Peasant Life Research Articles

Prishvin on Stalin’s Collectivization: Observations of a Contemporary

This article examines the perspectives of M. M. Prishvin on the collectivization of agriculture, utilizing materials from his “Diary”, which have only recently entered scholarly discourse in the post-Soviet years. The choice of this topic is motivated by the ongoing relevance and intensity of discussions surrounding the Stalin era in Soviet society. The focus of this study is a previously unexamined aspect within Prishvin studies: the writer’s attitude toward the radical transformation of traditional Russian peasant life. It is demonstrated that Prishvin, on one hand, critiques the ruthless methods employed in implementing collectivization, while on the other hand, acknowledges the positive aspects of the economic reforms occurring in rural areas. The significance of Prishvin’s insights regarding the origins and causes of collectivization is further underscored by the fact that his conclusions often predate those of several later researchers of the Soviet period. Prishvin’s analysis of both subjective and objective factors influencing Stalin’s collectivization reveals him not only as a gifted writer but also as an exceptional thinker with a distinct perspective on the pressing ideological, political, economic, and sociocultural issues of his time.

Patterns of peasant way of life in Tobolsk province in the second half of the XIXth century (on the materials of N.N. Mataev’s personal archive)

The goal of the research is to analyze the specifics of the everyday life of old-timer peasants of Tobolsk province on the basis of information collected during ethnographic fieldwork in the Tyumen region. On the basis of the involved narrative sources, such as personal diaries, memoirs, biographies and retelling of ancestral memories of the hereditary peasant N.N. Mataev, marital behavior, child-parent relations, interaction between family members in and out of the home lifehave been studied, the level of child mortality and birth rate have been analyzed, and the cultural specifics of everyday life of several generations of one family have been revealed. The collected records in the form of interviews, diaries and memoirs refer to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, i.e. to the period of active changes and transformations in the way of life of the peasant village in Russia, which determines the relevance of the research, because a thorough study of the identity of the Siberian sub-ethnos allows us to find differences in the consequences of these transformations and understand the history of Western Siberia. The principle of historicism and the civilizational approach applied allow us to observe the stages of development of new forms of family structure and the transformation of peasant life as a result of modernization. The studied ethnographic materials allow to present more fully the picture of peasant everyday life and to draw conclusions about the specific features of the life cycle of the traditional patriarchal peasant family and the community of old residents of Tobolsk province.

ЗАВЕРШАЮЩИЙ ЭТАП КОЛХОЗНОГО СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВА В ЦЕНТРАЛЬНОМ ЧЕРНОЗЕМЬЕ В ОТЧЕТАХ СТУДЕНТОВ ВКСХУ О ПРОИЗВОДСТВЕННОЙ ПРАКТИКЕ

The article is devoted to the analysis of the activities of students of the All-Union Communist Agricultural University named after Y.M. Sverdlov during industrial practice in agricultural organizations of the central Chernozem region at the final stage of the socialist restructuring of the village. The work is based on the data of reports prepared by students of the VKSU for the academic part of the university. The source base was made up of documents of the spring practice of 1936. The subject of the study was a complex of relations characterizing the daily life of employees of collective farms, state farms and MTS in the specified historical period. The relevance of the work is due to the low level of study of this range of issues, as well as the author's appeal to documents that have not previously been involved in solving such problems. For the first time, materials that were not previously in demand in research on the problems of collectivization in the USSR, as well as collective farm everyday life during the second five-year plan, are being introduced into scientific circulation. The information potential of the source makes it possible to study the life of collective farm peasants in everyday, economic, and cultural dimensions. It is shown what role the young specialists played in establishing the work of artels and MTS in the regions of the Russian Black Earth region. The conclusions obtained are intended to expand the source base of scientific research on the problems of socialist transformation of the village in the 1930s, to clarify ideas about the specifics of the creation and functioning of collective farms. The results of the work done serve to deepen the scientific understanding of the processes associated with the restructuring of the village and the place in these processes of students of communist universities of the USSR.

The Portrayal of the Polish-Lithuanian Peasantry in the Memoir Accounts of British Travelers (1764-1795)

The article analyzes the descriptions of Polish-Lithuanian peasants found in travel literature penned by British visitors to Poland during the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski. It aims to present the literary image of peasantry and comment on the Britons’ attitude towards the problems they faced. The authors whose works are analyzed are William Coxe (historian and tutor), John Lind (associate of a Polish king), Nathaniel Wraxall (traveler and ex-merchant), James Harris (a future diplomat), Joseph Marshall (a mysterious figure, probably a merchant) and John Williams. Villagers are generally described as miserable human beings struggling with poverty, cruelly exploited by their lords in a condition resembling slavery. The authors’ attitude is sympathetic to the difficulties of peasant lives. Britons appreciated attempts to extricate them from their plight in the belief that emancipation was ethically desirable and would render their work more productive.

