The Economics of the Russian Village

by Isaac A. Hourwich

Households of trading farmers.	Employing permanent laborers, per cent.
With 3 or more adult male workers	16
With 2 or less adult male workers	25
Total	22

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Stopped working on their plots.	In the class.			In the district at large.
	Households.	Per cent.		Per cent.
Horseless	2471	90		13
With 1 horse	256	9	} 10	32	} 87
With 2 horses or more	33	1		55
Total	2760	100		100

The class almost coincides on the whole with the so-called “horseless:”

“Horseless.”	Households.	Per cent.
Traders	68	3	} 8
Tilling their plots	143	5
Stopped tilling their plots	2471	92
Total	2682	100

The 10 per cent. who stopped tilling their plots, though owning 1 horse or more, as well as the 8 per cent. who manage to till their plots without working horses, make (each of these sections) only about 1 per cent. of the peasantry of the district. Thus, in identifying the proletarians with the “horseless,” the error is of the kind to be neglected, to use the mathematical term.

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Households.	Stopped tilling their plots.		“Horseless.”		In the district at large.
	Per cent.		Per cent.		Per cent.
Landless	11	} 48	11	} 48	2	} 16
Owning less than 5 dessiatines	37		37		14
Owning from 5 to 15 dessiatines	42		43		50
Owning from 15 to 25 dessiatines	9	} 10	8	} 9	25	} 34
Owning above 25 dessiatines	1		1		9
Total	100		100		100
Average plot:
To 1 household, dessiatines			7.2		14.4
To 1 adult male worker, ”			7.9		8.3

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Households.	Stopped tilling their plots.		“Horseless.”		In the district at large.
	Per cent.		Per cent.		Per cent.
Without adult male workers	24	} 86	17	} 85	5	} 51
With 1 adult male worker	62		68		46
With 2 adult male workers	12	} 14	13	} 15	30	} 49
With 3 or more adult male workers	2		2		19
Total	100		100		100
To 1 household upon an average:
Adult male workers			0.9		1.7
Half-workers			0.2		0.4
Males and females			3.8		7.4