ABSTRACT
The kind of work which peasants did was called “black work”, unfit for those of higher status.’ The passage of the weeks was marked by the break on Sunday, of the months and seasons by the fasts and holy-days. As the passage quoted above indicates, the peasant referred to dates not by the Julian calendar but by that of the Orthodox Church. The question of what was fundamentally wrong with the condition of the peasantry is occasionally touched on by A. P. Chekhov in stories dealing with the efforts of the ‘conscience-stricken gentry’ to improve their lot. The state in this was acting partly to guard its own interests, for it needed recruits for its armies and a share of what the peasant produced, in the form of the poll-tax, etc., for its treasury. The conservative politician saw in it the hope of keeping the peasant apart from corrupting influences.
