THE ACTIVITY OF THE PEASANTS LAND BANK 33 



tain categories but to all af them indiscriminately ; and thus the third pe- 

 riod may be considered as having ended in 1915 and we can examine it as 

 being already in the past. Therefore the report for 1915 as compared 

 with those for 1907-19x4 has a very great interest for the student of the 

 most important agrarian reform of the twentieth century. 



The activity of the Peasants' Land Bank in the period we have men- 

 tioned was determined by a series of laws and circulars which radically 

 changed its policy. From 1882 to 1895 the bank confined itself to accept- 

 ing mortgages on the lands which the peasants bought by private contract 

 from the landed proprietors. From 1896 to 1906 it took on the added func- 

 tion of purchasing lands directly to sell them to the peasants. The third 

 period begins with the decree of 9 November 1905 by which the bank re- 

 ceived the right to issue unlimited bonds for the purchase — which took 

 place frequently' — of lands belonging to individuals. The laws of 12 

 and 27 August concentrated in the bank the great mass of the oudiel or 

 crown lands and the State lands. This enormous area — for the extent of 

 the lands intended for sale to the peasants had thus been increased — was 

 destined in particular for the creation of peasant*' individual properties. 

 The ensuing laws contributed to the realization of this aim, for they granted 

 special advantages to peasants who acquired land in individual proprie- 

 torship — as for example under the law of 1907 ; encouraged collective 

 propert}^ to disappear by giving the bank the right to accept mortgages of 

 nadicl lands which had been inalienable (law of 15 November 1906); and al- 

 lowed the usufructories of the mir to demand the conversion of their share."? 

 into private property (law of 9 November 1906). 



§ I. Purchase of lands. 



The number of properties sold to the bank in 191 5 was eighty-six and 

 they had a total area of 105,950 deciatines (i). The bank approved the 

 purchase of forty-six properties, extending over 50,179 deciatines ; and 

 twenty of these, having an aggregate area of 17,835 deciatines, were actually 

 bought, the bank paying for them 2,074,062 roubles (2) or an average of 

 116 roubles a deciatine. 



The following table gives an exact idea of the general development of 

 the purchase of lands during the third period. 



(i) 1 dedatine = 2.698 acres. (2) i rouble = about 2s 1 Y^ ^- ^^ par. 



