Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1906, (In two parts), Part II

Ambassador Meyer to the Secretary of State.

American Embassy,
St. Petersburg, December 15, 1906.

No. 719.]

Sir: I have the honor to report that an Imperial ukase, dated November 22, has lately been published, granting peasants the right to withdraw from the communal land system and become personal owners of the land they cultivate.

A translation of this ukase is attached hereto.

I have, etc.,

G. v. L. Meyer.

[Inclosure 1.—Translation.]

imperial ukase to the ruling senate.

By our ukase of November 16, 1905, the collection of redemption payments for endowment lands (land granted to free peasants by their former masters) was abolished on January 1/14, 1907. From that date the said lands are relieved of the limitations placed upon them by virtue of the redemption debt and the peasants secure the right of freely withdrawing from the commune, while the right of possession of communal lands which become individual property is strengthened.

However, the actual realization of this legally recognized right in the majority of peasant communities encounters practical difficulties, owing to the impossibility of fixing the extent and making the divisions of the sections to be allotted to the house owners withdrawing from the communes.

On the other hand, the law does not establish the order of executing settlements in connection with expropriation of sections of endowment land in individual ownership whose owners do not possess individual title deeds.

Recognizing, in consequence of this, the necessity of immediately removing the present obstacles to the actual realization by the peasants of their rights to the endowment lands and approving the special report of the council of ministers drawn up in this relation, we, on the basis of section 87 of the fundamental laws of the Empire, edition of 1906, do ordain:

I. In supplement to section 12 of the general ruling with regard to peasants and the remarks in the same (Collection of Laws, special addition to Vol. IX, edition 1902), to establish the following regulations:

1. Every house owner, possessing endowment land under communal rights, can at any time demand that those sections of said lands which belong to him be formally made his individual property.

2. In those communities in which no common partitions were made for twenty-four years preceding the declaration of individual house owners of the desire to change from communal ownership to personal, each of such house owners becomes the individual possessor of all the sections of communal lands which are constantly worked by him (not rented), besides his farm section.

3. In those communities in which, during four years preceding the declaration of individual house owners of their desire to change from communal ownership to personal, there have been common partitions, each of such house owners becomes the individual proprietor, in addition to his farm section, of all those sections of communal lands which are allotted to him by the commune for constant use up to the time of a fresh general partition.

But if a house owner desiring to secure the right of individual possession has been assigned for constant use more land than would fall to his share on the basis of the last distribution, according to the number of distributory units in his family at the time of the said declaration, he becomes the individual proprietor of that quantity of communal land which is due according to the calculation indicated. The land thus left over becomes his personal property only on condition that he pay the commune its value, fixed on the basis of the original average redemption price per dessiatine of the lands granted the commune for partition and subject to redemption payments. In the contrary case all the said left-over land remains at the disposal of the community.

4. House owners who have become individual proprietors of sections of communal lands at his disposal for constant use (sees. 1–3), retain the right of use to the same extent of those arable, wooded, and other lands which are redistributed on a special basis (for example, according to its products, or separately from the lands divided under general partition and on other bases, etc.), and also the right to participate in the use of the undistributed lands, on the bases adopted in the commune, such as “mir,” farm lands, pastures, tenant lands, etc.

5. The constant share in lands divided on special bases (sec. 4) is fixed in accordance with the extent to which each house owner who declares his wish to change from communal to personal ownership enjoys the use of the said lands at the time such declaration is made.

6. Demands for transfer of communal lands to personal ownership (sec. 1) are to be presented to the commune through the village elder, and the commune is obliged, under a decision made by a simple majority of votes, within a month from the date of the declaration, to indicate the sections which, on the basis of sections 2 and 3, become the property of house owners who adopt individual ownership, and where necessary also fix the amount of the supplementary payment due from him (sec. 3) and his constant share in the lands divided on special bases (sees. 4 and 5). If in the course of the said term the community does not draw up such a decision, all the said operations shall, at the demand of the house owner making the above-said declaration, be executed on the spot by the rural superintendent, who shall investigate all the disputes arising thereby and publish his decision in the affair.

