462 EUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



At the same time the communal group lias been chiefly maintained and modified 

 in connection with the cultivation of the land. This group is the mir of Great 

 Russia, the Jiromada of Little Russia, and analogous institutions under other 

 names are met amongst the Finno-Tatars, Mordvinians, Cheremissians, and 

 Chuvashes, and even amongr4 the German settlers on the Volga. The mir is thus 



Fig. 247. — Distribution of the Land in a Mie. 



a general institution in the empire, although its most original and best studied 

 forms occur chiefly in Great Russia. 



The usual rendering of the term mir by that of *' commune " is scarcely 

 correct, for labour in common is little practised except in some temporary 

 agricultural unions, such as the schershchina of the Lower Volga and Little 

 Russia. In certain Raskolnik communities the land is not even divided, but 

 cultivated by all, and the produce distributed according to the number of workers 

 in each family. Asa rule, labour in common, and equal division of the produce, 

 are practised more frequently on the pasture than the arable lands, and more 

 generally on rented farms than on communal property. The word mir, meaning 



