III
To understand the radical differences of the conditions of life in Britain and in Russia, compare a British village with a Russian village. The British village appears to us as a highly differentiated political organism with its hierarchy of classes, its division of social labour: at the summit a small aristocratic community of landed proprietors presided over by the lord of the manor or the local magnate; an intermediate middle class of farmers and trades-people led by the clergyman and the schoolmaster; at the base a democracy of artizans and farm labourers: from the highest to the lowest rung of the social ladder, an intense political and religious life, which is favoured by the close proximity of the town, the continuous interchange between town and country, the rivalry of sects, the grouping of parties, the establishment of clubs and societies for the enlightenment and diversion of the inhabitants.
Now practically none of these conditions exist in the Russian village. There is no ruling class. Estates are too scattered, too wide apart to render social relations possible. The landowner, if he is rich, will spend his income
