Mir

a Russian peasant community. The rural population of Russia is organized into mirs or villages. The land belongs, not to landholders nor to individuals, but to the mir. The portion set aside for dwellings is occupied permanently. The pasture lands are held in common, each peasant having grazing rights. The cultivated lands are allotted to the several families by vote. Widows and wives whose husbands are away working are entitled to vote. Each mir attends to its own local affairs through officers elected for the purpose. Adjacent mirs are united into volasts. The mir has no voice in outside affairs. Since the abolition of serfdom the nobility and the wealthy have been buying up the lands held heretofore in common by the mir.