Note 189 — Chapter XIV · CONCLUSION: THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FAMINE.
Reading edition
In the tables that follow we have availed ourselves of some of the figures produced in a very interesting article, in which the consequences of the famine are discussed on the ground of the data recently published by the Statistical Bureau of the gubernia of Samara. (Cf. “The consequences of the failure of the crops in the gubernia of Samara,” by Vasili Vodovozoff in the Russkaya Zhizñ [daily], nos. 248 and 249, September 25 and 26, 1892).
The loss of working cattle toward January, 1892, figured as follows:
Bailiwicks.Lost. Per cent.Remains. Per cent.
Ivanteyeffskaya7426
Lipovetzkaya6733
Novotoolskaya6733
Koozabayeffskaya6139
Shintinoffskaya4555
Etc.
The heavy losses suffered by the peasantry have enormously accentuated the existing inequalities of distribution of live stock. This is evidenced in the village Dergoonofka, d. of Nicholayeff, which figured in 1887 among the wealthiest villages, 3.5 working horses being the average to a household (nearly twice as much as in the districts above examined). These are the comparative data for 1887 and 1891:
Households (total: 745). 1887. October, 1891. Increase or Decrease.
Per cent. Per cent. Per cent.
“Horseless”5} 1929} 58+480} +205
With 1 horse1429+107
” from 2 to 3 horses32} 8128} 42-12} -48
” 4 horses147-50
” 5 or more horses357-80
Total100100
Such was the condition of the peasantry as early as in October, when the famine was still at its very beginning. Concentration of communal land in the hands of a few wealthy lessees is reported by the Bureau as an immediate result of the famine, but the respective figures are not cited in Mr. Vodovozoff’s paper.