Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/736

 558 General History of Europe It not only agreed that the peasants should be required to pay for such land as their former masters turned over to them, but commonly fixed the price at an amount far greater than the real value of the land a price which the government paid the land- lords and then began to collect from the serfs in installments. His new freedom seemed to the peasant little better than that enjoyed by a convict condemned to hard labor in the penitentiary. Although the peasant lived constantly on the verge of starva- tion, he fell far behind in the payment of his taxes, so that in 1904 the Tsar, in a moment of forced generosity, canceled the arrears, which the peasants could, in any case, never have paid. Two years later the Tsar issued an order permitting all the peasants to leave their villages and seek employment elsewhere. They might, on the other hand, become owners of their allot- ments. This led to the practical abolition of the ancient mir, or village community. 1011. Origin of Terrorism. The government officials regarded all reformers with the utmost suspicion and began to arrest the more active among them. The prisons were soon crowded, and hundreds were banished to Siberia. The Tsar and his police seemed to be the avowed enemies of all progress, and anyone who advanced a new idea was punished as if he had committed a murder. It seemed to the more ardent reformers that there was no course open to them but to declare war on the government as a body of cruel, corrupt tyrants who would keep Russia in darkness forever merely in order that they might continue to fill their own pockets by grinding down the people. They argued that the wicked acts of the officials must be exposed, the government intimidated, and the eyes of the world opened to the horrors of the situation by conspicuous acts of violent retribution. So some of the reformers became terrorists, not because they were depraved men or loved bloodshed, but because they were con- vinced that there was no other way to save their beloved land from the fearful oppression under which it groaned. 1012. Terrorism (i878-i88i). The government fought terrorism with terrorism. Suspected revolutionists were hanged and scores