> (2 of 4) commune judges were exclusively peasants, and volost courts had two noble and two peasant representatives. .. the peasant commune had the right to nullify federal law and was generally self-sufficient. if anything, tsarist russia suffered from too much democracy. in 1861, the volost was replaced by the zemstvo, a strong county system with a lower house of peasants and an upper house of nobles, usually poor. the zemstvo was in charge of education, infrastructure, church life, tax collection and police. there was no part of peasant life that was not based on local democracy. hence,the freedom of the serfs and the creation of a free press, the zemstvo and an endless array of educational reforms put a bullet in the revolutionary movement tsar alexander iii established the peasant land bank in the early 1880s, which gave interest-free loans to peasants and sought to channel investment money into agricultural improvement. tsar alexander and his finance minister, nikolai bunge, drafted and passed the most comprehensive labor regulations in european history. his son, nicholas ii, continually added to them until the outbreak of world war i. in labour relations the russians were pioneers. child labour was abolished over 100 years before it was abolished in great britain in 1867. russia was the first industrialised country to pass laws limiting the hours of work in factories and mines. strikes, which were forbidden in the soviet union, were permitted and minimal in tsarist times. trade union rights were recognized in 1906, while an inspectorate of labour strictly controlled working conditions in factories. in 1912 social insurance was introduced. labour laws were so advanced and humane that president william taft of the united states was moved to say that the emperor of russia has passed workers legislation which was nearer to perfection than that of any democratic country. (to be continued).
Norway