RUSSIA

by

Donald Mackenzie Wallace

Copyright 1905

Contents

Preface

CHAPTER I

TRAVELLING IN RUSSIA

Railways--State Interference--River Communications--Russian "Grand Tour"--The Volga--Kazan--Zhigulinskiya Gori--Finns and Tartars--The Don--Difficulties of Navigation--Discomforts--Rats--Hotels and Their Peculiar Customs--Roads--Hibernian Phraseology Explained-- Bridges--Posting--A Tarantass--Requisites for Travelling-- Travelling in Winter--Frostbitten--Disagreeable Episodes--Scene at a Post-Station.

CHAPTER II

IN THE NORTHERN FORESTS

Bird's-eye View of Russia--The Northern Forests--Purpose of my Journey--Negotiations--The Road--A Village--A Peasant's House-- Vapour-Baths--Curious Custom--Arrival.

CHAPTER III

VOLUNTARY EXILE

Ivanofka--History of the Place--The Steward of the Estate--Slav and Teutonic Natures--A German's View of the Emancipation--Justices of the Peace--New School of Morals--The Russian Language--Linguistic Talent of the Russians--My Teacher--A Big Dose of Current History.

CHAPTER IV

THE VILLAGE PRIEST

Priests' Names--Clerical Marriages--The White and the Black Clergy-- Why the People do not Respect the Parish Priests--History of the White Clergy--The Parish Priest and the Protestant Pastor--In What Sense the Russian People are Religious--Icons--The Clergy and Popular Education--Ecclesiastical Reform--Premonitory Symptoms of Change--Two Typical Specimens of the Parochial Clergy of the Present Day.

CHAPTER V

A MEDICAL CONSULTATION

Unexpected Illness--A Village Doctor--Siberian Plague--My Studies-- Russian Historians--A Russian Imitator of Dickens--A ci-devant Domestic Serf--Medicine and Witchcraft--A Remnant of Paganism-- Credulity of the Peasantry--Absurd Rumours--A Mysterious Visit from St. Barbara--Cholera on Board a Steamer--Hospitals--Lunatic Asylums--Amongst Maniacs.

CHAPTER VI

A PEASANT FAMILY OF THE OLD TYPE

Ivan Petroff--His Past Life--Co-operative Associations-- Constitution of a Peasant's Household--Predominance of Economic Conceptions over those of Blood-relationship--Peasant Marriages-- Advantages of Living in Large Families--Its Defects--Family Disruptions and their Consequences.

CHAPTER VII

THE PEASANTRY OF THE NORTH

Communal Land--System of Agriculture--Parish Fetes--Fasting-- Winter Occupations--Yearly Migrations--Domestic Industries-- Influence of Capital and Wholesale Enterprise--The State Peasants-- Serf-dues--Buckle's "History of Civilisation"--A precocious Yamstchik--"People Who Play Pranks"--A Midnight Alarm--The Far North.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MIR, OR VILLAGE COMMUNITY

Social and Political Importance of the Mir--The Mir and the Family Compared--Theory of the Communal System--Practical Deviations from the Theory--The Mir a Good Specimen of Constitutional Government of the Extreme Democratic Type--The Village Assembly--Female Members-- The Elections--Distribution of the Communal Land.

CHAPTER IX

HOW THE COMMUNE HAS BEEN PRESERVED, AND WHAT IT IS TO EFFECT IN THE FUTURE

Sweeping Reforms after the Crimean War--Protest Against the Laissez Faire Principle--Fear of the Proletariat--English and Russian Methods of Legislation Contrasted--Sanguine Expectations--Evil Consequences of the Communal System--The Commune of the Future-- Proletariat of the Towns--The Present State of Things Merely Temporary.

CHAPTER X

FINNISH AND TARTAR VILLAGES

A Finnish Tribe--Finnish Villages--Various Stages of Russification-- Finnish Women--Finnish Religions--Method of "Laying" Ghosts-- Curious Mixture of Christianity and Paganism--Conversion of the Finns--A Tartar Village--A Russian Peasant's Conception of Mahometanism--A Mahometan's View of Christianity--Propaganda--The Russian Colonist--Migrations of Peoples During the Dark Ages.

CHAPTER XI

LORD NOVGOROD THE GREAT

Departure from Ivanofka and Arrival at Novgorod--The Eastern Half of the Town--The Kremlin--An Old Legend--The Armed Men of Rus--The