A FEW GLIMPSES INTO RUSSIA 



243 



All through our history we can see that 

 at certain stages the mass of the popula- 

 tion has been able to absorb ideas in- 

 tuitively — ideas that perhaps have not 

 been even clear to the most enlightened 

 part of the country — and it was the case 

 in the beginning of this war. 



The Russian peasants, of whom every- 

 body thinks as being ignorant and in the 

 dark, understood the righteousness of our 

 cause from the beginning. The activities 

 of the peasant communities throughout 

 Russia have proved this understanding. 

 For example, many of the peasant com- 

 munities which before the war asked for 

 remission of taxes, being too poor to pay 

 them, when war started would gather up 

 their last money and come to the taxa- 

 tion offices in the town, there to wait 

 upon the official and offer to pay off their 

 taxes. When the official, surprised at 

 such a zeal, would say : 



"But no, your community is granted for 

 three or five years remission of taxes." 

 The peasants would shake their heads 

 and answer: "Oh no, your honor, please 

 accept the taxes. We want to pay them. 

 We no more ask for the remission." 



"our country needs heep" 



Sometimes the official, annoyed at such 

 persistence, would order them away. 

 They would remain in the town, sleep 

 perhaps in the market-square, and the 

 next day again come to the office, again 

 bow to the official and ask him to take 

 the taxes, and when the officials would 

 ask them : "But why do you want to pay, 

 if the remission is already granted ?" they 

 would say : "Oh ! no, that was before the 

 war. Now the country is in war ; now 

 the country needs money, and who would 

 pay if the peasant does not pay?" 



In many of the peasant communities 

 they organized reading clubs for the pur- 

 pose of gathering in the evenings and 

 reading newspapers and discussing the 

 situation. Sometimes they would have to 

 send a man on horseback or in a wagon 

 for 10 or 15 miles to the town to bring 

 a newspaper. Then some young man or 

 school boy, surrounded by all the old men 

 and women and children of the village, 

 would read aloud the paper, and hot dis- 

 cussions would take place. They knew 



all ; they knew about Serbia ; they knew 

 about Belgium. 



In one community the peasants decided 

 to do something for the Belgians. They 

 started to collect money and they col- 

 lected a very "large" sum — 29 roubles 

 (about $14) ; then the community gath- 

 ered at a meeting and debated as to whom 

 this money should be sent, and they de- 

 cided to send it to the King of the Bel- 

 gians. 



So they wrote him a letter, saying: 

 "Dear King, Your Majesty: We, the 

 peasants of this community, know what 

 wrong has been done to your people. We 

 know how they must suffer and we also 

 know your heart is aching for your "peo- 

 ple; and so, Your Majesty, we decided to 

 help you and your people. We send you 

 this money ; distribute it equally among 

 your people." It is naive ; it is primitive ; 

 yet it shows the spirit of the people. 



HOW THE WOMEN HELP 



The women in the villages at the same 

 time started in different ways to help 

 those called to arms and the soldiers at 

 the front. 



The peasants possess a very good sense 

 of organization. This has been observed 

 all through the war. The women in the 

 villages, for example, organize themselves 

 into groups of seven, according to the 

 days of the week. They work in turn 

 to help the soldiers at the front. One 

 woman gives up all her time one day a 

 week, while her six neighbors do all the 

 housework in her home for her, work 

 in her field, and look after her children. 

 Many similar manifestations of organi- 

 zation could be related. 



The Russian peasant is not so ignorant 

 as people think him to be. He is striving 

 for education earnestly, and for the last 

 twenty-five years, with the development 

 of the railways, with the building up of 

 industries in the towns where he goes to 

 work, with the establishment of more and 

 more schools by the "zemstvos" (county 

 councils), the peasant has taken an in- 

 creasingly important part in national life. 



No one can imagine how hard it has 

 always been for the peasant to satisfy his 

 yearning for knowledge. Schools not 

 being in every village, the peasant chil- 



