THE RUSSIAN PEASANT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLI, Issue 9540, 20 June 1921, Page 8

THE RUSSIAN PEASANT

HIS PROGRESS IN 200 YEARS. VILLAGE LIFE TO-DAY. iONGING FOR A CZAR. In the interview which the Spanish Socialist delegates had with Lenin he said: "We exercise a dictatorship of the Proletariat m the name of the minority because the peasant class m Russia is not Proletariat, and is yet with us." In the following article m the "Sunday Times," Mr John Pollock, the well-known Russian authority,, deals with a side of the Bolshevik regime which has hitherto been overlooked — the attitude of the great peasant class m Russia The British public have heard a good deal about the state of the cities of Russia "under Bolshevik rule. Most English people who have been m Russia from 1918 onwards have been m the cities-; those who lived there because they were shut up m prisons by jthe Bolsheviks, those who went to spend their week-ends there because they went as guests of the Bolsheviks. IJiat the latter were as carefully looked after by their hosts as the tormer T>y their gaolers, is made clear by Mrs Snowden m her recent book* and even Tiad they been allowed to move al)out freely they could not have •conversed with the peasants, because they did not know Russian. Thus it happens that English newspaper readers • have comparatively little information about the peasant's life and his attitude to the outer world. Now, from the middle of 1918 until 1919 I was living m disguise m Bol■shevy. and by force of circumstances -travelling about the country; hence I had the opportunity to talk with peasants not only round Petrograd and Moscow, T>ut also further south and on the Volga. The Russian peasant is a .simple and, when he is not infuriated, an engaging person. His world was limited by his Czar, to whom he had a far-away devotion ; his God. of whom lie stood m vacue awe: and his village life. Having lost the first m the revolution of March, 1917. and being deprived of the second by the coup d'etat of November, his land and village were all that remained to him. Russian Village Life. Russian village life is based upon the necessities of food, shelter,, and clothing, and "the primary comforts of artificial light, needles, soap, tea, and tobacco. The peasant feels little need of secondary, comforts, still less of mental development ; he dislikes and ■distrusts education, «and regards anyone as a foreigner who comes from beyond his own district. He supported the Revolution, m which, at the outset, liberal and patriotic elements were . because he believed he would get immediate peace, personal •possession of his land/ and" tea, soap, •needles, paraffin, matches, tobacco, and >. the cotton goods of which his wonien"kind absorbed prodigious quantities, ■without paying for them. So long as he believed this, and that Tie would be able to sell his corn and the produce of his cows at high prices, be was willing that the Bolsheviks or anyone else should rule; biit when he discovered that neither Liberal nor Bolshevik revolution would give him these desiderata' he awoke to reality.. and resumed the true- complexion of peasants all over the world, that is, a deep conservatism. Useless Hoards. •: During the war the Russian peasant prospered, and by 1917 there v was hardly one who had not a goodly packet of Imperial nates buried m 9, hole m the ground. He packed them m parcels between boards wound about with greased cloth, and stowed them m the hospitable earth, to the value of fifty or . a hundred or two hundred thousand roubles. This being •so, it was difficult to tempt him with more paper money, and when Bolshevism destroyed the value of it almost - completely, 1 hopeless. •. He wanted foods, not notes, and the Bolsheviks, aving killed manufacture and strangled distribution by their policy of nationalisation,*- made it for* Mm to (get them. Already, m 1918 he was refusing to sell his bread, milk, and *butter except for commodities. In the v courtyards of the peasants' inns ] at Saratov, where products smuggled .'■ m straw at the bottom of eanjts and sledges were for sale, mone^ was valueless 1 ; but, for soda, soap, needles, matches,, tobacco, food was to be had m any quantity. When the stocks of: these articles secreted by private ■■; persons m tHe towns were exhausted; 'the peasants, wise m their generation, began to exact payment m. objects which they observed to have a lasting; value, ard "to amass stores of furniture, jewels, and works of art, which they propose %o ker>t> till there is someone who cy buyt hem for real money or useful commodities.- I know one case of a grand piano sold for 401 bof flour, another of an upright for 141 bof rye, another of a x>air of high boots for four bottles of milk, while works by Somqv and other well-known Russian painters are marketable,* and even eagerly^ sought after, m exchange for other simple foods. Marking Time. The peasants, it may be said, are marking time, producing no more than will satisfy their own wants, and converting any surplus into whatever 1 they deem to have value m the uncertain future. Villages far from the cities have relapsed into the primitive state. Their occupants have ceased to wear boots, and betaken themselves ■ again to the . traditional Russian gaitered mocassins of plaited bast. They exist as best they can without needles, with' old garments many times patched, without tobacco, without tea, brewing their own liquor, and with rush lamps instead of paraffin lamps cor candles* They are far from' the sounding decrees of Moscow, which m their ears, 'do they penetrate them, have a truly hollow ring. They only know that they are miserably uncomfortable, and hope for any change to relieve their • present state. When that occurs they will offer an inexhaustible market for all who can provide' them with the goods they need. Until it does, nobody need hope to get anything out of them. They are no longer to be caught with grains from the Communist salt cellar. The Peasant's Aspirations. As to/ politics, it is useless to beat about the bush. In this obscure region ■the Russian , peasant r wants but one thing — a Czar. Whatever we may think of systems of government, the evidence of my own and of m^uy other ears is, m my judgment, conclusive as to his mind. In 1917 I heard a peasant woman say m public: "The revolution is all very well, but we must have a Czar," and the sentiment was loudly applauded. A year later a man from one of the northern provinces reported

that all the peasants there were saying: "Give us a Czar, even if he is a bear." From north, to south, the peasant's first question to one he could ■ trust not to- inform against him was: "When shall we havp a Czav a '-am ?" He wants orde*' in ff thn land, and Hus idea is that pn]y a C::ar cr.n givt it him. I offer no opinion on the ncint— • I merely record tho fact. If it is asked why, then, the peasant s voice does not make itself felt, it can only be answered that he has no organ m the Press, and if he had would have no means of reaching it. His voice is only heard m his own village, and by such rare individuals as come into touch with him when he emerges from it, and are not interested to misrepresent its? note. . -