THE ACTIVITY OF THK PEASANTS' LAND I3ANK 43 



This table shows a progressive diminution in sales by the bank, the 

 lands it held diminishing in extent since it made no new purchases. This 

 was not the only cause of the diminished sales: the change in the govern- 

 ment's agrarian polic}' should be added to it. For various and nmltiple 

 reasons the gieat reform did not succeed in radically changing rural life. 

 The mass of the rural population was necessarily outside the bank's sphere 

 of action, and continued to have all that desiie to possess land which cha- 

 racterized all Russian historj' in last century. A part of the population 

 remained landless precisely as a consequence of the bank's activity. The 

 government began to contemplate the reform which aimed at satisfying 

 the land hunger, at least partially, and therefore distributed lands amongst 

 the neediest peasants in a verj' difterent measure from that which the forma- 

 tion of a class of well-to-do peasants would have entailed. The fact that 

 land was sold almost exclusively as private property had quite another 

 effect. The radical transformation of rural economy, the passage of the 

 collective property of the mir to individual property, necessarily entailed 

 enormous costs ; for really profitable results could be drawn from the Jiou- 

 tor and the otrouh only by a radical transformation of agriculture and the 

 whole aspect of the countryside. This result could be attained only on a 

 small part of the houiors which the bank formed for the peasants. In the 

 mass of the rural population a reaction set in, a movement against the 

 bank's activity. Hostility to the houiors and the otroiibs arose. There was 

 a reversion to the situation of the period in which, according to the bank's 

 reports, " the activity, tending to a vast development of individual pro- 

 perty " was regarded " rather coolly ". 



The follow hig details as to the distribution of the lands sold to the pea- 

 sants do not lack interest. The table shows that a great part of the lands 

 were sold in somewhat large lots, of an area far above the average. 



T.\BLE XIII. — Percentage of Lands sold as Individual Properties 

 according to area. 



from 50 

 Year up to 10 from 10 to 20 from 20 to 50 to 100 Total 



deciatines deciatiiies deciatines deciatiues 



1910 .... 32.9 51.7 I5.I 0.3 TOO 



1911 .... 28.1 49.9 21.4 0.6 100 



1912 . . 



1913 . . 



1914 . . 



1915 •. . 



It is most interesting to notice that the peicentage of lands sold as 

 hotdor increases progressively as compared with those sold as otrouh lands. 