7. In the decisions and rulings of the rural superintendents, mentioned in section 6, must be accurately indicated (a) the number of single sections which become the lawful property of the house owner, and also the extent and nature of the lands included in each of them; (b) the amount and description of the lands comprised in the grant of the community, divided on special bases (sec. 4), and the constant share in these lands of the house owner adopting individual ownership; and (c) the lands subject to the common use of all the members of the community and which may not be divided (sec. 4).

8. The parties thereto and interested persons may enter complaints to the district assembly against the community’s decisions and the rulings of the rural superintendent (sec. 6) within thirty days from the time of their declaration. Complaints against the community’s decisions are entered through the rural superintendent, and are presented by him, with his statement, to the district assembly, after a preliminary investigation has been made on the spot. Both the decisions of the community and rulings of the rural superintendent which have been complained of, and those which have not, are presented for confirmation to the district assembly.

9. The rulings of the district assembly, made upon complaints of decisions of the community and rulings of the rural superintendent, as well as with reference to the confirmation of these decisions and rulings (sec. 6), shall be considered final and be carried out by the village elders or the volost elders. Against the rulings of the district assembly complaints may be filed with the government (provincial) council only in cases of excess of the limits of department or evident infringement of the law.

10. In localities in which the regulations of July 12 (25), 1889, have not been put into force, the obligations placed by the present rules upon the rural superintendents, district assemblies, and provincial councils, shall be carried into effect by the persons and institutions under whose duties they fall.

11. In those cases when house owners who become personal proprietors of sections of endowment land, or the community, desire to mark the boundaries of these lands and make a plan of them, the surveying work and drawing up of the plans can be done both by government and private surveyors at the expense of the party which considered it necessary to fix the boundaries.

12. Every house owner who becomes proprietor of sections of endowment land in the order established by sections 1 to 11 of the present regulations, has the right to demand at any time that the community should allot to him, in exchange for such sections, if possible, a section in one place.

13. In those cases when the demand for allotment of a single place does not accord with the general boundary and the allotment is inconvenient or impossible, the community may satisfy the said house owner by a money payment according to a mutual agreement, or failing such an agreement, by an estimate made by the volost court. On his part, the house owner desiring to withdraw, should he consider the estimate made by the court unfavorable to himself, may refuse to receive the money and continue to possess the sections which have become his property in the former boundaries.

14. In general distributions the allotment in single places of sections to house owners declaring their desire to adopt personal ownership before the decision regarding the distribution has legally gone into force, or before the sections of endowment land have become his property in the order established by section 1 to 11 of the present regulations, is obligatory, upon the demand both of the said house owners and the community, without the latter having the right to satisfy said house owners by a money payment.

15. Disputes arising in the distribution of sections to single places, shall be settled upon bases established in the supplement to section 12 of the general regulations regarding peasants, edition of 1902.

16. House owners changing from communal to individual ownership, as well as their heirs and assigns, shall make use of the sections which become their personal property on the basis of the present regulations, until their apportionment to one place, under the same rights as enjoyed by the owners of farm sections. The heirs and assigns also retain the right to participate in the use both of the lands distributed on special bases to the extent to which this right was enjoyed by the original owners of the lands, and of the undistributed lands on bases accepted by the community.

17. In the order and upon the bases established by sections 4 to 16 of the present regulations, sections repurchased before the term will be apportioned or become personal property on the basis of section 165 of the regulation on redemption, edition of 1876, and not apportioned to one place.

18. The operation of the present regulations (sees. 1 to 16) extends to peasants of all denominations, while sections of communal land may become personal property of individual house owners before its liberation from the redemption debt under the condition that that part of said debt be liquidated which falls upon the sections becoming personal property.

II. In supplement to the existing legislation on the order of expropriation of endowment lands comprised in farm possessions, to establish:

1. The expropriation of section of endowment land comprised in farm possessions shall take place in the general order of title-deed transfer. (Notarial regulations, edition of 1892, sec. 66.)

