Yet the principle underlying the proposed
reform is unquestionably capitalistic and is the chief cause of the hatred
and contempt which the party enjoys on the part of Social-Democrats.
In the beginning of the sixties the conservative land committee appointed
by Alexander II, composed of hereditary landowners, avowed enemies of any
economic liberation of peasants, out of fear that private ownership of land
might enrich the peasants and make them dangerous to the established order,
devised a scheme of communal ownership of land and unconsciously taught
the peasants the principles of socialism. In 1907 Constitutional Democrats
opposed the bill of the Government for the dissolution of land communities
and substitution of private for communal land ownership at the request of
individual peasants. The objection raised was on the ground that peasants
suddenly possessed of a chance to get ready money would sell their land
to a few exploiters and being unable to put it to good use would rapidly
become paupers. The best men in the Duma opposed Stolypin's bill, and the
law was introduced by stealth and promulgated during a forced recess of the
Duma. Contrary to expectation the law neither led to the results desired
by the Government, nor to those feared by Constitutional Democrats. It
remained a dead letter. Few members of peasant communities applied for
separation.
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