Russian Municipal Institutions—Unsuccessful Efforts to Create a
Tiers-etat—Merchants, Burghers, and Artisans—Town Council—A Rich
Merchant—His House—His Love of Ostentation—His Conception of
Aristocracy—Official Decorations—Ignorance and Dishonesty of the
Commercial Classes—Symptoms of Change.
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
THE PASTORAL TRIBES OF THE STEPPE
A Journey to the Steppe Region of the Southeast—The Volga—Town
and Province of Samara—Farther Eastward—Appearance of the
Villages—Characteristic Incident—Peasant Mendacity—Explanation of the
Phenomenon—I Awake in Asia—A Bashkir Aoul—Diner la Tartare—Kumyss—A
Bashkir Troubadour—Honest Mehemet Zian—Actual Economic Condition of
the Bashkirs Throws Light on a Well-known Philosophical Theory—Why
a Pastoral Race Adopts Agriculture—The Genuine Steppe—The
Kirghiz—Letter from Genghis Khan—The Kalmyks—Nogai Tartars—Struggle
between Nomadic Hordes and Agricultural Colonists.
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
THE MONGOL DOMINATION
The Conquest—Genghis Khan and his People—Creation and Rapid
Disintegration of the Mongol Empire—The Golden Horde—The Real
Character of the Mongol Domination—Religious Toleration—Mongol System
of Government—Grand Princes—The Princes of Moscow—Influence of the
Mongol Domination—Practical Importance of the Subject.
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
THE COSSACKS
Lawlessness on the Steppe—Slave-markets of the Crimea—The Military
Cordon and the Free Cossacks—The Zaporovian Commonwealth Compared with
Sparta and with the Mediaeval Military Orders—The Cossacks of the Don,
of the Volga, and of the Ural—Border Warfare—The Modern Cossacks—Land
Tenure among the Cossacks of the Don—The Transition from Pastoral to
Agriculture Life—"Universal Law" of Social Development—Communal versus
Private Property—Flogging as a Means of Land-registration.
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
FOREIGN COLONISTS ON THE STEPPE
The Steppe—Variety of Races, Languages, and Religions—The German
Colonists—In What Sense the Russians are an Imitative
People—The Mennonites—Climate and Arboriculture—Bulgarian
Colonists—Tartar-Speaking Greeks—Jewish
Agriculturists—Russification—A Circassian Scotchman—Numerical
Strength of the Foreign Element.
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
AMONG THE HERETICS
The Molokanye—My Method of Investigation—Alexandrof-Hai—An Unexpected
Theological Discussion—Doctrines and Ecclesiastical Organisation of
the Molokanye—Moral Supervision and Mutual Assistance—History of the
Sect—A False Prophet—Utilitarian Christianity—Classification of
the Fantastic Sects—The "Khlysti"—Policy of the Government towards
