creature—­half farmer and half something else—­cultivating his allotment for a portion of his daily bread, and obliged to have some other occupation wherewith to cover the inevitable deficit in his domestic budget.  If he was fortunate enough to find near his home a bit of land to be let at a reasonable rent, he might cultivate it in addition to his own and thereby gain a livelihood; but if he had not the good luck to find such a piece of land in the immediate neighbourhood, he had to look for some subsidiary occupation in which to employ his leisure time; and where was such occupation to be found in an ordinary Russian village?  In former years he might have employed himself perhaps in carting the proprietor’s grain to distant markets or still more distant seaports, but that means of making a little money has been destroyed by the extension of railways.  Practically, then, he is now obliged to choose between two alternatives:  either to farm his allotment and spend a great part of the year in idleness, or to leave the cultivation of his allotment to his wife and children and to seek employment elsewhere—­often at such a distance that his earnings hardly cover the expenses of the journey.  In either case much time and energy are wasted.

The evil results of this state of things were intensified by another change which was brought about by the Emancipation.  In the time of serfage the peasant families, as I have already remarked, were usually very large.  They remained undivided, partly from the influence of patriarchal conceptions, but chiefly because the proprietors, recognising the advantage of large units, prevented them from breaking up.  As soon as the proprietor’s authority was removed, the process of disintegration began and spread rapidly.  Every one wished to be independent, and in a very short time nearly every able-bodied married peasant had a house of his own.  The economic consequences were disastrous.  A large amount of money had to be expended in constructing new houses and farmsteadings; and the old habit of one male member remaining at home to cultivate the land allotment with the female members of the family whilst the others went to earn wages elsewhere had to be abandoned.  Many large families, which had been prosperous and comfortable—­rich according to peasant conceptions—­dissolved into three or four small ones, all on the brink of pauperism.

The last cause of peasant impoverishment that I have to mention is perhaps the most important of all:  I mean the natural increase of population without a corresponding increase in the means of subsistence.  Since the Emancipation in 1861 the population has nearly doubled, whilst the amount of Communal land has remained the same.  It is not surprising, therefore, that when talking with peasants about their actual condition, one constantly hears the despairing cry, “Zemli malo!” ("There is not enough land"); and one notices that those who look a little ahead ask anxiously:  “What is to become of our children?  Already the Communal allotment is too small for our wants, and the land outside is doubling and trebling in price!  What will it be in the future?” At the same time, not a few Russian economists tell us—­and their apprehensions are shared by foreign observers—­that millions of peasants are in danger of starvation in the near future.