Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/92

 agrarian reform creates the conditions for transforming these small holdings from the mediaeval form of "common," or "common cultivation," into a new form of independent and rounded-off individual holdings. Thus are being laid the economic foundations of that Russia which must by its nature be a great peasant democracy, based on free co-operation of a multitude of small cultivators, working on their own land.

It is a country of a peasant democracy growing in all respects—both in quantity and in quality—and at the same time it is a whole world in itself. I shall simply note a few points. Russia may calculate on solid grounds that she will be able to produce within her own borders a sufficient quantity of cotton for herself, and now she produces nearly all the amount she needs. For this purpose irrigation is necessary, and the execution of this work is only a question of time.

Russia throughout her territory has an enormous deposit of coal. Some geologists hold that the Kusnezki coal area in the Altai Region is the richest coalfield in the world. And this wealth is as yet almost untouched. Further if we remember that in Siberia and in the Urals Russia possesses a practically inexhaustible supply of iron ore, you will realise what a great economic future awaits her as a whole. In speaking of the economic future of Russia, it should never be forgotten that Russia should be taken as a whole, that is, European and Asiatic Russia together. For instance, European Russia, in the matter of coal supplies, stands lower than Great Britain and Germany, but it is just in this respect that Siberia is an inexhaustible store; and that many-sided Russian genius of