5. Village Sergievskoye, Ranenburg, “Most of the ‘horseless’ half of the village are working exclusively outside. A good many are in arrears for taxes. Their lots are taken from them by the community and given to the wealthiest householders. This tends greatly to still further enrich the few at the expense of the many. In 1863 about one sixth of the bailiwick (300 ‘revision males’) emigrated to the gubernia of Stavropol, Caucasus, leaving their lots to the community. The land was distributed among the best-situated householders. All of the emigrants, save 15 families, have now come back, but the mir refuses to return their lots. This is the case with the emigrants in all the communities of the district. It is very difficult to settle the matter of the redivision, for the people are always away at work, and the redivision is opposed by the most influential householders, who keep in their hands the lots of the former emigrants and delinquent tax-payers.” (Loc. cit., part I., p. 305,)
These are the figures connected with the above statement:
| Per cent. | |
|---|---|
| Horseless | 54 |
| Outside workers | 56 |
(Ibid., pp. 116-120.)
Apart from the opposition of the lessees, it is hardly ever possible to get even a simple majority to vote upon the redivision.
[149] Bailiwicks Naryshkinskaya, Karpovskaya, Nikolskaya, Vednovskaya, and Zimarovskaya, district of Ranenburg; b. Spasskaya, Loshkovskaya, and Yagodnovskaya, district of Dankoff, and some scattered communities all over the region.
[150] Cf. loc. cit., Part I, p. 288, No. 4; p. 310, No. 2.
[151] So far as I am aware from the newspapers, the land was afterward redistributed in the communities of a number of gubernias of Middle Russia.
[152] These views were expounded by Mr. V. V. in a series of articles which appeared in the Otetchestvenniya Zapiski, in 1880 and 1881, and were published in 1882, in book form, under the title: The Destinies of Capitalism in Russia.
[153] This question was put by Mr. Michaïloffsky, a very renowned Russian publicist, in his article: “Karl Marx on trial before Mr. J. Zhukoffsky,” which appeared in the Otetchestvenniya Zapiski, 1877. An answer to this criticism, in letter form, was found in the posthumous papers of Karl Marx, and was published in Russian, first by the revolutionary press, and subsequently in the Juridichesky Vestnik (Juridical Herald, monthly), Moscow, 1888.