We have still to consider, then, how the Commune affects the Proletariat of the towns.

In Western Europe the great centres of industry have uprooted from the soil and collected in the towns a great part of the rural population.

Those who yielded to this attractive influence severed all connection with their native villages, became unfit for field labour, and were transformed into artisans or factory-workers.

In Russia this transformation could not easily take place.

The peasant might work during the greater part of his life in the towns, but he did not thereby sever his connection with his native village.