Mutual responsibility, in short, creates a very effective system of mutual supervision.
Of Ivan's sons, the one who was a carpenter visited his family only occasionally, and at irregular intervals; the bricklayer, on the contrary, as building is impossible in Russia during the cold weather, spent the greater part of the winter at home.

Both of them paid a large part of their earnings into the family treasury, over which their father exercised uncontrolled authority.

If he wished to make any considerable outlay, he consulted his sons on the subject; but as he was a prudent, intelligent man, and enjoyed the respect and confidence of the family, he never met with any strong opposition.

All the field work was performed by him with the assistance of his daughters-in-law; only at harvest time he hired one or two labourers to help him.
Ivan's household was a good specimen of the Russian peasant family of the old type.

Previous to the Emancipation in 1861 there were many households of this kind, containing the representatives of three generations.