The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

4G2RUSSIA IN ETJEOPE.At the same time the communal group has been chiefly maintained and modifiedin connection with the cultivation of the land. This group is the mir of GreatRussia, the hromada of Little Russia, and analogous institutions under othernames are met amongst the Finno-Tatars, Mordvinians, Cheremissians, andChuvash es, and even amongst the German settlers on the Volga. The mir is thusFig. 2*7.Distribution of the Lakd in a Mik.a general institution in the empire, although its most original and best studiedforms occur chiefly in Great Russia.The usual rendering of the term mir by that of " commune " is scarcelycorrect, for labour in common is little practised except in some temporaryagricultural unions, such as the sebershchina of the Lower Volga and LittleRussia. In certain Raskolnik communities the land is not even divided, butcultivated by all, and the produce distributed according to the number of workersin each family. As a rule, labour in common, and equal division of the produce,are practised more frequently on the pasture than the arable lands, and moregenerally on rented farms than on communal property. The word mir, meaning