Number of Holdings Average Holdings, 
Owners (in million (in dessiatins)* 
(in millions) dessiatins)* 
1. Ruined peasantry, 
oppressed by semi- 
feudal exploitation 10.5 
2. Middle peasantry... 1.0 
3, Upper strata, or 
wealthy peasantry 
1. Semi-feudal estates 
3 
n ne 
Total oom iam 
%1 dessiatin equals 1.1 hectares. 
13.03 
75.0 
15.0 
70.0 
70.0 
230.0 
7.0 
15.0 
16.7 
2883.0 
} 17.6 
The great bulk of peasants during this period, the 
group classified as the ruined peasantry, were op- 
pressed by the exploitation of the wealthy landlords 
and did not even possess means sufficient for the 
maintenance of the physical conditions of existence. 
The chronically miserable conditions prevailing among 
the mass of poor peasants in Russia is illustrated by 
the progressively increasing proportion of rejections 
from military service on account of physical unfitness. 
For instance, according to official data for 50 provinces 
of European Russia, the percentage of those rejected 
or reprieved from military service for physical unfitness 
showed the following growth: 
IBTA=T8.corrcecnrmrmrsimmssrsmsmmenmcne L102 PEE CENE 
1879-88... rrimmiminsnisssamiemssisi conn 149 « 
UBBA-8B.....cmmmmmmimmssinimmnnd Bd & 
1890-1902... oosrssseesemssssmemsossesmooen 220 1 
Thus, the transition of the agriculture of pre-revo- 
lutionary Russia from primitive economy to capitalism 
was a process accompanied by the impoverishment of 
the great mass of the peasantry, by their pauperiza- 
1