SOCIAL CLASSES
Do Social Classes or Castes Exist in Russia?--Well-marked Social
Types--Classes Recognised by the Legislation and the Official
Statistics--Origin and Gradual Formation of these Classes--Peculiarity
in the Historical Development of Russia--Political Life and Political
Parties.
In the preceding pages I have repeatedly used the expression "social
classes," and probably more than once the reader has felt inclined to
ask, What are social classes in the Russian sense of the term? It may be
well, therefore, before going farther, to answer this question.
If the question were put to a Russian it is not at all unlikely that
he would reply somewhat in this fashion: "In Russia there are no social
classes, and there never have been any. That fact constitutes one of the
most striking peculiarities of her historical development, and one of
the surest foundations of her future greatness. We know nothing,
and have never known anything, of those class distinctions and class
enmities which in Western Europe have often rudely shaken society in
past times, and imperil its existence in the future."
This statement will not be readily accepted by the traveller who visits
Russia with no preconceived ideas and forms his opinions from his own
observations. To him it seems that class distinctions form one of the
most prominent characteristics of Russian society. In a few days he
learns to distinguish the various classes by their outward appearance.
He easily recognises the French-speaking nobles in West-European
costume; the burly, bearded merchant in black cloth cap and long, shiny,
double-breasted coat; the priest with his uncut hair and flowing robes;
the peasant with his full, fair beard and unsavoury, greasy sheepskin.
Meeting everywhere those well-marked types, he naturally assumes
that Russian society is composed of exclusive castes; and this first
impression will be fully confirmed by a glance at the Code. On examining
that monumental work, he finds that an entire volume--and by no means
the smallest--is devoted to the rights and obligations of the various
classes. From this he concludes that the classes have a legal as well as
an actual existence. To make assurance doubly sure he turns to official
statistics, and there he finds the following table:
Hereditary nobles........652,887
Personal nobles..........374,367
Clerical classes.........695,905
Town classes...........7,196,005
Rural classes.........63,840,291
Military classes.......4,767,703
Foreigners...............153,185
---------- 77,680,293*
* Livron: "Statistitcheskoe Obozrenie Rossiiskoi Imperii,"
St. Petersburg, 1875. The above figures include the whole
Empire. The figures according to the latest census (1897)
are not yet available.
Armed with these materials, the traveller goes to his Russian friends
who have assured him that their country knows nothing of class
distinctions. He is confident of being able to convince them that
they have been labouring under a strange delusion, but he will be
disappointed. They will tell him that these laws and statistics
prove nothing, and that the categories therein mentioned are mere
administrative fictions.
This apparent contradiction is to be explained by the equivocal meaning
of the Russian terms Sosloviya and Sostoyaniya, which are commonly
translated "social classes." If by these terms are meant "castes" in
the Oriental sense, then it may be confidently asserted that such do not
exist in Russia. Between the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the
peasants there are no distinctions of race and no impassable barriers.
The peasant often becomes a merchant, and there are many cases on record
of peasants and sons of parish priests becoming nobles. Until very
recently the parish clergy composed, as we have seen, a peculiar and
exclusive class, with many of the characteristics of a caste; but this
has been changed, and it may now be said that in Russia there are no
castes in the Oriental sense.
If the word Sosloviya be taken to mean an organised political unit
with an esprit de corps and a clearly conceived political aim, it may
likewise be admitted that there are none in Russia. As there has been
for centuries no political life among the subjects of the Tsars, there
have been no political parties.
On the other hand, to say that social classes have never existed in
Russia and that the categories which appear in the legislation and in
the official statistics are mere administrative fictions, is a piece of
gross exaggeration.
From the very beginning of Russian history we can detect unmistakably
the existence of social classes, such as the Princes, the Boyars, the
armed followers of the Princes, the peasantry, the slaves, and various
others; and one of the oldest legal documents which we possess--the
"Russian Right" (Russkaya Pravda) of the Grand Prince Yaroslaff
(1019-1054)--contains irrefragable proof, in the penalties attached
to various crimes, that these classes were formally recognised by
the legislation. Since that time they have frequently changed their
character, but they have never at any period ceased to exist.
In ancient times, when there was very little administrative regulation,
the classes had perhaps no clearly defined boundaries, and the
peculiarities which distinguished them from each other were actual
rather than legal--lying in the mode of life and social position rather
than in peculiar obligations and privileges. But as the autocratic power
developed and strove to transform the nation into a State with a highly
centralised administration, the legal element in the social distinctions
became more and more prominent. For financial and other purposes
the people had to be divided into various categories. The actual
distinctions were of course taken as the basis of the legal
classification, but the classifying had more than a merely formal
significance. The necessity of clearly defining the different groups
entailed the necessity of elevating and strengthening the barriers which
already existed between them, and the difficulty of passing from one
group to another was thereby increased.
In this work of classification Peter the Great especially distinguished
himself. With his insatiable passion for regulation, he raised
formidable barriers between the different categories, and defined the
obligations of each with microscopic minuteness. After his death the
work was carried on in the same spirit, and the tendency reached its
climax in the reign of Nicholas, when the number of students to be
received in the universities was determined by Imperial ukaz!
In the reign of Catherine a new element was introduced into the official
conception of social classes. Down to her time the Government had
thought merely of class obligations; under the influence of Western
ideas she introduced the conception of class rights. She wished, as we
have seen, to have in her Empire a Noblesse and tiers-etat like those
which existed in France, and for this purpose she granted, first to the
Dvoryanstvo and afterwards to the towns, an Imperial Charter, or Bill
of Rights. Succeeding sovereigns have acted in the same spirit, and the
Code now confers on each class numerous privileges as well as numerous
obligations.
Thus, we see, the oft-repeated assertion that the Russian social classes
are simply artificial categories created by the legislature is to a
certain extent true, but is by no means accurate. The social groups,
such as peasants, landed proprietors, and the like, came into existence
in Russia, as in other countries, by the simple force of circumstances.
The legislature merely recognised and developed the social distinctions
which already existed. The legal status, obligations, and rights of each
group were minutely defined and regulated, and legal barriers were added
to the actual barriers which separated the groups from each other.
What is peculiar in the historical development of Russia is this: until
lately she remained an almost exclusively agricultural Empire with
abundance of unoccupied land. Her history presents, therefore, few of
those conflicts which result from the variety of social conditions and
the intensified struggle for existence. Certain social groups were,
indeed, formed in the course of time, but they were never allowed to
fight out their own battles. The irresistible autocratic power kept them
always in check and fashioned them into whatever form it thought proper,
defining minutely and carefully their obligations, their rights, their
mutual relations, and their respective positions in the political
organisation. Hence we find in the history of Russia almost no trace
of those class hatreds which appear so conspicuously in the history of
Western Europe.*
* This is, I believe, the true explanation of an important
fact, which the Slavophils endeavoured to explain by an
ill-authenticated legend (vide supra p.151).
The practical consequence of all this is that in Russia at the present
day there is very little caste spirit or caste prejudice. Within
half-a-dozen years after the emancipation of the serfs, proprietors and
peasants, forgetting apparently their old relationship of master and
serf, were working amicably together in the new local administration,
and not a few similar curious facts might be cited. The confident
anticipation of many Russians that their country will one day enjoy
political life without political parties is, if not a contradiction
in terms, at least a Utopian absurdity; but we may be sure that when
political parties do appear they will be very different from those which
exist in Germany, France, and England.
Meanwhile, let us see how the country is governed without political
parties and without political life in the West-European sense of the
term. This will form the subject of our next chapter.