depended. And the chief burden of the mobilisation fell on the peasants, since horses in regular use for transport could less easily be interfered with. Peasant households having two horses had to give up one, and many of the one-horse households had to do without. The decrease of horses in Russia was felt immediately the war broke out, but it became more and more acute, for the drain on horses for war purposes never ceased. It will be felt for many years to come, for a very small proportion of the mobilised horses will ever return to civil employment. An enormous number died for want of fodder, especially last year, in addition to those which were killed or lost in the campaigns.
The deficiency in agricultural implements and the mobilisation of horses would alone have had a fatal effect on Russian agriculture. But, in addition, the war, of course, made a huge demand on man-power.
During three years of war about 20 million men were mobilised in Russia.[1] The land was practically left to women, unfit men, and children; and they had to do, without machines and horses, work which used to be very unsatisfactorily done with all the men and all the horses to help. The result was two-fold. On the one hand, a considerable diminution of the area under cultivation (estimated at about 20 per cent.); on the other hand, a permanent decrease in yield.
With all these things taken into consideration, it will still be said that Russia should not have suffered any scarcity. For the cessation of all exports—however bad for Russian finance and industry—was to the immediate advantage of the consumers. It kept in the country thousands of tons of grain which would have been exported in normal times. But there was yet another factor. The war not only stopped the export of grain
- ↑ It is a curious fact, but very characteristic of Tsarist Russia, that the General Staff and the War Office never knew the exact number of mobilised men. Though the Revolutionary Government several times insisted on exact returns, the General Staff was never able to comply with this demand. The estimate of twenty millions was made by the Provisional Government.
