for freedom, who during the winter form gigantic caravans of sledges drawn by a pair or three horses for the purpose of transporting goods on long, thousands of miles long, distances.
Twenty years ago such caravans travelled from Kyakhta, on the frontier of Mongolia, to Kazan or Moscow; nowadays they make shorter routes from the Mongolian border or from the Altay to various points on the Siberian railway.
The "Yamshchina" is gradually disappearing, but some few years ago it was still a vigorous organisation possessing its own unwritten law. Only the strongest, healthiest, and most persevering peasants engaged in this work, which was by no means easy. It was something of an effort to carry a heavy load of valuable goods, tea, furs, porcelain or silk from China to Moscow during the long Siberian winter, exposed to frost, hunger, blizzards, and to attacks of numerous bands of criminals who had escaped from Siberian prisons and lay in wait for the caravans. Many brave and rich traders started like those Siberian peasant drivers: for instance, the Kuchtierins or Korolevovs and others, who after the construction of the Siberian railway founded the largest transport companies, owning fleets of steamers, barges, and motor cars.
The Yamshchina produced strong and powerful men, but also taught the half-savage peasants to be indifferent to destruction of human life.
At Tomsk, in Siberia, there still lives one of the last
