I most humbly request the Orel Uezd Land Commission to inform me at its first opportunity as to what I'm supposed to do with my piece of land [otruba]. The time has come for me to clear and dig up stumps, but I don't know what to do. There are people here who are spreading rumors that with the restoration of people's rights the whole procedure for land regulation is going to collapse and our notorious Commune,

The peasant commune, obshchina or mir, was a long-standing institution of peasant self-administration.

which is good only for idlers and parasites who see nothing beyond their nose, will again be in full force. Does Russia, which has thrown off the yoke of autocracy, really have to go backward when the slogan of cultured European nations is “Forward”? Who would call the blind man mincing backward free? No, better the deadman's noose, better death, than a single step back. The commune—what is that? Here I have a strip of land for one soul, which at best is three arshins wide,

One arshin equals twenty-eight inches.

but two of them, thanks to my efforts at plowing deep and all around, yield nothing but loss, which means that two-thirds of my land goes for naught, so even with the most favorable harvest I myself receive two, at most two and a half. So, here is the whole solution to the mystery of our Orel Uezd, which is perishing from hunger and is fed only by imported grain. The whole point is not too little land but the commune. The commune's supporters are unwittingly putting around Russia's neck the most terrifying noose of Autocracy. Almost all the peasants are aware of this, only not all are free of their centuries-old stagnation, which grips the ignorant peasantry like iron pincers, but it's pointless to go on about this subject because you, gentlemen, members of the Land Regulation Commission, know this much better than I. Only J most humbly request that you support the truly free Russia and not the blind man mincing backward. May the slogan of free Russia be “Forward!” Down with the centuries of ignorance! What other than the commune is slowing the progress of our peasant farmer? Under communal practice, were he even a genius and worked twenty hours a day, he still could never work his way out of poverty such as ours! Take the noose called the commune off our neck, and in five years you positively won't recognize our peasant, so far will he have progressed. True, we do have some who are dissatisfied with the new order; except these aren't peasants but people who feed themselves off side earnings, for example, trade and so on, and also some utter ignoramuses who are not worth paying any attention to. I most humbly beg the Orel Uezd Land Regulation Commission to forgive me for writing too much and not sticking to the point, but what can you do? The soul yearns to express itself. We put so much work in last year, and suddenly it all comes crashing down. No, God forbid. It's a bad joke.

In the name of almost our entire village, we most humbly request that you inform us what is valid: our plots of land or, again, the despised commune, and inform us immediately, because the land requires cultivation from us that does not allow for delay.