Rural Adaptation in Russia by Stephen K. s> Wegren (review)

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388 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 on the adoption of arbitrary,subjective thresholds for which no sensitivity analysisappears to have been carried out and presents statisticaldifferentials without commenting on their statistical significance. For a study so ready to dismisswhat it (wrongly)terms 'theoreticaleconomistic models' (p. 47)it is all too ready to attempt to shadow the methods of that discipline. I would much rather have seen more of the illuminatingand absorbingethnographic vignetteswhich do much to shed light on the notion of 'survival'and suggest that it may be survival that straddles the concepts of poverty and social exclusion. Such insight is essential to inform interdisciplinary studies of well-being. Chapter four provides a useful historical account of the evolution of the term 'social exclusion' though there is no attempt, until the final page, to relate that to the transitionprocess. This mantle is taken on in chapter five, which is also left with the more challenging problem of delineating between social exclusion and poverty. The attempt to do the latter is laudable though undermined through our knowledge that, by construction, all of the social exclusion indicatorsare associatedwith poverty, and that the entire sample is 'poor' and thereforeit is not possibleto distinguishcause and effect.Thus the effortsto realize their conceptual distinctionempiricallyis criticallyfloored. It is only on reachingthe finalfew pages of chapterfive, in discussionof the issue of 'old' and 'new poor' in Russia, that one startsto feel convinced that social exclusion and poverty could have been successfullydistinguishedas concepts. It is a shame that more was not made, and earlier,of this theme. The final part of the book, concerning ethnic, cultural and gender based experiences, offers up fascinating and thought provoking insights into the evolution of well-beingin Russia and if followedby a thoroughreadingof the detailed ethnographic vignettes, incorporated in appendix two, one cannot but be engaged. The book shouldbe of interestto anyone concerned by the ongoing affects of transitionon the peoples of EasternEurope and the former Soviet Union. It should also provide a useful reference point for scholars concerned with the concept and measurement of poverty and social exclusion and beyond that any readerwith an interestin the region cannot fail to find somethingof interestin the rich ethnographicstoriesfound within. School of Slavonic andEastEuropean Studies C. J. GERRY University College London Wegren, Stephen K. (ed.). RuralAdaptation in Russia.The Libraryof Peasant Studies, 22. Routledge, London and New York, 2005. 237 pp. Tables. Figures. Bibliography.Index. ?6o.oo. THIS is a collection of articles on rural reform in Russia, Ukraine and the USSR, first published in the Journalof PeasantStudies,April-July 2004. Its unifying theme is the way peasants and farms have adapted to the varying policies emanating from the capital in the past hundred years. The editor's REVIEWS 389 introductorychapteris followedby two historicalchapters.David Macey provides yet another surveyof the Stolypinreform.His chapter,which displaysa solidknowledgeof the literatureon this controversialsubject,arguesforcefully that the Stolypin reform should be considered a success. Mark Tauger discusses peasant responses in the I930S to collectivization. He argues strongly againstthe currentlyfashionable'resistanceinterpretation'.He considersthat collectivization should be seen as a policy to increase food production in a countryprone to famines,and thatpeasantresponsesto it were variedand not exclusivelyto be characterizedas 'resistance'.His sourcecriticismof the use of OGPU documents by adherentsof the 'resistanceinterpretation'is spot on. As far as contemporary Russia is concerned, David O'Brien, Valeri Patsiorkovskiand Stephen Wegren contribute a chapter on rural poverty, based on a 200I survey.This shows a very sharpincreasein both poverty and inequality in 199I-95, followedby a declinein bothin I995-2001, andsignificant fluctuationsin both in I997-200I. Povertywas higher in ruralareas than in urbanones. It was concentratedin householdswith children.The phenomenon of the working poor was widespread. It is left unclear whether or not these last two phenomena were an artefactcreated by measuringper capita income rather than using equivalence scales. This chapter makes clear the importanceof pensions for the welfareof their recipientsand the effectiveness of the Russian pension system in maintaining the living standards of the elderly. Jessica Allina-Pisanois the author of a very interestingsociologicalchapter on the originsof privatefarmersin Russiaand Ukraine.This is based on fieldwork in two black earth regions, Voronezh region in Russia and Kharkiv region in Ukraine. She argues that...