The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (76 page)

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Authors: Norman Stone

BOOK: The Eastern Front 1914-1917

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^*Even in England, which was well-organised, government met the same problem with farmers. Direct taxes (including an income-tax that took 6/- in the
£
of incomes above
£135
) were levied on farmers with a rule-of-thumb that their profits would be twice their rent. Not many farmers objected to this rule-of-thumb.
⁸

^*In England, direct taxation accounted for a quarter of government revenue in 1917 and 1918.

^*Some nobles responded meanly against their remaining labour-force. The Olsufievs took back six cows they had given to their labourers; Prince V. F. Gagarin cut by half the flour ration he gave them; Prince Lvov—of Provisional Government fame—cut back his present of potatoes by six-sevenths.
¹⁵

^*The word ‘kulak’ (fist) is traditionally applied to these people, as a token of their unpopularity with most peasants. It is a misnomer. ‘Kulak’ meant village usurer, like gombeen-man’ in Ireland. He might also of course own land, but only incidentally. Prosperous peasants were simply known to the peasants as ‘prosperous peasants’.

^*The anti-semitic ‘Black Hundreds’ opened their own bread-shops.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Penguin Edition

Introduction

THE EASTERN FRONT 1914–1917