, of the entire population 

 — one hundred and twenty million souls, mostly engaged in 

 husbandry, thinly scattered over a vast Empire. 



To understand the position of Russian agriculture, it is 

 necessary to acquire an understanding of the peasant and to 

 remember that servitude was abolished but fifty years ago. By 

 the emancipation of the serfs more than twenty-two million 

 people were delivered from bondage and a new era was opened 

 up. Millions of bondservants became peasant agriculturists on 

 the Communal System and thousands rented land for themselves. 

 Being a deeply religious people but steeped in superstition, 

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