Whatever may have been the final outcome of the issue this time[151], “the ides of March are not gone.” The nearer we approach the end of the period of redemption, the greater becomes the material interest attaching the individual to his plot, and the greater, consequently, his opposition to the redivision of the land. At present, since the Statute of Redemption has been extended to all divisions of the peasantry, the conflict between agrarian communism and the interests of the individual has become universal. The old peasant common law, which developed naturally as the consequence of economic equality, now proves oppressive for the destitute, no less than for the wealthy. Given the existing class distinctions within the community, there is no good reason why the proletarian, on leaving his village, should sacrifice his right of property to the _mir_, instead of alienating it for his own benefit. Thus the play of economic interests is dissolving the village community into, on the one hand, a landless rural proletariat, and, on the other hand, a peasant _bourgeoisie_, to whom the title to a large portion of communal land is destined to be transferred. NOTE TO CHAPTER XII., THE “INALIENABILITY” SCHEME. The antiquated presumption of the homogeneity of the village found its practical expression in a scheme which came out of the peasantist press, and caught the ear of the ruling classes. This was the proposal to declare communal land inalienable. The question at issue has had its history. So long as the capitalized amortization tax exceeded the value of the land, the number of peasants who had redeemed their lots in absolute property was limited to a score of the wealthiest householders in a district. It took about 20 years before the rise of rent brought the price of land above the redemption debt, as decreased by the previous amortization payments made by the peasants. It then became profitable for speculators to advance the money necessary for the repayment of the remainder, so as to compel the community to carve out the lot into a separate tract, and thus make the sale feasible. As this speculation dates only from the eighties, the statistics gathered by local investigations are as yet insufficient. The question can be properly handled only when we have the data of a large region comprising, at least, several _gubernias_. So the matter has been dealt with in a series of articles in the Russian press. It appears that a considerable number of peasant plots have passed, by sale, into the hands of strangers, thanks to the law permitting the alienation of communal land. (Sec. 165 of the General Statute of the Peasants freed from bond serfdom.) To see our way clearly through the question at issue, we have to discover who are the buyers of the land sold by the peasants.