* A long list of the various systems of allotment to be found in individual Communes in different parts of the country is given in the opening chapter of a valuable work by Karelin, entitled “Obshtchinnoye Vladyenie v Rossii” (St. Petersburg, 1893).  As my object is to convey to the reader merely a general idea of the institution, I refrain from confusing him by an enumeration of the endless divergencies from the original type.

     ** Since 1719 eleven revisions have been made, the last in
     1897.  The intervals varied from six to forty-one years.

But why, it may be said, should the widow not accept provisionally the five shares, and let to others the part which she does not require?  The balance of rent after payment of the taxes might help her to bring up her young family.

So it seems to one acquainted only with the rural economy of England, where land is scarce, and always gives a revenue more than sufficient to defray the taxes.  But in Russia the possession of a share of Communal land is often not a privilege, but a burden.  In some Communes the land is so poor and abundant that it cannot be let at any price.  In others the soil will repay cultivation, but a fair rent will not suffice to pay the taxes and dues.

To obviate these inconvenient results of the simpler system, many Communes have adopted the expedient of allotting the land, not according to the number of revision souls, but according to the working power of the families.  Thus, in the instance above supposed, the widow would receive perhaps two shares, and the large household, containing five workers, would receive perhaps seven or eight.  Since the breaking-up of the large families, such inequality as I have supposed is, of course, rare; but inequality of a less extreme kind does still occur, and justifies a departure from the system of allotment according to the revision-lists.

Even if the allotment be fair and equitable at the time of the revision, it may soon become unfair and burdensome by the natural fluctuations of the population.  Births and deaths may in the course of a very few years entirely alter the relative working power of the various families.  The sons of the widow may grow up to manhood, whilst two or three able-bodied members of the other family may be cut off by an epidemic.  Thus, long before a new revision takes place, the distribution of the land may be no longer in accordance with the wants and capacities of the various families composing the Commune.  To correct this, various expedients are employed.  Some Communes transfer particular lots from one family to another, as circumstances demand; whilst others make from time to time, during the intervals between the revisions, a complete redistribution and reallotment of the land.  Of these two systems the former is now more frequently employed.