THE ACTIVITY OF THE PEASANTS* LAND BANK 45 



churches, cemeteries, etc ; 29,829 for the needs of pisciculture ; and 3,908 

 deciatines which are not adapted to agriculture. 



Thus there still remain unsold 1,151,898 deciatiues or 17.9 per cert of 

 the area belonging to the bank during the last nine years. 



These lands are classified as follows : 42.4 per cent, are to be sold as 

 houtors; 44.7 per cent, a-' oiroubs, 8 per ceut. as the collective property of 

 the holders of the hoiiturs and oiroubs, and 4.8 per cent, to the agricultural 

 societies and communes. 



It should be noted that the lands sold to an agrarian Societ}^ or commu- 

 nit}^ are largely lands which, because of their too small area or for other 

 reason, are not adapted to the formation of individual farms. These 

 sales were also made in order to allow the peasants to redistribute their 

 nudiel lands and thus prepare for the supersession of the mir by private 

 property. 



The third period is seen to be couipletely detached from those which 

 preceded it, in which the bank met the " desire of the peasants to jjreseive 

 collective property at all costs" and sold land principally to agrarian com- 

 nmnities and societies, so that at the beginning of the nevv period, on i Jan- 

 uary' 1908, of the whole area of mortgaged lands, comprising 7,062,020 

 deciatines, 72.6 per cent, belonged to agricultural societies and 25.3 per 

 cent, to rural crmununes, while onl\ 2 per cent, formed individual pro- 

 ])erties. In the third period however 98.8 per cert, of the lands sold by the 

 bank passed to individualj. 



The examinatiou of this part of the bank's activity allows certair. fur- 

 ther conclusions. The Peasants' Bank was the government's instrument 

 for the regulation and regularization of the passage of the lands of the nobi- 

 lity to the ownership of the peasants. It was thus that the crisis was ren- 

 dered less acute. Above all the bank took charge of the interest of large 

 property, not only giving this direct aid, but also rendering indirect ser- 

 vice in seeking to reduce the compact strength of the mir, and in creating, 

 while destroying the mir, a class of peasants who becai'se they were well-to- 

 do would be less susceptible to the revolutionary spirit. 



(To be continncd). 