WELFARE AND RURAL WELL-BEING IN POST MAO CHINA (1978-88): A DEBATE

During the first decade of reform (1978-88) there was an impressive economic growth, change in the output growth pattern, shift in the structure of employment, and rise in the income and consumption level of the peasants. The number of those in absolute poverty declined significantly, though rural income inequality, both regionally and intra regionally, even at the village level increased significantly. In this context the question arises: did the growth of income and output per head due to economic reforms accompany a similarly improved performance with regard to non -income indicators of well -being? Based on available literature on rural reforms in post Mao China, this paper examines the debate on the above question. This question assumes importance because China in the pre-reform period had brought remarkable improvements in living conditions including the expansion of life expectancy, reduction infant mortality and illiteracy even with the slow and low growth in per capita income. From the Nolan and Sen it emerges that while policy and institutional changes meant for raising economic growth as well as per capita income were remarkably successful, the same instruments, however, undermined the public provisioning of social goods and services and affected the length and quality of' life of peasants in poorer households for whom market medicated access to health services were proving increasingly difficult. But while the pre-reform Maoist period, had strong egalitarian distributive mechanism in place, the welfare standards and quality of services were too low.

Eating in Budapest's Soup Kitchens. Versions and Aversions from the History of Public Catering (1860–1918)

AbstractThe growth in Budapest's population at the end of the 19th century was based on the influx of migrants from the countryside, mostly industrial workers. The examination of the social tensions generated by their arrival provides a good illustration of the changes in social policy, one element of which was the operation of soup kitchens. In the mid-19th century, the main driving force behind the founding of soup kitchens was individual religious charity, although by the end of the century, social solidarity and state involvement also contributed to the relief efforts. The present study examines the development of soup kitchens in Budapest based on the historical sources: official documents, and the contemporary press. Using the ethnographic findings of food culture research, it seeks to explain why official soup kitchens were not popular. From an ethnographic point of view, the process of lifestyle change among workers newly breaking away from peasant life and moving to Budapest and its metropolitan area has been little explored to date, and the same applies to the embourgeoisement of the peasantry. When interpreting the processes that accompany labor migration, parallels can be drawn between the eating habits of the workers' regions of origin, the value systems connected with work and food, and the common meals organized for agricultural workers when working away from home. Through a historical and ethnographic approach, the transitional, evolving features of urban foodways emerge in the context of soup kitchens in parallel with the change in lifestyle.

«Нашу семью называли в городе “благословенной семьей”…» (к биографии Александра Николаевича Пыпина)

The work deals with the questions of the biography of the outstanding Russian scientist-humanitarian, academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences A. N. Pypin (1833–1904). The purpose of the study is to identify and summarize materials about the Saratov period of the scientist’s life, to present the history of his family, to reveal the role of his father and mother in intellectual and spiritual development. The study of a wide range of memoirs, documentary and epistolary sources resulted in establishing that the history of the noble family of the Pypins dates back to 1791. The ancestors on the father’s side, N. D. Pypin, were clerical workers, on the side of the mother A.E. Golubeva they were priests. It is shown that A. N. Pypin was brought up in a religious family, with high moral ideals, in the atmosphere of love and care. The role of parents in the formation of his humanitarian interests is significant. It is noted that the love of books and reading that distinguished Alexander Nikolaevich from an early age came from his family, from his mother, and was a natural necessity for all younger family members. Parents formed a picture of the world of their son by various means. If the mother did so through literature, primary educational knowledge, then the father formed it by means of contact with real life. He introduced his son to the world of peasant life, of serfdom. According to the scientist, N. D. and A. E. Pypins had a significant impact on the formation of his personality, influenced the choice of life priorities. The paper publishes for the first time the primary source about the birth of A. N. Pypin, the record in the metrical book of Saratov Church of the Holy Saviour, the formulary lists of his great-grandfather, grandfather and father.

