THE RURAL SURPLUS POPULATION.
The movement of population away from the rural districts, which is an
economic law in capitalistic countries, plays a very conspicuous part
in modern Russian economy.
Colonization of the border districts and periodical migration in quest
of work, are tending to absorb the natural increase of the peasant
population:
+----------+--------------------------+------------------------+
| | |Ratio to the respective |
| |Ratio to the population of|groups of the population|
| | 1858. | of 1882. |
| | Per cent. | Per cent. |
| +--------------+-----------+---------+--------------+
|Districts.| |Surplus of population| Adult males |
| | Emigration, | in 1882. | working |
| | 1858-1882. +-----------+---------+outside, 1882.|
| | | Total. | Males. | |
+----------+--------------+-----------+---------+--------------+
|Ranenburg | 10 | 30 | 23 | 20 |
|Dankoff | 9 | 26 | 22 | 21 |
+----------+--------------+-----------+---------+--------------+
There is thus but a minor fraction of the surplus population that has
forever left the native village with the chance of settling somewhere
else as farmers.[86] It is still to agriculture that most of the
wandering peasantry are looking, not as farmers, however, but as wage
laborers, while a vast minority flock to the cities.[87]
As to this class of the peasantry, it is commonly regarded by the
Russian press as standing on the lowest round of the ladder of village
life. It does not seem generally to occur to the public mind that
a regular movement of the working population, like the movement of
mercury in the barometrical tube, has to select the line of least
resistance. Indeed, it is distinctly shown by comparison that the wages
are higher outside than within the village.
_Local._ _Abroad._
_Branches._ _Minimum._ _Maximum._ _Minimum._ _Maximum._
I. _Agriculture._
Per summer, board provided
by the employer.
Farm help 25.00 35.00 40.00 60.00
Ranchmen in the south 50.00 100.00
II. _Trade and service._
Per month, no board extra. 7.00 15.00 10.00 18.00
III. _Capitalistic industry._
Per month, no board extra.
Factory hands, in winter 5.00 9.00
Factory hands through the year 10.00 18.00
Turf cutters in summer 15.00 25.00
Coal miners, in winter, etc. 8.00 13.00 24.00 37.00
Difference of wages stimulates the movement, which when once started in
a village, goes on at an ever increasing rate.[88]
This rural surplus population, nominally counted as peasant
proprietors, is in reality even now severing the bond that has hitherto
linked it to its birthplace. Those who year after year spend the
summers as farm-laborers in the South or in the East have already said
farewell to farming.[89] The case of artisans who leave the village for
the summer season is similar. A peasant who has given up his farming
for the sake of working outside has very little to gain by returning
for the winter, when the supply of labor in the village far exceeds
the demand. After a time some of them move their families to the place
in which they have found employment, and part with the old homestead
forever.
Those who are employed in factories, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, in
coal mines and in railroad service, may have started by spending only
their winter leisure in town. But imagine the position of the peasant
who manages to put aside, out of his four rubles a week, from 50 to 70
rubles a year to send home.[90] To such a man the attraction of a large
capitalistic concern running winter and summer, is one that will hold
him captive for years.
How far this estrangement of the peasant from his native village has
gone, can be learned from the following figures:[91]
+-----------+----------------+---------------------------------+
| |Outside workers.| Permanently absent. |
| +----------+-----+------+--------+--------+--------+
| |Households| |House-| Male | House- | Male |
| | with. |Male.|holds.|workers.| holds. |workers.|
| Districts.+----------+-----+------+--------+--------+--------+
| | Percentage within the total |Percentage within|
| | population. | the class of |
| | | outside workers.|
+-----------+----------+-----+------+--------+--------+--------+
|Youkhnoff | 57 | 52 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 11 |
|Dorogobouzh| 16 | 14 | 5 | 4 | 32 | 26 |
+-----------+----------+-----+------+--------+--------+--------+
The ownership of a home holds the peasant fast to his village even
after he has already abandoned farming.[92] The peasant however, who is
year by year employed far away from home, has settled, through the sale
of his house, his account with the old village.[93]
We have here consequently an indication of the recent growth of
Russia’s town proletariat.