HOPE FOR THE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY 593 



managed to do so only by selling their entire harvest and even their 

 horses and cattle. The misery into which they were plunged may be 

 easily imagined. Nearly every year in some one region or another 

 thousands perished from slow starvation. 



The government of Russia has been many times arraigned, and justly, 

 for its apathy in the face of such conditions. Doubtless it did not 

 wholly understand the situation. The country was vast, roads poor, and 

 communication slow and difficult. There was, moreover, a great gulf 

 between the world of officials and the peasants bridged over only by the 

 zemstva, councils of the district and province. One circumstance, how- 

 ever, certainly known to the government since it touched its purse, 

 should have prompted an investigation — the ever-increasing inability 

 of the peasants to pay the redemption money. The government did offer 

 some slight relief. In 1881 it lessened the taxes, particularly in the 

 provinces whose arrears were greatest, in 1882 it established the Peas- 

 ants' Bank, the chief business of which was to assist the mujik to buy 

 land from those willing to sell, generally owners of large estates. The 

 activity of this institution, however, was not great during the first 

 thirteen years of its existence. The conditions on which the bank was 

 permitted to lend money were such that the peasants could not for the 

 most part profit by them. Some transference of land to peasants did 

 take place but not enough to better the situation appreciably. The 

 zemstva made laudable efforts to spread information concerning rota- 

 tion of crops and enrichment of soil, but the results were merely pallia- 

 tive. The end of the century found matters even worse than before 

 and in the southern part of Russia the misery and unrest among the 

 peasants assumed a threatening aspect. 



The fear of revolution is a powerful stimulus. In this case it led 

 to the creation in 1902 of a special Council of Rural Industry to study 

 the agrarian situation in its various aspects. Some members of this 

 council were placed in every district of every province and there joining 

 to themselves representatives of the gentry and the peasants of the 

 district inquired carefully into conditions in the immediate vicinity. 

 This investigation resulted in a mass of valuable data and some recom- 

 mendations, which, be it said, those highest in authority did not wholly 

 relish and which were not adopted. Then in 1904 came the Russo- 

 Japanese war, which distracted the attention of the government from 

 home difficulties while it increased the misery of the people and their 

 ire against the state. The result was great and wide-spread peasant dis- 

 turbances. Private estates were laid waste and the rioters made ready 

 to seize the soil which they firmly believed to be their own. It was 

 imperative that something be done at once. 



In these circumstances it is not at all strange that the government 

 should have read the situation as most people in Russia read it. The 



