Poor Peasants Research Articles

Philadelphia Chinatown’s cultural image construction since the 1960s

Philadelphia Chinatown, an immigration hub with diverse cultures, is a vibrant ethnic enclave in Pennsylvania. It has a long history of being secluded due to national sentiments as well as persecution and fighting against urban construction projects. Through the analysis of Philadelphia Chinatown’s social structure and iconic features, this paper analyzes the Chinatown society’s cultural image construction since the 1960s, and further discusses its changing cultural patterns in the American society. It is argued in this paper that: Philadelphia Chinatown, mainly comprised of poor peasants and wealthy merchants in an early stage, is based on commerce; its cultural image was constructed by Orientalism, stemming from both the internal organizations of the community and external society, and took roots on its commercial basis; the Chinese traditions in the Chinatown society are comparatively static, while, on the other hand, the community’s culture is infiltrated by American cultures, making connections with indigenous societies.

Writing in the Ruins of Mullivaikal: Shobasakthi’s Box: A Story Book

The Sri Lankan-born diaspora writer Shobasakthi’s novel is about a Dalit village in Mullaitivu, Vavuniya District after the Mullivaikal war. The Periya Pallan Kulam villagers carry not only the scars from Mullivaikal, where the state had used all its might on bombing these poor peasants, but also a long memory of caste-based depredations by their neighbors, the elite-caste Vellalars of Vellam Murippu. I argue that in writing a novel about state-sanctioned dispossession of a people, Shobasakthi writes a caste novel. Box was published in Tamil in 2015; my English translation is forthcoming. My essay is in two parts: the first part discusses the caste politics of Sri Lankan Northern Tamil country as exemplified by the Vellalar caste-identified Village Officer in his betrayal of Periya Pallan Kulam to the state. In the second section, I study closely the mimetic theater method employed by Periya Pallan Kulam in telling its unsayable truth about their suffering.

Gendered subalternity in Khwabnama

ABSTRACT As an insightful literary text exploring segments of labyrinthine South Asian peoples’ history, Akhtaruzzaman Elias’ Khwabnama (1996, the title translates as “The Narrative of Dreams”) is a fictional account of peasantry around the beel (marshlands) regions of present-day northern Bangladesh. The novel is set against the Tebhaga movement of the 1940s that demanded two-thirds share of the crops for landless sharecroppers. This is to be read in the light of the emergent (East) Pakistan movement that peddled dreams of Muslim subaltern ascendancy, once Partition had displaced predominant Hindu landlords. The bulk of Elias’ characters are, however, “the colonised subaltern subject(s),” who undergo only a de-facto transference of thralldom under nouveau riche Muslim landowners. Contrary to vaunted dreams (khwab) therefore, the poor peasants were never to emerge into any centrality of power equations. From the perspective of gendered subaltern representation, Khwabnama explores Elias’ partial dismantling of the sexual division of labour that Gayatri Spivak disavows as a colonial and phallocentric construct. Notwithstanding that the majority of women characters are hemmed in by mundaneness and carnality, and lack agency to approximate the cultural or political aspirations of their male counterparts; there are still a few who are physically strong and equal sharers with men in agrarian productivity. In the light of these observations, this paper reads Khwabnama as a text of masculinity that attempts a recreation of subaltern history, while effacing the “itinerary of the subaltern” female, at a critical juncture of Bangladeshi historiography.

