** * This common responsibility for the taxes was abolished in 1903 by the Emperor, on the advice of M.Witte, and the other Communal fetters are being gradually relaxed.

A peasant may now, if he wishes, cease to be a member of the Commune altogether, as soon as he has defrayed all his outstanding obligations.
** With the recent relaxing of the Communal fetters, referred to in the foregoing note, this abuse should disappear.
In all countries the theory of government and administration differs considerably from the actual practice.

Nowhere is this difference greater than in Russia, and in no Russian institution is it greater than in the Village Commune.

It is necessary, therefore, to know both theory and practice; and it is well to begin with the former, because it is the simpler of the two.

When we have once thoroughly mastered the theory, it is easy to understand the deviations that are made to suit peculiar local conditions.
According, then, to theory, all male peasants in every part of the Empire are inscribed in census-lists, which form the basis of the direct taxation.