THE existing régime imposes its burdens on all classes of Russian society. "Their relentless weight rests most heavily, however, on the peasantry and the factory labor. Years of repression and suppression, of mental and spiritual darkness, have reduced the Russian masses to a pitiful state. He who would paint a true picture of present-day Russia," says a recent contributor to the Nedyelya (St. Petersburg), "must dip his brush in somber colors. The question 'what next' may be difficult to answer, but the question as it is, is truly hopeless."
All is somber and gray; the peasant huts are leaning outward, the roofs are half rotted. In the huts there is darkness, and an oppressive tainted atmosphere. Beyond the huts there are miserable gardens, and farther still the expanse of fields full of weeds where groans the exhausted earth, incapable of bearing,—a nurse deprived of all strength. Against this background one sees the heavily-laden peasant. It is his lot to be oppressed. In order to breathe a little more freely, he at times oppresses others. Such is the Russian village. People move about in the huts, near the huts, and work in the fields. On their sodden, yellowish-dark faces there is the stamp of deep, dumb sorrow, and of resignation. No illuminating intelligence shines in their actions. The herd-like life destroys in them everything living,—it destroys ability, and subjects the individual to the instincts of the blind masses. Accidents and habits hold sway, and blind instincts triumph; but there are no guiding principles to direct the work. There is no knowledge creative of enterprise. Such is peasant labor.
The wretched poverty of the peasantry, the writer goes on to say, is rendered more oppressive by the fearful sanitary, or, rather, unsanitary, conditions which prevail in the villages. The same applies also to the towns, where the conditions of factory labor is scarcely better than that of the peasants. We find sanitary defects in our fatherland wherever we turn, says another writer in the same journal. The sanitary condition under which the factory employees live are frequently in an awful state, and their evils are multiplied by overcrowding.
As to village life, it is like an awful nightmare. The population is dying out in many places. Let us, for instance, consider the question of drinking-water, the contamination of which is widespread. The Volga and its tributaries are covered with naphtha to such an extent that in some places the water is totally unfit for use. Complaints concerning the contamination of drinking-water—its bad taste, odor, etc.—are heard from most of our large cities.—Kazan, Tomsk, Nizhni-Novgorod, and others. Even the filter plants, where they exist, frequently fail to help matters. The population is using water unfit for consumption, and falls a prey to various diseases. . . . But it is difficult to imagine, at times, how the village populations manage to exist on poisoned water which even cattle refuse to drink. The factories and mills are largely responsible for thus poisoning the water-supplies of many villages. For example, in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, with a population of 60,000 there is no filter plant, and the river water is thoroughly contaminated. The fish, and even the frogs, have entirely disappeared, and one enterprising individual earns several hundred dollars a year by collecting the naphtha from the river. The grass refuses to grow on the meadows along the river, and the pastures have disappeared. The mortality is 37.3 per 1,000.
The disappearance of the fish and the deterioration of the pastures have deprived large numbers of peasants of their main source of income, and have at the same time added to the cost of food for factory labor. The unsanitary life of the latter, and the high mortality rate, as noted above, are due in part, also, to the miserable wages paid to the workmen. According to the report of Mikhailovski, the chief factory inspector of the St. Petersburg district, the annual earnings of the average factory employee in the government of St. Petersburg amount to 232 rubles ($116); to about the same in the government of Moscow; to 255 rubles in the government of Kherson; and to 268 rubles in Baku. These averages include the comparatively high wages of the masters, and also of the much lower wages of the unskilled or common laborer, whose annual earnings do not exceed 150 to 170 rubles. Notwithstanding these low wages, the Russian workingmen are obliged to pay as much, or more, for their provisions as is paid by the workingmen in England or America. Thus, the factory employees in the Russian cities must pay three cents for a pound of flour, nine to ten cents for a pound of meat, and ten cents for a pound of sugar. Everything considered, therefore, the American workingman is paid five times as much for his labor, and the English workingman four times as much. The economic conditions, normally bad, have grown immeasurably worse on account of the general depression due to the war. In many of the agricultural districts there is no bread, and not even seed for the following season. Numerous families have lost their supporters, who were called to the front, and the resulting situation in not a few Russian villages is well illustrated by a letter to the Yuzhnoye Obozryeniye from Slavyanoserbsk, district of Tiraspol. "It is war, war,—war of the unarmed and helpless against a pitiless foe," writes the village Starosta, Boris Sychenko.
