These partitions are made per head. Every male over seventeen years of age is entitled to 15 dessiatines of arable land. MrMackenzie Wallace states that this system has put an end to disputes, and, by re-establishing equality, has improved thecondition of the poor. The meadows are mown in common, and the hay divided. Among the Cossacks of the Oural the rightof occupying the meadows is regulated in this way: On a fixed day every member is entitled to appropriate all the grasswithin the circle that he can trace out with the scythe between morning and evening. In Switzerland, in the mountaincantons, we find a very similar custom. On the thirteenth of August, the "Wild mower" ( Wildheuer ) at sunrise occupies oneof the grassy ridges which are to be seen on the summit of the rocks, in almost inaccessible spots, and is entitled to make thehay on it, which he afterwards ties into bundles and throws into the valley below. In Siberia, in consequence of the extent ofland unoccupied, the peasants transmit by descent the lands which they cultivate. But they may not alienate them out of thefamily, and the eminent domain of the commune is recognized, for already in many localities, especially Slovina and Tobolsk,where inequality had increased with the population, periodic partition has been introduced. (15)Some towns still have common lands, which they distribute. Thus the town of Mologa, in the province of Jaroslaw,possesses a pasturage, which is divided into eleven parts; and each of the eleven sotnis , or groups of burgesses, successivelyobtains each part, so that, in eleven years, each sotni has occupied all the lots. These sotnis recall the Rhodes of Appenzell.
From the facts collected by Von Reussler, it would appear that in ancient Russia the right of every one to an equal share ofthe communal domain was not as general as it is to-day. The substitution of an individual poll-tax for the old land-tax hasgiven this right extension and increased vigour. As every one had to pay the tax and the commune was responsible for it, itwas to the interest of the latter to provide every one with sufficient land to enable him to pay his share of the sum total due,and this share being the same for all, the lot of land was also made equal.
When we find village communities among all Slav nations, among the Germans, and the nations of antiquity, in America, inChina, India, Java, in all societies, in a word, when they quit the nomadic and pastoral state and adopt the agriculturalsystem, it is impossible to admit the theory that in Russia this institution, which survives to the present day, was introducedsimply in consequence of the laws of Fédor, of Boris Godunof, or of Peter I. The principle of collective property existedfrom the first in Russia, as it did everywhere else. But the vast extent of unoccupied land was favourable to the dispersion offamilies and the establishment of several ownership. Periodic partition was not introduced generally, as we now see it, untilthe growth of the population made it no longer possible for every one to take at his will a vacant lot in the forest or thesteppe. The poll-tax and the joint responsibility of the commune accelerated the movement, because every one, in order tobe able to pay his share of the tax, required his parcel of ground.
NOTES:
1. Le Play, Les Ouvriers Européens .
2. Precise details concerning the Russian commune, especially of a juridical nature, are difficult to collect. The best sourcesaccessible for those who do not understand Russ, are the large work of the Baron de Haxthausen, Études sur la Russie , andhis more recent work, Die ländliche Verfassung Russlands , Leipzig, 1866; -- a curious treatise of M. Wolowski in the Revue des Deux Mondes of August 1, 1858, and a study by M. Cailliatte in the number for April 15, 1871; -- Free Russia ,by Mr Hepworth Dixon; -- the complete report of Mr Michell on the emancipation of the serfs, in a Blue Book of 1870( Reports concerning the Tenure of Land in the several Countries of Europe ); l'Avenir de Russia , by Schedo Terroti; -- astudy by M. Tchitcherine in the Staatswörterbuch of Blutschli ( Leibeigenschaft in Russland ); -- Kawelin, Einiges über dierusiche Dorfgeminde, Tüb. Zeitschrift für Staatswiss , xx. 1, -- and the appendix by Prof Heiferich on the same subject; --Van Bistram, Rechtliche Nature der Stadt- und Landgemeinde ; -- Adolph Wagner, Die Abschaffung des privatenEigenthums ; Julius Eckart, Baltische und russische Culturstudien (1869) and his Russlands ländische Zustände (1870); -- apaper of M. Julius Faucher, member of the German parliament, in the Cobden Club Essays; -- an article of Mr Wyrouboff in La Philosophie positive ; -- J. Ewers, Das älteste Recht der Russen in seiner geschichtlichen Entwickelung ; -- Von Reutz, Versuch über die geschichtliche Ausbildung der russischen Staats- und Rechtsverfassung ; -- the results of the greatagricultural enquiry of 1873, in five volumes (Russ); -- and finally the excellent work of J. von Reussler, Zur Geschichte undKritik der bäuerlichen Gemeindebesitzes -- J. Deubner, Riga, 1876. This work comprises an analysis and criticism of all thewritings which have appeared on the question, whether in the form of books, newspapers, articles, reviews or officialreports.
3. See The Russian Agrarian Legislation of 1861 , by Julius Faucher of the Prussian Landtag, in the Systems of Land Tenurein various Countries , published by the Cobden Club.
4. The dessiatine is about 2.7 acres.
5. The government makes advances to the peasants to enable them to redeem the rent. The former serfs occupy on theaverage about an acre, paying a rent of from twenty to twenty-four francs.
6. See the interesting report of Mr Michell in Reports respecting the Tenure of Land in the several Countries of Europe .
7. Eckardt, Russlands ländliche Zustände , ?102.