Persistence of peasant life in a riverside community of Las Mojarras (Chocó, Colombia): analysis from a social wellbeing approach

La presente investigación indaga por la persistencia de la vida campesina en Los Chenchos, una comunidad ribereña del Pacífico colombiano de 50 habitantes. A partir de un enfoque de bienestar social se examinan dimensiones materiales, relacionales y subjetivas que han permitido a esta comunidad mantener sus medios de vida en un entorno cambiante. Para esto se siguió una metodología mixta basada en observación participante, entrevistas etnográficas y una evaluación cuantitativa-descriptiva de las tres dimensiones del bienestar social en cada uno de los 18 hogares de la comunidad. Se encontró que las decisiones de las personas están motivadas por ciertas preferencias adaptativas, tales como conseguir la estabilidad productiva del hogar, asumir una forma de vida valorada y preservar una red de relaciones familiares, las cuales soportan y posibilitan la vida campesina.

«Оживились антисоветские элементы»: дневник колхозной практики студентов Коммунистического университета национальных меньшинств Запада. Весна 1930 г.

The subject of the article is the activity of students of the Leningrad branch of the Communist University of National Minorities of the West (LB CUNMW) in strengthening the collective farm system during the first Soviet five-year plan. Despite the high interest of researchers in the problems of collectivization, the contribution of activists who carried out the socialist restructuring of the village remains insufficiently studied. In particular, the role of students of communist universities in the cause of collective farm construction is poorly covered. As a source we have attracted the diary of the students of LB CUNMW who practiced in the spring of 1930 in one of the districts of the Leningrad region. These records were intended to be reporting documents. At the same time, they have the features of documents of personal origin, having expressed features of subjective perception of reality. They contain observations and impressions characterizing from different sides the village life in the north-east of Russia of the period under consideration. The language of the diary is devoid of the formalism inherent in office documentation, which allows us to better see certain aspects of rural life, understand the mindset of the peasants and the trainees themselves. The source highlights the events related to the growing acuteness of socio-economic contradictions in the village, caused by the criticism of the former approach to collectivization by the top leadership of the USSR. The collapse of the newly established collective farms, the attempts of the kulaks to restore their influence in the village, and the growing distrust of Soviet power were the main challenges for young communists. The aim of the publication is to reveal the informational potential of student practice diaries as a historical source, to show their cognitive potential. The study of these materials can be carried out through various methods, both historical and interdisciplinary (content analysis, discourse analysis and others). The inclusion of the report diaries of the students of LB CUNMW in the scientific turnover opens up opportunities to expand and clarify the picture of perceptions of collectivization in the USSR. The documents help to examine collectivization activists as subjects of the historical process in a new way, to understand more deeply their motivations and logic of their actions, to define more precisely their place in the general context of events. The records made by students in the course of their work not only highlight private aspects of peasant life, but also contribute to revealing the inner world of their authors, which becomes accessible to the modern historian.

Märchentexte zwischen Volkspoesie und bürgerlicher Sprachkultur : zur sozialsymbolischen Potenz von Sprache

The publication of the 'Kinder- und Hausmärchen' (= KHM) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is closely linked to the constitution of the bourgeoisie in the 19th century. In contrast, a hitherto little-researched corpus of fairy tale and legend texts from the Bavarian-Bohemian border region bears witness to the unadulterated storytelling culture of the rural population. In the following article, it becomes clear to what extent the textual genesis of the 'Kinder- und Hausmärchen' focuses on the establishment of a bourgeois linguistic culture, which distinguishes itself from the behaviour of the nobility and peasant life alike.

Rural Settlement Network in Territory of Contemporary Omsk Region from Last Quarter of 19th Century to Early 20th Century

The article examines the characteristics of the formation of the rural settlement network in the territory of modern Omsk region during the last quarter of the 19th century through the early 20th century. The relevance of this study is driven by societal and governmental interest in rural history, as well as by the expansion of the source base, which is related to the popularization of museum collections and personal archives. Throughout the research, the author analyzes a wide range of sources and identifies features of the territory’s settlement, lifestyle, and everyday life of peasants, as well as the nature of relationships between settlers and natives. The author concludes that natural and geographical conditions played a significant role in shaping the network of rural settlements, organizing economic life, and the daily routines of peasants. Particular attention is paid to the study of the economic life of peasants, as it was one of the defining factors in the formation of the rural settlement network of the territory. The investigation reveals that agriculture was the main occupation for peasants in the Omsk Irtysh region, despite the limited amount of arable land available. Livestock breeding was confined to its economic significance. Additional income for peasants depended on their settlement location and was determined by the natural resources of the territory. Natural and geographical conditions also dictated the external appearance of settlements.

