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though it had been considerably improved by variousmeasures taken under Nicholas I (1825-55). Theremainder belonged to certain other categories of serfsor non-serf peasants. The second and third groupswere emancipated separately on very much more favourableterms than the first. These, the landlords' serfs,' bondmen,' bound not so much to the land as to theirowners, were the core of the problem.Their major obligations consisted either in payingdues in money or in kind to their owner or in workinghis land or undertakings for so many days in the week,usually with their own stock and implements, or in acombination of both forms of service. In addition theyworked their holdings in the open-field scattered stripsas members of their commune or village. A considerablesection of the serfs were landless household servants—in general a particularly miserable class—who wereemancipated without any land. The emancipation edictliberated the serfs from their masters, but not from thecommune, and gave them land, but at a price. Henceforwardthey were no longer legally debarred from takingup any occupation.The land settlement was extremely complicated, variedsubstantially in different parts of Russia, and took twentyyears and more to be completed. Its broad outline wasas follows. The landlord kept the land he had farmedhimself, henceforward to be worked by hired labour, asoften as not that of his ex-serfs, who kept their cottagesand garden patches. The communal open fields wentto the ex-serfs (or those who had been state peasants),not as individual private owners in the Western senseof the term, but still organized in the commune. Therewere, it is true, provisions enabling peasants to separatefrom the commune, but they were so hedged about byrestrictions as to be of comparatively little effect. Forthe most part their small strip holdings were not consolidated,but remained as before scattered and subjectto periodical redistribution, save in the minority ofvillages where hereditary tenure was the custom. Itwas planned that the peasants should retain the holdingsthey had previously worked. This to a large extent was136