MOSCOW. 
221 
tax he is called upon to pay, or the labour he 
is compelled to bestow, depends only on the x 
caprice or the wants of his tyrant. Labour is 
except in great towns. They wear a blue Nantkin shirt, trimmed with 
red, which costs two or three roubles; linen drawers; and linen or 
hempen rags wrapped round their feet and legs, over which the richer 
sort draw their hoots. The sheep-skin schaul costs eight roubles, but it 
lasts a long time ; as does a lamb-skin cap, which costs three roubles. 
The common red cap costs about the same. For a common cloth caf- 
tan, such as the peasants sometimes wear, we were asked thirty roubles. 
To clothe a Russian peasant or a soldier is, I apprehend, three times as 
chargeable as in England. Their clothing, however, is strong, and, 
being made loose and wide, lasts longer. It is rare to see a Hussion 
quite in rags. With regard to the idleness of the lower classes here, 
of which we bad heard great complaints, it appears, that, where they 
have an interest in exertion, they by no means want industry, and have 
just the same wish for luxuries as other people. Great proprietors, 
who never raise their abrocks, such as Count Sheremetof, have very rich 
and prosperous peasants. The difference we noticed between peasants 
belonging to the Crown and those of the nobility has been already men- 
tioned. The Crown peasants, indeed, it is reasonable to suppose, are 
more happy ; living at their case, paying a moderate quit-rent, and 
choosing their own Starosta. They are, however, more exposed t o vexa- 
tion and oppression from the petty officers of the Crown. 
“ This account of the condition of the peasants in Russia is an aJrrige 
of the different statements we procured in Moscow, and chiefly from 
Prince Theodore Nikolaiovitz Galitsin. The levies for the army are con- 
sidered by the peasants as times of great terror. Raron Rode told me, 
they generally keep the levy as secret as possible, till they have fixed 
on and secured a proper number of men. They are generally chained 
till they are sworn in : the fore part of the head is then shaved, and 
they are thus easily distinguished from other peasants. After this, 
desertion is very rare, aud very difficult. The distress of one of their 
popular Dramas, which we saw acted at Yareslof, in the private theatre 
of the Governor Prince Galitsin, consisted in a young man being pressed 
for a soldier. In the short reign of Petf.h II. who, it is well known, 
transferred the scat of Government again to Moscow, no man was 
pressed for a soldier ; the army was recruited hy volunteers ; and slaves 
were permitted to enter.” Heber’s MS. Journal. 
CHAP. 
IX. 
