THE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY. A SORDID PICTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2650, 28 December 1904, Page 36

THE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY. A SORDID PICTURE.

The present war has already considerably upset the finances and industries of Russia. )sven the wheat trade , has been adversely effected, for owing to the withdrawal of Government funds 'from the banks, which supported the growers, the latter have had to sell in ft weakening market instead of feeing able to hold for a strong market. As the Government is pledged to a syndicate of French bankers, which financed the earlier loans, not to touch the gold reserve of some £53.000,000, and finds that loan money is not sufficient for both ordinary *nd war expenses, it is now proposed to increase taxation by 25 per cent. But can it do so without causing great misery, and possibly arousing a strong ~ antagonistic spirit among the already overtaxed and wretched peasantry? The following extract from a recent issue of the London Globe seems to show that the proposed increase is injudicious, if not impossible: — "An official report drawn up recently by a district medical officer engaged in the European Government of Veronezh gives a truly heartrending account of the woebegone existence led by the moujiks in that large Government, which, of tho 50 Governments of European Russia, stands thirteenth on the list- as regards density of population, with 109 persons to the square mile. The niedical .officer's r&port deals with .two large Tillages, . which are inhabited by •Bout 1200 - Great Russians. Although each of these villages hag had its school for 20 years, yet in one village the men who can read amo&nt to 33 per cent.; and the women ■ only to 3 ,per cent., while in the other these figures are 16 j?er cent, and 0- per cent, respectively. In - the wide-stretching, treeless Steppe the moujiks live in huts made of brick or wood ; the floors of these huts are of trodden clay, and a hug© stove takes up about one-fifth' of the living room, jwith the result that each inmate, on an aiverage, has only' from 27 to 50 cubic feet of air, which is from six to three, times less than the quantity required by the laws 'of fcealtb. In some huts the cubic space per bead was only 20gft- Moreover, calves, sheep, lambs, pigs, and hens are housed together with the people in the living room, (which witnesses even the calving of the cow. Naturally enough, the interior of "these huts presents a sorry sight. The are bare, and the furniture consists of plank beds, stools, tables, and shelves, •till roughly p ut together, while the houseihold utensils are of" paltry make. A few garments and outdoor tools complete the picture. The table serves alike for taking meals and for all kinds of household work; it is scarcely ever covered by a cloth, for only very few families possess one. The people, sleep on the plank beds and on the etove, and out of 158 huts only two owned beds. Straw is used both for bedding and for covering. Only 60 per cent, of all the .families ijossessed pillows, and in these cases pillows were not used by all the family, iwhlle only, 0.6 c per-cent. _of the huts boast of being able to use quilts or counterpanes. 'At nightfall "straw is laid down' for the animals •• living with, their owners. . Such Breathing .'air as is/possible under these conditions is destroyed by the dust given off* :by the straw and by the making of hemp. jJWhen the hemp is tewed there is *■ raised eiich a dusb that objects • cannot "be made ' out across the room, even on the brightest day. The dust - thus, _ raised- is so caustic that people whose breathing organs are not "perfectly sound are obliged to leave the fcut. "The chief food of the moujiks is rye bread, potatoes, and millet. Meat, milk, cabbages, and vegetables are eaten only in cfxtremely small quantities. Of fatty foods 55 per cent, under the normal amount is consumed. The poorer villagers " consume 62.29 grammes of vegetable albumen, 13.37 grammes of fatty foods, and 380 grammes of proteids. It is inconceivable how men can exist on a consumption of 13.37 grammes of fatty matter, when the smallest amount that ought to be eaten varies between. 4o grammes .and 50 grammes. medical officer ascribes this ' living hunger ' to the existing scarcity of land; for every three to four persons the' available supply of rye varied from 1501b to 5401b, and of millet from 1081b to 5601b, which is below that available in other districts. Thus, even in times of good harveste, adequate nourishment is out of the question. Nevertheless, the owners and tillers of the land have to make up the taxes, which, with- the arrears, amounted on an average to £2 6s 9d per - (house. In indirect taxes the two villages paid £79 on vodka, £5 6s 3d on tobacco, £\O 125. 6 d on ' petroleum, and £5 16s lOd on teau_ and" svgar — that ' is, a yearly total of about £100.' The" pitiable state -of village life in Russia may' be judged only too ■well from a comparison of the indirect ifcax paid on vodka— that is, brandy made from rye, — and of the indirect taxes paid on tea. and sugar. _"Th : e moujiks are compelled to occupy land on which there are arrc -%* of debt, and- also to .follow ■ certain occupations. Thus, unless there was. this form of compulsory work, the country surgeon is of opinion that the moujiks would certainly die of hunger, and he holds out no hopes of being able to ' civilise ' the moujiks to any great degree, for he regards them as being really very little removed from the stage of civilisation attained by savage races. In all these circumstances it can pc understood easily that the .rate of mortality is very high. The average rate of mortality throughout the whole of Russia In 1902 was 34.8 "per 1000 ; in the villages in Question the rate was 53.71 per 1000. The Heaths occur chiefly among the children. iWhile in the whole of -Russia the death rate among children under one year of Bge was 271 per 1000, it was 330 per 1000 In these two villages, and 546 children beWeen one and five years of age died in them. From these figures it will be seen that the two villages are destined to vanish Under such a high rate of mortality. " This is a picture of life in a Russian village lying hidden from the outside World. But such woe-begone spots are too Numerous to be counted throughout the vast empire of the Czar, and it is from them that the soldiers hail who are falling on the battlefields of Manchuria at the bidding of a rotten and selfish bureaucracy, ■which refuses to read the handwriting on the wall."

" — In one unbroken nocturnal flight the European bird known as the northern bluefchroat has been proved to travel from Central Africa to the German Ocean, a dislance of 1600 miles, making the journey in Cine hours.

— Cornwall is the only county in England which has no theatre. A scheme is on foot to build) one at Falmouth,