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p Do not think, however, that the collapse ol the old " foundations" of popular life is taking place exclusively under the influence of the excessively high payments which the state demands from the commune. Firstly, the point is not so much the actual pay- 108 ments as the nature of the monetary payments which these payments inevitably assume in present-day Russia and under the influence of which the peasant economy has changed from a natural into a commodity economy. Moreover, "when a society has got upon the right track for the discovery of the natural laws of its movement”,^^33^^ all its inner forces, working in the most diverse directions, are in fact doing one and the same thing. Ever since the period of Peter’s reform the state has done a great deal to push Russia on the path of commodity, and later capitalist production. But now it is not only the state that is acting in this direction. Quite the reverse, while trying to push Russia on this path with one hand, the state is seeking to keep it on the old one with the other. And our autocracy will be destroyed by this contradiction, because it has set in motion an economic driving force with which it is bound to collide.

p But at the present time in addition to the state there is another, even more terrible force which is leading Russia onto the path of capitalism. It is called the inner logic of popular economic relations. And there is no power capable of halting its action! It penetrates everywhere, its influence is felt in everything, it leaves its mark on all the peasants’ attempts to improve their economic condition. See how well this aspect of the matter has been portrayed by the author with whom we are concerned. The peasants of the village of Beryozovka (in the story The Brothers) have moved from inner Russia to one of the vast steppe gubernias. In their old home they were very poor, but in the new parts they have succeeded in attaining "a certain material prosperity”. It would seem that here the famous “foundations” should have started to develop beautifully. But quite the reverse took place. In their old home in poverty and misfortune they were "one soul”, as the old men put it, but in the new parts the inner collapse of their commune began, and an invisible battle broke out between the individual and the “mir”.  Gradually "each villager began to realise that he was a human being like everyone else, and was made for himself, not for anyone else, just for himself! And that anyone could live on their own, getting along without the help of the volost elder, the cockade and the ’commoon’. As proof of this discovery some examples settled in the surrounding areas. The first example came from the neighbouring town, bought a plot of steppeland from the state, began to live on it under the guise of a meshchanin  [108•*  called Yermolayev and lived ’very nicely’, as all the Beryozovka villagers put it. Another example wore a cockade; no one had ever actually seen him, but in his place a merchant of the second guild called Proletayev, ’a splendid rogue’, settled in the steppe. The third example that appeared in these 109 parts was of unknown ancestry, for none of the Beryozovka villagers knew his origin or profession: ’He’s like a peasant to look at, but there’s summat so serious about him.’..."

p And the other people who lived in the village and were not registered in any commune or connected with anything, were they not strong arguments in favour of the new life? Each of the villagers thought about these phenomena very often; and there was not a single person who in his free moments did not think of buying himself a plot of land and setting up "a little shop or a tavern".

p “None of the peasants morally condemned people who lived by such enterprises; on the contrary, ’it’s a nice little business!’ People of this kind were respected for their wits and roguery was regarded as one of the abilities of the human mind. Yet at the same time each of the villagers respected the mir, obeying it and continuing to live in it. The peasant’s conscience split in two; the ’examples’ belonged to one half and the mir to the other. Two consciences, two moralities appeared.” One wonders how this duality in the attitude of the whole mir was reflected, how it could be reflected on the attitude of individuals. It goes without saying that this was determined by the personal characteristics of the individuals. In the case of some the old customs still gained the upper hand; others inclined towards the innovations, i.e., the little shop, tavern, etc.

p And it is interesting that it was the most energetic and most gifted who inclined towards such innovations. This is always the case, incidentally, when a certain social order is nearing its end. Its decrepitude is expressed in the fact that only passive, inactive natures continue to submit to it without protest or argument. All that is greater, more original and bolder flees from it or at least doggedly seeks for a way out. One need hardly add that when the impending new order is a bourgeois order, this searching sometimes assumes a most unpleasant form. In the story The Brothers the representatives of these two principles, the passive and the active, are two brothers—Ivan and Pyotr Sizov. Ivan is as artless as a child. He lives as his forefathers lived, never imagining that one could live differently. And in terms of character he has no need of a different life. A different life means a life apart, outside the “mir”, at one’s own risk and exclusively for one’s own benefit. But Ivan is a sociable man, he loves his mir and is never so happy as when he is engaged in some communal piece of mir activity. He exerts himself to the utmost during the land re-allotment, which, as we know, is a real ritual in the village; he never misses a single meeting and when it comes to a communal drinking-bout, he immediately takes on the role of host, because "no one could share out and serve up glasses of communal vodka like him, when the mir managed to extort a 110 shtrakh (i.e., shtraf)  [110•*  from someone”. The mir understood the character of its member well, and when they decided to purchase a plot of land for the commune from the state, Ivan was chosen as their messenger and entrusted with the mir’s money.

