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| Introduction. The Rise of “Peasantism.” | 7 |
| Chapter I. General Sketch of the Development of Landholding in Russia | 19 |
| The Russian village community of historical times—Survivals of communal co-operation—The communistic peasant household—Origins of private property in land—Patrimony and fee—Slavery resulting from the obligation of loan—Tenure in fee an institute of public law—Limitation of the peasant’s right of migration—The fee becomes hereditary—Statute of Peter the Great on inheritance in the estates held by the nobility; abolition of the distinction between patrimony and fee—The poll tax—Slaves and serfs put upon a common footing—Emancipation of the nobility from their duty toward the state—The serfs agitated by a feeling in favor of emancipation—“Land and Liberty”—The question discussed in the Legislative Assembly convoked by Catherine II.—Insurrection under the head of Emilian Pougatchoff—Further developments of the abolitionist problem—Peasant riots about the time of the Crimean War—Economic necessity of abolition of serfdom—Evolution of private property achieved by the emancipation—Expropriation of the peasantry—Legends of land nationalization popular with the peasantry—The Statute of 1861 in its characteristic features—Russian taxation—Limitation of the personal liberty of the taxpayer—The village community upheld by over-taxation of the land—Counteracting influence of the rise of rent. | |
| Chapter II. Community of Land | 37 |
| The region selected for review with regard to geographical position and population—Forms of ownership in land—Agrarian communism—Community of land with shares fixed in perpetuity—History of the latter form of ownership—Evolution of the same into agrarian communism—Opinions of Russian students on the origin of agrarian communism. | |
| Chapter III. The Productive Forces of the Peasantry | 47 |
| Normal size of a farm required by the present state of agriculture—Actual size of peasant farms—Legal discrimination—Want of fodder—Depressed condition of stock breeding—Want of fuel—Manure used as fuel—The land not fertilized—Exhaustion of the soil—Improper situation of the lots—Yields of cereals—Balance of peasant agriculture—Review of real peasant budgets—Development of money economy in peasant farming. | |
| Chapter IV. Taxation of the Peasant | 59 |
| The taxes in inverse ratio to the income—The redemption tax paid by the former serf—Assessment per capita—Arrears in taxes—Bearing upon the peasant’s live stock—The fiscal system lived down by economic development. | |
| Chapter V. Communal Tenure and Small Holdings | 67 |
| Economic relations arising from the lack of land—Tenure at will—Community as party to the agreement—Easements—Pasture—Tendency toward individualism produced by inequality of wealth and money economy—Arable land and grass land—Individualism prevailing—Communal agreements—Influence of divergent interests within the community—Rental partnerships, a step toward individualism. | |
| Chapter VI. The Evolution of the Farmer into the Agricultural Laborer | 75 |
| Relations between landlord and tenant—Division of crops—Labor in payment for rent—Tendency towards money agreements—Rise of rent—Rate of rent to wages—Differentiation of tenant and farm laborer. | |
| Chapter VII. The Wages in the Rural Districts | 80 |
| Farmer as wage-worker—Farm work prevailing—Indebtedness of the farmer—Wages in rural districts cut down by the farmer-workingman—Low wages a drawback to the development of industry—Pauperism. | |
| Chapter VIII. The Rural Surplus Population | 85 |
| Increasing movement away from the rural districts—Wages higher abroad—The bonds to the village severed—Growth of the proletariat. | |
| Chapter IX. The Dissolution of the Patriarchal Family | 90 |
| The position of the peasantists and of the government in the question—Opinions of students of peasant life on the dissolution of the patriarchal family—The typical family of to-day—Influence of outside jobs—Parcellation of the soil—Landless—Ruin of the farmer occasioned by the decay of family co-operation—The employing farmer. | |
| Chapter X. The Modern Agricultural Classes | 104 |
| The vagueness of class distinctions at a primitive stage of economic development—The peasantist conception of class antagonism in the village—Results of statistical investigation—Farmers deriving a net profit from agriculture—Farmer and business man—Concentration of the land and a strong patriarchal household—The employing farmer developing side by side with the dissolution of the compound family—The rural proletariat—Lack of land—The dissolution of the patriarchal family complete—The Russian proletarian as wage-laborer and employer at the same time—The transitional class—Deficit in the balance of farming resulting from the division of the co-operative family—The farmer as wage laborer—Imminent transition into the proletarian class—“The struggle of generations” in the village a reflected form of class antagonism. | |
| Chapter XI. Individual Ownership and Agrarian Communism | 123
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