The peasants, who until 1861 were mere serfs and had no ownership of any kind, being supplied with their necessities by the landed proprietors, still largely supply themselves in the northern provinces by the exercise of rights of user from the public domain on designated areas. In the central and southern provinces, farm and forest land, the latter to the extent of nearly 40 million acres, were given to them in communal ownership. As stated above, about 170 million acres classed as government domain still awaits partition and cession to the peasants. 2. _Development of Forest Policy._ The first record of attention to the woods as a special property dates from Michael, the founder, and Alexis, the second of the house of Romanoff, the former becoming Czar in 1613, the latter in 1645. He it was who began to introduce Western civilization. He confined himself, however, to regulating property rights, which up to that time had remained somewhat undefined, the forest, as elsewhere, being considered more or less public property. He issued deeds of ownership, or at least granted exclusive rights to the use of forests, somewhat similar as was done in the banforests. Soldiers alone were permitted to help themselves, even in private forests, to the wood they required. Protection against theft and fire was also provided. The peasants, being serfs, were bound to the glebe, and had, of course, no property rights, being maintained by the bounty of the seigneurs. Alexis’ successor, the far-seeing Peter the Great, who in his travels in Germany and other European countries had, no doubt, been imbued with ideas of conservatism, inaugurated in the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century a far-reaching restrictive policy, which had two objects in view, namely economic use of wood, which he had learned to appreciate while playing carpenter in Amsterdam, and preservation of ship timber, which his desire to build up a navy dictated. All forests for 35 miles alongside of rivers were declared in ban, and placed under the supervision of the newly organized Administration of Crown forests. In these banforests, the felling of timbers fit for ship building was forbidden. Minute regulations as to the proper use of wood for the purposes for which it was most fit were prescribed, and the use of the saw instead of the axe was ordered. These rules were to prevail in all forests, with a few exceptions, and penalties were to be exacted for contraventions. This good beginning experienced a short setback under Catherine I (1725), Peter’s wife, who, influenced by her minister, Menshikoff, abolished the forest administration and the penalties, and reduced the number and size of banforests. But the entire legislation was re-enacted within three years after Catherine’s death (1727) under Anna Ivanovna’s reign, and many new prescriptions for the proper use of wood were added and additional penalties enforced.