Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/195

Rh family among members of cooperatives is 6.15 persons, as against 5.8, which is the average for the whole population of the government. The amount of land held by members of the cooperatives is 7.26 desiatinas, as against the average of 5.45 desiatinas. The members of the cooperatives have 3.25 heads of cattle, as against the average of 2.74 heads.

The amount of a loan in the loan and savings associations is determined by the standing of the applicant. Therefore, only fairly prosperous peasants can make use of these associations. For example, in the Moscow ouyezd, the membership of the credit cooperatives contains a smaller percentage of peasants owning no horses, than the percentage for the whole population. The percentage of those owning one horse is still lower than for the whole population. It is only for the group of peasants owning more than two horses that the percentage becomes the same as for the whole population. In the southern part of Russia, in the governments of Ekaterinoslav, Kherson, and Taurida, most of the members of the credit cooperatives own two horses or more, while the percentage of those owning no horses is very small.

During the half century of its development, the Russian cooperative movement has selected,—and, in fact, it could not help doing this,—those elements of the population which are capable of energetic, independent activity, the elements which have some economic foundation to work on. Therefore, the fiftieth anniversary of the Russian cooperative movements is a triumph for the whole of economic Russia. The development of the movement has proceeded on such a mighty scale, because the whole country is economically powerful, young, full of inexhaustible economic might. Russia is on the threshold of a new historic epoch.