property is not clearly defined in the mind of the average peasant who
considers plants that are not planted but grow wild to be a gift of God.
In disputes involving such cases the line between rightful possession and
theft is difficult to draw, and men who took the controversy to court were
invariably hated. A glaring example of this kind was an otherwise
liberal minded landowner, a well known professor of sociology, who spent
three-quarters of a year in lecturing at a foreign university of which he
was a member and who was finally murdered on his own estate.

The home life of even liberal intellectuals was another barrier between
them and the masses. Not only was coarse food considered to be good enough
for domestics, but they seldom, if ever, had a decent corner for themselves
in the house and their miserable wages were out of all proportion with the
long hours of service required. Many families had guests almost daily, the
company sitting around a samovar, discussing and conversing until one or
two in the morning, while the sleepy domestics were stealing a nap in the
anteroom, ready to appear at the call of the mistress. The table had to
be cleared after the guests and the family retired for the night and the
breakfast had to be prepared, boots polished, stoves heated, rooms cleaned
in the early morning. For the master might rest until ten or eleven, but
the children have to be at school by eight and the servants must be ready
to serve them. And though many families kept professional servants, the
country homes depended almost entirely in winter as well as in summer on
local help.

Attempts to improve the condition of peasants were numerous and in some
respects successful, but found an obstacle on the one hand in the attitude
of the Government and on the other in the conservatism and suspicion of the
peasants themselves. Fire insurance and cooperative enterprises helped to a
certain degree, but an almost complete absence of expert agriculturists in