which were separated out over the steppe, each commune, however, being brought in along with other Russian communes under the volost, and these in turn under the Uchastok. Furthermore, the Tartar starestas meet the Russian starestas on the Volost Council on a footing of perfect equality and discuss matters of common interest, and probably help each other against the officials over them. In fact, as I heard, and as subsequent investigations proved, the native Tartar and Finnish tribes are regarded by the Russian administration as native communes ranking alongside those of the Russian peasants.
The powers of the commune seemed to be very extensive. The heads of each family in the village are collected in the commune with full power to deal with all purely communal affairs, both judicial and economic. "If a man does something wrong," I asked, "can the commune give punishment?" "For serious criminal cases, such as murder," they said, "we must refer to the Mironby Sud, which exists in each volost; but we have very few such cases, for our brothers are peaceable [smierny]." For small disputes the commune meets, discusses the offence and can give punishment. Thus if a man has a dispute with a neighbour over a boundary, if he is drunk in church, quarrels or fights, the commune can give justice. "How much can they punish a man?" "That is not certain, for we sometimes make offenders pay in money and sometimes in vodka. Then the offender must give the oldest members of the commune each a bottle of vodka at his expense." This struck me as a practical if somewhat crude way of dispensing justice.
