icated and laborious
than in the old patriarchal times.

We may greatly simplify the problem by reducing it to two definite
questions:

1. How far were the proprietors directly indemnified for the loss of
serf labour and for the transfer in perpetual usufruct of a large part
of their estates to the peasantry?

2. What have the proprietors done with the remainder of their estates,
and how far have they been indirectly indemnified by the economic
changes which have taken place since the Emancipation?

With the first of these questions I shall deal very briefly, because it
is a controversial subject involving very complicated calculations
which only a specialist can understand. The conclusion at which I have
arrived, after much patient research, is that in most provinces the
compensation was inadequate, and this conclusion is confirmed by
excellent native authorities. M. Bekhteyev, for example, one of the most
laborious and conscientious investigators in this field of research,
and the author of an admirable work on the economic results of the
Emancipation,* told me recently, in course of conversation, that in
his opinion the peasant dues fixed by the Emancipation Law represented,
throughout the Black-earth Zone, only about a half of the value of the
labour previously supplied by the serfs. To this I must add that the
compensation was in reality not nearly so great as it seemed to be
according to the terms of the law. As the proprietors found it extremely
difficult to collect the dues from the emancipated serfs, and as they
required a certain amount of capital to reorganise the estate on the new
basis of free labour, most of them were practically compelled to demand
the obligatory redemption of the land (obiazatelny vuikup), and in
adopting this expedient they had to make considerable sacrifices. Not
only had they to accept as full payment four-fifths of the normal sum,
but of this amount the greater portion was paid in Treasury bonds, which
fell at once to 80 per cent. of their nominal value.

* "Khozaistvenniye Itogi istekshago Sorokoletiya." St.
Petersburg, 1902.

Let us now pass to the second part of the problem: What have the
proprietors done with the part of their estates which remained to them
after ceding the required amount of land to the Communes? Have they
been indirectly indemnified for the loss of serf labour by subsequent
economic changes? How far have they succeeded in making the transition