. In the land of Tolstoi; experiences of famine and misrule in Russia . and are left untilled,their houses and implements are either seized for taxes or fallinto the hands of the Jculacks (usurers). Numbers emigrateto Siberia, but this is hampered by unreasonable regulations,and many are sent back. Meanwhile the mortality continuesincreasing, being now generally 40-60 per 1,000. To describe in detail the whole system which has reduced * In 1858 the serfs of the landlords numbered 10,447,149 male souls ;,the serfs of the State, 0,149,891; and the serfs of the domains, 842,740 Causes of the Fami
. In the land of Tolstoi; experiences of famine and misrule in Russia . and are left untilled,their houses and implements are either seized for taxes or fallinto the hands of the Jculacks (usurers). Numbers emigrateto Siberia, but this is hampered by unreasonable regulations,and many are sent back. Meanwhile the mortality continuesincreasing, being now generally 40-60 per 1,000. To describe in detail the whole system which has reduced * In 1858 the serfs of the landlords numbered 10,447,149 male souls ;,the serfs of the State, 0,149,891; and the serfs of the domains, 842,740 Causes of the Famine. 17 the Eussian mushihs to hopeless miserj would be to writethe internal history of Russia for the last half-centurj, butsome of the principal points may be mentioned. Since theemancipation a new element has entered the life of thepeasants—capitalism, with its invariable result of prole-tarianism. Before this the mushik was a chattel^ a part ofhis masters capital, to be maintained in as an ef&cient-condition as the rest of his ^oods. Afterwards he was forced. A MCSIIIK FAMILY. iinto the arena as a nominally free competitor with hisformer masters in the struggle for existence. It did notmeed the inspired insight of a prophet to foresee on whichside victory would lie—on that of the capitalists on the onehand, armed with all the formidable weapons of modernfinance, with absolute autocracy for their ally, or of thenmshiks on the other, with their ignorance, servility, andfatalism bred of centuries of serfdom, in which they were 18 Causes of the Famine. treated and driven as cattle. We liave mentioned that thelands allotted to them were insufficient for the maintenanceof life; they lacked also the means and knowledge of thebest modes of cultivating what they had. More must also be said of the systematic exploitation andoppression on the part of the estate owners and the landlords, who had in former years been accustomed to^live upon the industry of their slave
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