ABSTRACT
Peasants knew the limitations of their own political organisation. To unite localised peasant power nationally and to do it effectively, one needed either a base outside, i.e. a revolutionary army or an established guerrilla force ready to march against the peasant enemies, or else some measure of legality which makes communication and unification possible. Peasants differ between regions and between villages as well as within every village. There was also a fair consensus at the congresses of the All-Russian Peasant Union as to the delineation of the evil forces which had stopped peasant dreams from coming true. While the deputies and delegates to the peasant congresses and to the Dumas argued out the demands and dreams of the Russian peasantry in toto, every village proceeded with its own never-ceasing debate. Overwhelmingly, any comparison of local evidence leaves the impression of mainstream similarities a unified ideology, a dream remarkable in its consistency, overriding the socio-economic, regional and local differences.