The Leading Role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Anti-alcohol Struggle of the Early Twentieth Century in Russia
 (on the Example of the Penza Diocese)

The article is devoted to the role and significance of the Russian Orthodox Church in the struggle with the excessive consumption of alcohol in Russia together with the state and society at the beginning of the twentieth century. The time period is determined by the action of the treasury wine monopoly. Some special attention is paid to the anti-alcohol activities of the Penza Diocese; we draw your attention to the objective difficulties which were faced by the church in countering alcohol consumption because of the agrarian nature of the territory covered by the diocese’s jurisdiction. The effectiveness of the anti-alcohol struggle of the church and the state is analyzed. As part of it, the work of the Civil Guardianships on People's Sobriety is
 considered, their low effectiveness in the framework of the anti-alcohol struggle, which manifested itself in an increase of the treasury costs and at the same time an increase in per capita alcohol consumption. The work of parish societies, their successes and achievements are compared with them. The article also refects on the meaning of drinking alcohol spirits not only in peasant life and traditions, but also their role in the everyday life of clergymen. Particular attention is paid to the work of parish societies during the years of the so-called Alcohol Prohibition, when the civil struggle for sobriety was minimized. Some parallels are drawn with the current stage of the anti-alcohol struggle in order to take into account the mistakes and successes of the past in the present.

고바야시 다키지(小林多喜二)의 농촌소설 연구

This paper considers the lives of peasants in Hokkaido through Kobayashi Takiji's rural novels. Even in the new Hokkaido, life was difficult for the peasants, and the shadow of war loomed over them. As the peasants suffered from exploitation by landowners, they were terrified of war. Through a series of rural novels, from “The Snow Forest” to “The Absent Landowner” and from “The Absent Landowner” to “The Village at the Edge of the Swamp”, Takiji depicted the rural areas being eroded by Japanese capitalism. In “The Snow Forest” he describes the work of individuals, in “The Absent Landowner” he creates farmers' organizations, and in “The Village at the Edge of the Swamp”, he describes the rural areas being dragged into the war. In short, “The Village at the Edge of the Swamp” shows an anti-war consciousness.

Daily life of peasants of Podillia border regions at end of 19th century (according to letters of Vasyl Kravchenko to Borys Hrinchenko from archival fonds of Institute of Manuscript of V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine)

Daily life of peasants of Podillia border regions at end of 19th century (according to letters of Vasyl Kravchenko to Borys Hrinchenko from archival fonds of Institute of Manuscript of V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine)

Peasants, Good Living and Agroecology for Rural Development

Objective: To understand the possibility of rural development that interrelates the principles of good living and the practice of agroecology to rural development. Theoretical reference: The Good Living and its perspective of building a society that comprises a balanced and respectful coexistence with nature; agroecology as an alternative for survival in the rural environment and rural development that brings with it many demands and the need to (re)know the plurality of rural peoples. Methodology: Exploratory bibliographic research with content analysis that aims to understand and explain how the peasant way of life interrelates the theory of the Good Living with agroecological practices for rural development. Results and conclusion: We highlight the broadening of the debate on the subject addressed, in order to collaborate scientifically with the studies about the peasant and his life in the countryside. What is expected of rural development is that it promotes improvement in the lives of peasants, thus enabling them to remain in the countryside, with quality of life. Implication of research: By pursuing existing integration in the principles of living well with agroecology, research offers an innovative approach to sustainable rural development including the promotion of environmental conservation and the well-being of peasant communities. Originality: Lies in the interdisciplinary and innovative approach that seeks to integrate the principles of Good Living, with the practice of agroecology. This approach contributes to an evolving field of study, providing new perspectives in the search for solutions to the challenges faced by rural communities and contemporary agriculture.

Range of Alternative Estimates of Intra-Village Income Inequality According to Western Siberian Data Tax Layouts of the Early 20th Century

The article presents the results of the first attempt in domestic and foreign historiography to measure inequality among peasants on the eve of the Great Russian Revolution using indirect data on income from distribution sentences. At the beginning of the 20th century they were known as resolutions of village assemblies and they established the basis for the distribution of the total amount of taxes of a given village among peasants and fixed amount of payment of each individual peasant, taking into account his solvency. From a total of five thousand distribution sentences, sentences from three neighboring villages from the Tomsk district for three years from 1902 to 1908 were selected for microanalysis. The peculiarity of the distribution sentences is that they only approximately reflect the level of income of the peasant. In this regard, the authors proposed various ways to clarify the data of distributed sentences (recalculation of family data into personal data and exclusion from the calculation of the amount broken down without taking into account property criteria). The resulting figures for the Gini coefficient, which measures inequality, are compared with figures for other countries known from historiography. The authors conclude that the data support the average estimates of pre-revolutionary inequality, as opposed to the lowest and highest existing estimates, and this does not exclude the significant tension introduced into the lives of peasants by income inequality within each individual village.

