A vicious dog is struggling against his chain near the little house. A cannon and a bell are nearby. They say that a foghorn will soon be installed, and the inhabitants of Alexandrovsk will be filled with melancholy. If you stand under the lantern of the lighthouse and look down to the sea and on "The Three Brothers," where the waves break in shimmering foam, your head begins to spin and you are terror-stricken. The Tatar Strait can barely be seen from the lighthouse and even the entrance to De Kastri Bay is scarcely visible. The lighthouse keeper says that sometimes he can see ships entering and leaving De Kastri. The wide, sun-drenched, shimmering sea roars dully below; and the far shore tempts you away, and you become overwhelmed with melancholy and anxiety, feeling that you will never be able to get away from Sakhalin. Gazing at the opposite shore, I feel that if I were a convict, I would escape imme- diately, whatever the consequences.
Behind Alexandrovsk, along the Duyka River, lies the Korsakovskoye settlement, founded in 1881 and named after the former Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, M. S. Korsakov. It is interesting to learn that in Sakhalin they name settlements after the governors of Siberia, prison guards and assistant surgeons, but completely forget such explorers as Nevelskoy, the sea captain Korsakov, Bosh- nyak, Polyakov and many others whose memory has earned greater respect and regard than, for example, a jailer like Derbin, who was murdered for his cruelty.*
Korsakovskoye has 272 inhabitants, i 53 male and i i 9 female. A total of 58 households. In the composition of its householders, 26 of whom are called peasants and only 9 convicts, and in the number of females, meadowland, live- stock, etc., Korsakovskoye differs little from the prosperous Alexandrovsk suburb. Eight householders own 2 homes each, and there is i bathhouse for every 9 houses. Horses are kept by 45 householders, who have bctween 4 and 9 cows. Many have 2 horses and 3 or 4 cows. In Eastern Sakhalin ir has the largest number of old inhabitams, 43 having lived there since the founding of rhe settlement. During my census I found 8 who came to Sakhalin in 1870, and i back in 1866. A large percentage of old inhabit- ants is a good sign.
Externally Korsakovskoye gives the illusion of a charm- ing Russian village, but a completely backward one, which has not yet been touched by civilization.
I came here for the first time after dinner on Sunday. The weather was calm and warm, and the people seemed to be taking a holiday. The peasants were either sleeping in the shade or drinking tea. At the gates and under the windows the women searched each other's heads for lice. Flowers grew profusely in the small front yards and in the gardens; geraniums bloomed in the windows. There were many children playing soldiers or horses on the street, or riding on well-fed dogs who would rather have been sleep- ing. When a herdsman, an old vagrant, drove in a herd of more than I 50 head of cattle and the air became filled with summer sounds, the lowing of cattle, the cracking of whips, the shouts of women and children who were driv- ing the calves, the solid smack of bare feet and hoofs along the dusty dung-filled road, and when the smell of milk filled the air, the illusion was complete. Even the Duyka is lovely here. In places it flows along the backyards near the gardens; its banks are green, overgrown with willows and sedge. When I saw it, evening shadows were falling upon the completely smooth surface. The river was calm and seemed to be dozing.
Here, as in the wealthy Alexandrovsk Slobodka, we find a high percentage of old inhabitants, women and literate people. A large number of the women are free and it has almost the same "past history," with its clandestine sale of alcohol, thieving by rich peasants, etc. They explain that in former times favoritism played an important role in setting down homesteads here. In those days the administration readily gave cattle, seeds and even alcohol on credit. This was all the easier because the inhabitants of Korsakovskoye were always clever politicians and carefully arranged that the smallest officials should be greeted as "your worship." However, in contrast to the Alexandrovsk Slobodka, the main reason for its prosperity is neither the sale of alcohol, nor favoritism, nor its proximity to the Sakhalin Paris, but the undoubted success it has achieved in farming. While a fourth of the homesteaders in Slobodka have no arable land and another fourth have very little, here in Korsakov- skoye all the homesteaders till the soil and sow grain; al- though half of the homesteaders in Slo^^ka have no cattle, they are still well fed; and here almost all of the home- steaders consider it necessary to have cattle.
For many reasons Sakhalin agriculture must be viewed with skepticism, but we must also admit that in Korsakov- skoye agriculture is taken seriously and gives comparatively good results. It would be unfair to say that Korsakovskoye people plant two thousand poods of grain annually only because they are obstinate or because they desire to please the administration. I have no accurate figures on the yield and one cannot believe the statements of the people them- selves, but on the basis of certain signs—as, for example, the large number of cattle, the external appearance of their life and the fact that the local peasants are not anxious to leave for the mainland although they achieved this right a long time ago—you are led to the conclusion that the grain yields not only feed the population but even bring some profits which incline the settler toward a settled life.
It is not difficult to explain why these people are suc- cessful farmers, when the inhabitants of neighboring settle- ments suffer dire privation due to an entire series of crop failures and have despaired of ever eating their own bread. Korsakovskoye lies in a valley, where the Duyka River is at its widest. From the very beginning, when they first settled here, the people of Korsakovskoye had a vast tract of land at their disposal. They were not only able to settle on the land, but even to choose their own plots. At the present time 20 homesteaders have 3 to 6 desyatins of land under tillage; rarely does anyone have less than 2 desyatins. If the reader wishes to compare the local plots with our own peasant plots, he should keep in mind that the local arable land never lies fallow but is yearly sown to the last inch, and therefore their 2 dcsyatins arc equal to our 3 dcs- yatins. The secret of the success of the people of Korsakov- skoye lies in their utilizing the exceptionally large plots of land to the utmost.
With the twofold or threefold yield at harvest time on Sakhalin, there is only enough grain if there is enough land. In Korsakovskoyc they have a great deal of land, a large reserve of seed and cheap, free labor. During the years when there is no good harvest, the people of Korsa- kovskoye rely on their produce of fruit and potatoes, which covers a considerable area, some 33 desyatins.
Because the penal colony is so recent and has a small transient population, there has not been time to collect any accurate statistics. The meager figures available to date can only lead to conclusions based on guesswork and conjecture. If one is pardoned for one's haste in drawing up conclu- sions and applying the facts concerning Korsakovskoye to the entire colony, one may say that as a result of the insig- nificant yields on Sakhalin, each homesteader must have more than two desyatins of arable land in addition to hay- fields and land for orchards and potatoes so that his work will be profitable and he will be able to feed himself. It is impossible to set a more definite norm at this time, but in all probability it should be about four desyatins.