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Pre-revolutionary Russia appeared in the world
market primarily as an exporter of agricultural products.
 This position was not the result of a high level
of development of the productive forces of the country,
—the necessary prerequisite for the export of a marketable
 surplus from a producing country. The
export of farm products from pre-war Russia was
based on the rule of the large land-owner, which compelled
 the mass of small farmers to turn over to the
market, domestic and foreign, the fruits of their labor,
even at the expense of satisfyirg their own most elementary
 needs.

Agriculture in pre-revolutionary Russia was characterized
 by a considerable concentration of farm
property in the hands of the wealthy landlords, by the
great predominance of small producers among the
masses of peasants and, together with this, by the
semi-feudal dependence on the landlords existing among
the bulk of the peasants. If we divide the land-holdings
of pre-revolutionary Russia into four groups according
 to size of holding, that is, up to 16.6 hectares,
from 16.6 to 22 hectares, from 22 to 550, and those
above 550 hectares, the relation between the various
groups will be shown in the following table, which gives
the data for 1905, when the census on which it is based
was taken:

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