p Pyotr was a different sort of person. Clever, persistent, active, inventive, selfish and proud, he despised the commune, its members, and all communal affairs and interests. He regarded almost all the actions of his kind-hearted and simple brother as "sheer stupidity”. He dreamed of getting rich quickly, but it was impossible to do so living in the old way. The old mode of peasant life promised not riches, but all manner of burdens. So Pyotr Sizov kept to himself, rarely appearing at village meetings, and thought not of serving the mir, like his brother, but of getting rich at its expense. He became a kulak. And the mir respected him, everyone took off their caps to him, and he was called “boss”. Pyotr was sent together with Ivan Sizov to purchase the said plot of land.

p On the way to the town the following significant conversation took place between the brothers.

_p ’"He’s a clever one!’ said Pyotr, pointing at the starshina  [110•**  who was driving past them.

p “’Why?’ asked Ivan.

_p “’Made a lot of money. Now he doesn’t take his cap off to anyone now. Got brains, the clever rogue.’

_p “’That’s usual for a starshina..

_p ’"No, it ain’t. A starshina is one thing, but brains are something

p else.’

p “’Dishonest then, I’ll bet,’ said Ivan naively, surprised that his brother was scowling....

_p ’"Didn’t have a penny to start off with,’ remarked Pyotr. ’So he must have brains in his head, not a load of shit. Hear how he got on? The Semyonovo folk wanted to buy a meadow, like we’re doing. Fine. They chose one. Then they sent the starshina to get the deed of purchase. But he was a clever lad and put the money and the meadow in his own pocket. They made a fuss, but he’d got the deed in his pocket. What a laugh he had! Serve them right, the fools. Nothing they could do about it.’

p “’So he is dishonest!’ exclaimed Ivan indignantly.

_p “’That’s about it. But who’s to say, after all. Look at it simply. All he did was pull a fast one, use his brains. That’s the way to get on!’

_p “’By thieving?’

_p ’"What thieving? All above board. Everything’s rules and papers today, lad.’

_p “’What about sin?’

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_p “’We’re all sinners.’

_p “Ivan was silent.

_p “’What about God?’ he asked after a while.

_p “’God’s merciful. He’ll sort it all out. But a man has to live.’

_p “’By thieving! But he’s a thief, isn’t he?’

_p “’Well!’ Pyotr drawled flatly. ’Conscience is a funny thing,’ he said after a pause.

_p “’What about the mir?’ asked Ivan.

_p ’"What’s the mir!’ Pyotr retorted contemptuously.

p ’"The Semyonovo folk, what about them?’

_p “’Each man is for himself, even though he’s in the mir.  The mir didn’t give birth to you, did it?’

_p “’But....’

_p ’"The mir doesn’t give you food and drink, does it?’

p “’That’s not the point....’

_p ’"Yes, it is the point. Each man goes his own way. Like there’s him and nothing else. No mir.... But that’s enough empty talk, hear me?’

_p “’Yes,’Ivan replied thoughtfully.

p ’"Pick up the reins!’ Pyotr said sharply."

_p The topic was exhausted and the conversation was not resumed. But Pyotr had not started it in vain. The example of the “clever” starshina stuck in his mind. And when, after many long bureaucratic ordeals, the plot of land required by the Beryozovka villagers was acquired, it transpired that the deed of purchase had been made out to Pyotr Sizov.

p Poor Ivan, of course, had no inkling of the deception.

p What did the mir do? The commune members gave the innocent Ivan the beating of his life, but did not lay a finger on Pyotr.

p Pyotr told them that the paper (i.e., the deed of purchase) "had not been made out to them" and promised to return the money eventually. He did not return it, and the Beryozovka men talked it over, then went to work as hired labourers for Pyotr Timofeyevich Sizov on the plot of land that, had been stolen from them. Here too Ivan did not abandon the mir.  He was among the labourers and willingly cooked gruel for the “commoon”.

It would be difficult to give a more striking portrayal of the helplessness of the present commune in the struggle with the influences which are breaking it up. On the one hand communal gruel and on the other brains, cunning, “laws” and “papers”.