Abstract
More than a decade ago, in a discussion in this journal, Leopold Haimson argued that peasant soldiersâ perception of Soviet power in 1917-18 âdid not encompass any conception of the relationships between themselves, their village communities, or even the peasant estate as a whole, and other social groupsâlet alone any generalized view of the Russian body politic as a whole.â He went on to note that this peasant particularism âreflected a continuity in the mentalitĂ© of Russian peasants stretching back to the very inception of the Russian state.â Peasants rejected any superordinate authority and consistently acted out âa profound urge to be left alone.â Haimson's description of Russian peasants at the outset of civil war is a powerful evocation of peasant mentalitĂ©s, not only of peasants in Russia but of peasants the world over, and would seem to preclude their inclusion in a nation.
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