6o The National Geographic Magazine 



The great growth had come in spite of 

 deficient transportation, of ignorant and 

 debilitated labor, and of the meager 

 purchasing power of the mass of the 

 people. Russia has made much head- 

 way in recent years in remedying the 

 first defect. From 1892 to 1902 more 

 than 17,000 miles of railroad were 

 opened. Within the Russian Empire, 

 not including Manchuria, 4,100 miles 

 of railway were under construction in 

 1 901. With his early training, M. 

 Witte naturally made railroad develop- 

 ment a vital part of his great and vig- 

 orous policy of national upbuilding — a 

 policy which was largely instrumental 

 in this industrial and commercial ex- 

 pansion. In ten years the passenger 

 traffic on the Russian railroads has mul- 

 tiplied almost five-fold and the freight 

 traffic more than eight-fold. 



But there is a deeper and more rad- 

 ical difficulty. It is suggested in the 

 observations of Prince Mestschersky, 

 the bold and brilliant editor of the 

 Grashdanin, of St Petersburg. Writ- 

 ing in 1 90 1, he said: "It would be 

 more logical for the development of 

 mills and works to begin with the de- 

 velopment of the people, so as to create 

 a consumer, than to begin with the de- 

 velopment of factories, mills, and rail- 

 roads for a people wanting in the very 

 first elements of prosperity. ' ' His con- 

 ception is that the hope of Russia lies 

 in an improved condition and advance- 

 ment of the peasantry. The weakness 

 of the Russian system is in the back- 

 wardness of agriculture. The agricult- 

 urists constitute 78 per cent of the 

 population, and for the most part are 

 surrounded by the most unfortunate 

 conditions. Their implements are of 

 the most primitive character. The crop 

 yield per cultivated dessiatin is lower 

 than in any other country in Europe. 

 Belgium, which ranks first, produces 

 an average of 128.5 poods of grain per 

 des siatin, a pood being equal to 36 

 pounds, while the Russian average is 



only 38.8 poods. Even this disparity 

 does not indicate the full gravity of the 

 case, for Russia produces less grain per 

 head than is consumed per head in other 

 countries, and at the same time she is 

 the second grain-exporting country in 

 the world. 



This fact tells the story of her own 

 deprivation, and it is emphasized by 

 some particular inquiries. It is esti- 

 mated that the people on the farms re- 

 quire from 20 to 25 poods of grain per 

 head for their support and that of their 

 live stock during the year, and these 

 figures are much below the consump- 

 tion in other lands. Yet it often hap- 

 pens that in a considerable number of 

 provinces the harvest is far less than 

 even this meager requirement. The 

 result is that Russia is frequently af- 

 flicted with famines, that the consump- 

 tion of bread has fallen off about 70 per 

 cent, and that the number rejected from 

 the military service through physical 

 disqualification has increased 14 per 

 cent within seven years. During the 

 great famine of 1891, which extended 

 over ten provinces, more than a million 

 horses perished, leaving many of the 

 peasants with no means of cultivating 

 the land. The crop failure of 1898 did 

 not cover so wide an area, but it was 

 even worse where it prevailed. It left 

 over 12,000,000 people in abject desti- 

 tution and more than 8,000,000 suffer- 

 ing from actual famine. In 1900 and 

 1 90 1 famine again desolated the land. 

 All this entails chronic impoverishment. 

 The arrears in the redemption of the 

 land on the part of the former serfs are 

 constantly increasing, and the economic 

 conditions which affect them are grow- 

 ing worse. 



The amelioration of this situation lies 

 at the foundation of the present agita- 

 tion for political reform and enlarged 

 freedom. Undoubtedly, the popular 

 restiveness has been quickened by the 

 war and its demonstration of the defects 

 of the existing system; but the recent 