2. The fact of ownership of sections of land mentioned in section 1 by persons expropriating them may be certified in notarial institutions by one of the following documents: (a) Title deeds; (b) deeds of possession and other agrarian acts issued by peasant institutions; (c) the decisions of court statutes as well as Volost courts and district assemblies which have legally gone into effect and been carried out relative to the right of possession of real estate comprised in endowment grants, and to the inheritance of such property (general peasant regulations, sec. 125, pars. 1 and 4, and sees. 142, 159, and 161); (d) settlements in expropriation made prior to January 25 (7), 1883, in Volost administrations (general peasant regulations, sec. 110, par. 1, and remark 1); (e) communal decisions confirmed by the district assemblies or rulings of the rural superintendents regarding transfer of endowment sections at disposal of commune to personal property of individual house owners (division I of the present regulations, sees. 6, 7, and 9); (f) decisions of village and settlement assemblies which have legally gone into effect and been carried out regarding the granting of sections from the communal lands to individual house owners for farming purposes, as well as the exchange of lands for communal use to farm land, and regarding the division of “mir” lands into regular inheritance sections and into farms, as well as decisions regarding the transfer of whole communities with the farm system to ownership in separate sections (general peasant regulations, sec. 62, par. 8, sec. 66, pars. 1 and 2; redepmtion regulations, sec. Ill; peasant ownership regulations, sees. 20 and 21, and government peasant regulations, sees. 32 to 34); and (g) in communities with the farm system, but in connection with farm sections, and in communities with communal cultivation of land, the decisions of village and settlement assemblies confirmed by rural superintendents, or persons having the same authority, to the effect that the expropriated section actually belongs to the person expropriating it by the right of property.

3. The decisions of the village and settlement assemblies, mentioned in point “g” of section 2 of the present (II) division, are made at the solicitation of owners of farm sections, and confirmed in accordance with the following rules:

(a) Said decisions shall be established by a simple majority of votes in certification of the fact of ownership by individual house owners not only of complete farm sections indicated in agrarian acts, but of portions of same forming the indisputable property of individual persons; (b) it is obligatory that there be included in the decision data as to the extent of the section, number of subdivisions of which it consists, dimensions of each subdivision, and nature of land, as well as exact description of locality of section and its boundaries; (c) in those cases when an exact description of the boundaries is impossible, a plan of the section should be attached to the decision, the same being made at the expenses of the owner; (d) it is obligatory that the decision be entered in the book of the village assembly for the inscription of decisions (general peasant regulations, edition of 1902, sec. 69), and a copy of it should be hung up for public notice in the Volost administration and in that village where the section referred to in the decision is situated; (e) the Volost elder is obliged, within a week from the drawing up of the decision, to verify, on the spot, the contents of the decision in the presence of three experts, and immediately present the decision, with his statement, for confirmation by the rural superintendent; (f) within a month from the day of the verification by the Volost elder complaint can be entered against the decision by the parties interested to the rural superintendent, and (g) the decision is not subject to confirmation if it is found to be incorrect in form or if in its establishment those demands have not been recognized which are set forth in the present section, or if the civil right is contested and must be decided by a court.

4. Extracts of notarial acts relative to endowment lands, and subject to confirmation by superior notaries, may be sent by mail by the notaries to the superior (elder) notary.

III. In addition to the existing legislation defining the rights of peasants to sections of endowment land, comprised in farm possessions, to establish:

1. Farm sections, both those that have been placed at the disposal of peasants for farming purposes when their land was divided, and those subsequently made the personal property of individual peasants from communal lands, as well as farm sections under communal cultivation, form the personal property of house owners to whom these sections are allotted by agrarian acts, communal decisions, rulings of peasant institutions, acts relative to expropriation, and decisions of courts. The heirs of these house owners also enjoy such rights to the sections in question.

2. In those cases when the sections indicated in the preceding paragraph (1) are in the indivisible possession of several persons, not relatives to one another in direct descent, the same form their common property.

IV. In supplement to sections 62 and 66 of the general peasant regulations and section 15 of the regulations on land distribution for peasants and settlers of various classes, settled upon owned lands (Collection of Laws, special supplement to Vol. IX, edition of 1902), to establish:

The change of whole communities, both from the communal and farm systems to individual ownership is accomplished under decisions made by a majority of two-thirds of the peasants who have a right to vote at the assembly.

The ruling Senate will not fail to make the necessary dispositions for the fulfillment of this.

Original signed by H. I. M. personally.

Nicolas.

At Tsarskoe Selo, 9/22 November, 1906.