austion he abandoned his plot and
ploughed elsewhere. But this unregulated use of the Communal property
could not long continue. As the number of agriculturists increased,
quarrels frequently arose, and sometimes terminated in bloodshed. Still
worse evils appeared when markets were created in the vicinity, and it
became possible to sell the grain for exportation. In some stanitsas the
richer families appropriated enormous quantities of the common land
by using several teams of oxen, or by hiring peasants in the nearest
villages to come and plough for them; and instead of abandoning the land
after raising two or three crops they retained possession of it, and
came to regard it as their private property. Thus the whole of the
arable land, or at least the best part of it, became actually, if
not legally, the private property of a few families, whilst the less
energetic or less fortunate inhabitants of the stanitsa had only parcels
of comparatively barren soil, or had no land whatever, and became mere
agricultural labourers.

After a time this injustice was remedied. The landless members justly
complained that they had to bear the same burdens as those who possessed
the land, and that therefore they ought to enjoy the same privileges.
The old spirit of equality was still strong amongst them, and they
ultimately succeeded in asserting their rights. In accordance with their
demands the appropriated land was confiscated by the Commune, and the
system of periodical redistributions was introduced. By this system each
adult male possesses a share of the land.

These facts tend to throw light on some of the dark questions of social
development in its early stages.

So long as a village community leads a purely pastoral life, and
possesses an abundance of land, there is no reason why the individuals
or the families of which it is composed should divide the land into
private lots, and there are very potent reasons why they should not
adopt such a course. To give the division of the land any practical
significance, it would be necessary to raise fences of some kind, and
these fences, requiring for their construction a certain amount of
labour, would prove merely a useless encumbrance, for it is much more
convenient that all the sheep and cattle should graze together. If there
is a scarcity of pasture, and consequently a conflict of interest among
the families, the enjoyment of the common land will be regulated not by
raising fence