Dreams of Socialism Reflected in a 1947 North Korean School Textbook

In 1945, with the participation of the Soviet Union, which sent naval forces to the northern coast of the Korean peninsula as well as paratroopers to Pyongyang, Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule. A limited contingent of Red Army units was dispatched in the northern part of the Korean peninsula to accept Japanese surrender and maintain law and order until the establishment of the national administration. From 1945 to 1948, Soviet citizens who worked in North Korea and the new North Korean authorities both made efforts to propagate a positive image of Soviet socialism. Their efforts would be successful among the lower classes of Korean society. The middle school textbook the “Kugŏ (Native Speech 국어),” published in 1947 in North Korea, provides a clear example of how the positive image of the USSR, when it came to village development, was presented to the Korean younger generation in the framework of traditional dreams about the lives of peasants. In particular, the Korean language textbook broke down the Japanese perception of the socialist village where, according to the former Japanese colonial authorities, peasants have no private property. The “Native Speech” textbook stated that the “peasants who choose socialism will own their land themselves and will be able to have private property.”

“Nravstvenniki” or “Derevenshiki” (Village Prose Writers) as Phenomenon of the Russian Spiritual Revival

The article researches the legacy of the “nravstvenniki” (village prose writers) as an important phenomenon of the Russian spiritual revival in the second half of the twentieth century. It examines the original view based on the millennia-long experience of peasant life, taken by the “village prose” on the fate of a person facing the destruction of the Russian Orthodox civilization. This experience uniquely combines the Christian soul and the “cosmic” (sobornost’-people-nature) conscience, which allows to immediately and unerringly feel and deeply understand any untruth of the existence. This truly is the latest word of the great Russian literature, not in the chronological sense, since another era is already upon us, but in the sense of revealing the last foundations of the “Russian point of view” (V. Woolf) to the world. The main storyline of the “village prose” was the death of the great Orthodox civilization and the perpetuation of the images of its living members surviving into the second half of the twentieth century. This prompted Viktor Astafyev to call it a unique “global phenomenon born out of the suff ering and misfortunes of the people”. The experience of the literature of “nravstvenniki” (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn), however, also showed the reality of the Orthodox revival of the Russian people, prophesying on this moral basis a new revival of Russia. The article off ers several representative examples of works that enable the reader to understand the spiritual meaning and signifi cance of this literary phenomenon and to appreciate the worldwide historical task it tried to solve: to comprehend both the greatness of the Orthodox peasant civilization and the tragedy of its destruction. The most prominent critique and literary reviews on the “village prose” are also considered. The article ends with substantiating the conclusion of this literary phenomenon becoming the newest Russian classics, corresponding to the most important and urgent tasks of the spiritual revival of Russia and creating a new “canon” of Russian Christian literature of the twenty-first century.

CASE STUDY OF INNOVATION BUSINESS MODEL TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE OF PRIVATE FARM IN TAIWAN

This study investigation modern sustainable agricultural business model of private farm in Taiwan. Enter the real field, understand the rural environment on the spot, and hope to bring substantial help to the current agricultural environment in Taiwan. Conduct Zhang-Jia farm as the case, based on local ecology, production and life to analyse the management characteristics of the farm. Combine with the theory of ideas explored in the literature to verify the relevance of its actual mode of operation and goals. Observe the local tribal ecology and industrial context to find problems, and compile various conceptual factors that affect the sustainable development of Taiwan's agriculture based on the literature. Through developing organic agriculture, promoting leisure agriculture, developing diversified agricultural products, promoting food agricultural education, and organized production and marketing groups as strategies. Through diversification activities, construct a field environmental relationship brimming with "agricultural production", "peasant life" and "rural ecology", and practice the concept of respect for nature. To maintain the survival of the farm and leave a beautiful homeland, further to increase agricultural production, increase income, maintain natural ecology, create the best areas for farming and living, attract more young people to return to the countryside, and to promote sustainable agriculture in Taiwan.

Osobennosti primeneniya norm obychnogo prava v praktike volostnyh sudov pri rassmotrenii brachno-semejnyh sporov (vtoraya pol. XIX – nach. XX v.)

The article analyzes the peculiarities of the historical development of the volost courts in the Russian Empire of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries in terms of considering marriage and family disputes. The features of interaction between customary law and general civil legislation relevant for the specified period and the shortcomings related to the procedural aspects of the performance by volost courts of their functions have been identified. It is concluded that the post-reform period was a transitional stage from the legal customs regulating the life of peasants by customary law to the corresponding laws and regulations and the subsequent formation of the branch of family law.