Russia | Page 3

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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 Northmen--Popular Liberty in Novgorod--The Prince and the
Popular Assembly--Civil Dissensions and Faction-fights-- The
Commercial Republic Conquered by the Muscovite Tsars--Ivan the
Terrible-- Present Condition of the Town--Provincial
Society--Card-playing-- Periodicals--"Eternal Stillness."


CHAPTER XII
THE TOWNS AND THE MERCANTILE CLASSES
General Character of Russian Towns--Scarcity of Towns in Russia--
Why the Urban Element in the Population is so Small--History of
Russian Municipal Institutions--Unsuccessful Efforts to Create a
Tiers-etat--Merchants, Burghers, and Artisans--Town Council--A Rich
Merchant--His House--His Love of Ostentation--His Conception of
Aristocracy--Official Decorations--Ignorance and Dishonesty of the
Commercial Classes--Symptoms of Change.


CHAPTER XIII
THE PASTORAL TRIBES OF THE STEPPE

A Journey to the Steppe Region of the Southeast--The Volga--Town
and Province of Samara--Farther Eastward--Appearance of the
Villages--Characteristic Incident--Peasant Mendacity--Explanation of
the Phenomenon--I Awake in Asia--A Bashkir Aoul--Diner la
Tartare--Kumyss--A Bashkir Troubadour--Honest Mehemet
Zian--Actual Economic Condition of the Bashkirs Throws Light on a
Well-known Philosophical Theory--Why a Pastoral Race Adopts
Agriculture--The Genuine Steppe--The Kirghiz--Letter from Genghis
Khan--The Kalmyks-- Nogai Tartars--Struggle between Nomadic
Hordes and Agricultural Colonists.


CHAPTER XIV
THE MONGOL DOMINATION
The Conquest--Genghis Khan and his People--Creation and Rapid
Disintegration of the Mongol Empire--The Golden Horde--The Real
Character of the Mongol Domination--Religious Toleration--Mongol
System of Government--Grand Princes--The