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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 Princes of Moscow-- Influence of the Mongol Domination--Practical Importance of the Subject.
CHAPTER XV
THE COSSACKS
Lawlessness on the Steppe--Slave-markets of the Crimea--The Military Cordon and the Free Cossacks--The Zaporovian Commonwealth Compared with Sparta and with the Mediaeval Military Orders--The Cossacks of the Don, of the Volga, and of the Ural--Border Warfare-- The Modern Cossacks--Land Tenure among the Cossacks of the Don-- The Transition from Pastoral to Agriculture Life--"Universal Law" of Social Development--Communal versus Private Property--Flogging as a Means of Land-registration.
CHAPTER XVI
FOREIGN COLONISTS ON THE STEPPE
The Steppe--Variety of Races, Languages, and Religions--The German Colonists--In What Sense the Russians are an Imitative People--The Mennonites--Climate and Arboriculture--Bulgarian Colonists--Tartar- Speaking Greeks--Jewish Agriculturists--Russification--A Circassian Scotchman--Numerical Strength of the Foreign Element.
CHAPTER XVII
AMONG THE HERETICS
The Molokanye--My Method of Investigation--Alexandrof-Hai--An Unexpected Theological Discussion--Doctrines and Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Molokanye--Moral Supervision and Mutual Assistance--History of
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