"The name of this foe is hunger. There walk on our streets, not men, but the resemblance of men. And who can describe their anguish? Help us! We received here only 6,000 poods for 1,300 persons. People here can scarcely stand on their feet, and the children are dying like flies (fifteen in fifteen days). Hasten with your help. Make it possible for people to get something to eat. We have families here who live we know not how. There are some who obtained some Indian corn somewhere. They boil it in water and eat it without salt or bread. At the gatherings there is gloom, confusion, and resentment. In the homes—hell."
In view of these facts, it is not surprising that the peasants are frequently goaded to desperation. Their wretched life, their ignorance and superstition, make them an easy prey to agitators. Thus, the Russkiya-Vyedomosti reports that in the governments of Orel and Kursk the peasants have been holding meetings. They agree upon a certain plan of action, and at night attack the estates of wealthy landlords or merchants. The storehouses where the grain is kept are attacked and plundered, the buildings destroyed, the forests cut down. Many estates have thus been pillaged. The Kievlyanin (Kiev) also reports outrages in the governments of Orel and Chernigov. A number of large estates have been pillaged, important sugar refineries burned, and thousands of pounds of sugar destroyed. The losses are enormous, it being estimated that the Mikhailovsk refinery alone suffered to the loss of three million rubles. The peasant mob engaged in this work of destruction numbered about three thousand. The Russkiya-Vyedomosti also reports that the peasants near the town of Dagda, government of Dvinsk, have been made desperate by hunger. They have pillaged and destroyed several estates, carried off everything that was portable, and destroyed the rest. The cattle from some of the estates were driven off; the surviving landlords have escaped with some of their property, and have sought protection with the soldiers who were sent from Dvinsk. The local police does nothing. The inhabitants of the town do not sleep at night, fearing an attack by the peasants.
The fermentation among the factory employees still continues. The Pravo reports that five hundred striking artisans attacked the police in Sukhum. A demonstration by the unemployed occurred in Kiev. Similarly, the Syevero-Zapadny Krai recounts the strike disorders in Dvinsk. The Vyestnik Yuga reports rumored street disorders in Yekaterinoslav. A far-reaching strike has paralyzed all industrial activity in Byelostok. "Factories, mills, printing-houses, small industrial establishments, stores, street-car lines, express carriers, etc.,—everything is idle." Conflicts between students or workingmen and the police or military have occurred in Smolensk, Turiya, Oryehov-Zuyev, Warsaw, and many other places; and attempts to assassinate police or other officials have occurred in Minsk, Dvinsk, Warsaw, Ochemchiry, Poti, Tiflis, St. Petersburg, Kremenchug, etc. The reign of anarchy is at times hastened by the overzealous government officials, who organize counter-demonstrations and try to array class against class, or race against race.
The Kishinev and Baku massacres are but prominent instances of such activities. Similar incidents on a smaller scale have occurred elsewhere. Thus, on March 11 a drunken mob armed with axes and clubs surrounded the schoolhouse in the village of Yelani, in the government of Saratov, with the avowed purpose of killing the schoolmaster. It appears that for several days previously a number of suspicious persons appeared among the peasants, telling them that the teacher was an anti-Christ; that he did not believe in God, since he claimed that the earth revolved and that there are spots on the sun. The agitators implored the parents not to send their children to school, and thus save them from ruin. On March 4 there was a great gathering of peasants, at which whisky to the amount of 600 rubles ($300) was consumed. After this the mob marched to the school, drove off the children, and destroyed the school furniture. The schoolmaster escaped as if by a miracle.
It would seem that the agitators were carrying out instructions which they had received from others in pursuance of the general policy of suppressing enlightenment and independent judgment. This same policy is made manifest in a recent order of the governor of Vladimir, whereby the postmaster of the city of Vladimir was to report the names of all the residents of Vladimir who were subscribers to the papers Nasha Zhizn, Nashi Dni, and Syn Otechestva. One of the students of the local gymnasium found reading Nasha Zhizn was placed by the director in the detention cell for five hours. Such, in brief, are but a few of the innumerable facts, reported in censored Russian journals, which may serve to show to the outside world the burdens of the Russian men and women.
Ignorance and superstition among the peasants and workingmen, tacitly encouraged by the powers that be; official corruption and intolerance, disrespect for the law, disregard of human rights,—these and other ills make Russian life what it is, a great burden to the many, and a round of needless pleasure to the few.—Review of Reviews.
