ave suffered more than any other during the civil
war, being the most dependable and being thrown, like the guards of old
time, into the worst place at any serious crisis. Many thousands of them
have died for the sake of the revolution which, were they living,
they would be hard put to it to save. (The special shortage of skilled
workers is also partially to be explained by the indiscriminate
mobilizations of 1914-15, when great numbers of the most valuable
engineers and other skilled workers were thrown into the front line, and
it was not until their loss was already felt that the Tsar's Government
in this matter came belatedly to its senses.)

But these explanations are only partial. The more general answer to
the question, What has become of the workmen? lies in the very economic
crisis which their absence accentuates. Russia is unlike England, where
starvation of the towns would be practically starvation of the whole
island. In Russia, if a man is hungry, he has only to walk far enough
and he will come to a place where there is plenty to eat. Almost every
Russian worker retains in some form or other connection with a village,
where, if he returns, he will not be an entire stranger, but at worst a
poor relation, and quite possibly an honored guest. It is not surprising
that many thousands have "returned to the land" in this way.

Further, if a workman retains his connection, both with a distant
village and with a town, he can keep himself and his family fat and
prosperous by ceasing to be a workman, and, instead, traveling on the
buffers or the roof of a railway wagon, and bringing back with him sacks
of flour and potatoes for sale in the town at fantastic prices. Thereby
he is lost to productive labor, and his uncomfortable but adventurous
life becomes directly harmful, tending to increase the strain on
transport, since it is obviously more economical to transport a thousand
sacks than to transport a thousand sacks with an idle workman attached
to each sack. Further, his activities actually make it more difficult
for the town population to get food. By keeping open for the village the
possibility of selling at fantastic prices, he lessens the readiness
of the peasants to part with their flour at the lower prices of the
Government. Nor is it as if his activities benefited the working
population. The food he brings in goes for the most part to those who
have plenty of money or have things to exchange for it. And hon