The Reconstruction of Moscow

"In Moscow, as in all big cities in general, there is cpiite a considerable gromp of persons who have not only sunk to an extreme level of destitution, but whip have even lost all human digmtty. Drunkenness, disease, chronic hunger, the influence of changes in temperature on their ail-but naked bodies — all these deplorable and distressing conditions have made them physically and morally unfit for regular work, as a consequence ^of which they have no definite means of suhsistence, neither property nor even a permanent abode. These outcasts of our society usually spend their days on the streets, and their nights in doss- houses, which they have to quit at daybreak. "The next class of the poorer population of Moscow constitutes a huge icateigory of able-bodied and hard- working people. These are the factory and mill workers, small independent artisans and the people who work for them, cab-drivers, seasonal workers from the country employed by contractors, labourers, small tradesmen, clerks, domestic servants, low-paid railway employees, and the families of the people belonging to the professions we have enumerated and many other professions. The characteristic feature of this class of persons is that it has a somewhat fixed and steady income, althouigh this income at times varies considerably; it has some sort of posses- sions, and is anxious to obtain a permanent place of xesidence. These are the people who occupy quar- ters which differ from the doss-houses only because they are tenanted by a settled population who hire premises for a fixed, more or less prolonged period."*

* Moscow City Council News, Na. 19, October 1902, p. 2.