Rural Cooperation and the Finnish Society. Past, Present and Future

This essay deals with the importance of human cooperation for the development of societies and economies. The rural history of Finland offers rich material about the topic, including forms and applications of cooperation in economy and community life as well as the role of cooperetion in the development of social institutions and fulfilling political goals. Historical continuum covers here 900 years, including Finland as part of Sweden (~1100-1808), as an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russian empire (1809-1917) and as an indpendent republic of Finland (1917-). The author aims to provoke discussion about the social political importance of cooperation in general as win-win model recognising collective interests of people and balancing dominant individualistic view of man behind the rationality of mainstream competition economy. Long historical evidence of cooperative survival calls e.g. for continuing theoretical works like Nobelist Elinor Ostrom´s path-breaking analyses of the Commons and to give deeper time perspective for comparative research interests around recent topics, like the role of social economy in different countries. Relationships between cooperation and society can be recognised during history in changes of socio-political power relationships, applying of new technologies and re-organising community activities and economic exchange. An example with far-reching comsequences of these components in Finland was the period around the turn of 18th and 19th centuries. Market economy was replacing local subsistence economy, leaving traditional local means of livelihood in troubles. Rural poverty was critical social question needing measures to introduce new agricultural technologies and empowering poor peasants to self-help and extension organisations. Need to find access to larger markets for food and timber, including exporting, was also extremely important. Awareness of new European models of rural and agricultural cooperatives came into this context through influential pioneers, like Hannes Gebhard. After founding of Pellervo Society as central organisation of cooperation, the adoption and dissemination of cooperatives went on rapidly as an important component of Finnish small farm favouring agricultural policy. Talkoot is an essential element of the Finnish rural cooperation. Initially talkoot has been applied in rural communities as voluntary and mutual exchange of work and equipment. This could respond to everyday needs, but has also been applied for the sake of solidarity, to help disadvantaged members of the community. Talkoot-practices were exploited also by authorities, obligating subjects collectively to cooperate for certain common responsibilities. As an example of talkoot potential of Finns in exceptional circumstances was the organising of voluntary acts in home front during the wars 1939 and 1941-45.Received: 28 April 2023 Accepted: 11 July 2023

The system of characters in the novel «Erenger» by Mari writer M. Shketan

This article is devoted to the analysis of the correlation of characters with each other, their individual characteristics in the novel by Yakov Pavlovich Mayorov (pen name is Shketan) «Erener». The artistic significance of literary characters in revealing the ideological and thematic content of the work, its problems, ways of expressing their character are revealed. Such heroes as Evai Petr, Vanka Savelyev, Verush, Orina, Shamrai Shumat, Klavdia Algaeva, being in the center of the prose writer’s attention and having a firm character and strong will, are actively transform the artistic reality. Through actions, deeds performed, external and internal manifestations of the personality of the main character Evai Petyr, the author’s basic concept of peace and man in it is expressed. This large art canvas reflects the history, life, culture of the Mari people of the early 20th century; the spiritual appearance and character of the Soviet people. The writer managed to reveal the individual originality of the character traits of each hero of the work, psychologically subtly outline his inner world, thoughts and experiences. Revealing the fate of typical heroes of different social strata: the social formation of communists, rural intelligentsia, wealthier peasants and merchants, poor peasants who were the first to support Soviet regime, M. Shketan tells about the life of the Mari people in the period before the October Revolution of 1917, in the first decade of Soviet regime. The wide coverage of political, social problems and deep coverage of life processes in all their complexity and versatility, a vivid character system determined the artistic significance of the work. The main feature in the depiction of the novel’s characters is that their life is shown in a creative relationship: influencing each other, changing the social system, the way of life, they change the heroes themselves.

Interpreting the Cause of Tess’ Tragedy: Dualism

Tess is widely recognized as the "best novel" of the 19th century by British realist novelist Thomas Hardy. The female protagonist Tess of the novel has also become an immortal artistic figure in the minds of readers.Tess in the novel was born into a poor peasant family, but has the blood of a declining aristocratic lineage . So she not only inherited the humble obedience, tenacious fighting spirit, and survival ability of her grandmother's family, but also had the self-esteem and arrogance from the declining aristocrats of her father's family, as well as the tendency of self destruction. This fact about bloodline is reflected in Tess, which is the duality of her personality. This article analyzes Tess' behavior and demeanor in the novel, more importantly her reactions and choice made to certain matters of significance, focusing on her contradictions in terms of the following aspects, that is, her self-esteem and inferiority complex, her pursuit of instinctual desires, and her construction of a fortress of religious ethics in her heart, her tenacious fighting spirits and weakness in mind . It not only interprets the stubborn and weak willed personality traits of life, but also explains the decisive role of personality in Tess' tragic fate.

RURAL POLICY OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The report examines rural development of the People's Republic of China and agricultural policy of the Communist Party of China in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries. After the end of World War II, the Chinese Communist Party largely secured its victory over the Kuomintang in the Civil War (1946-1949) thanks to the rural population of China, a predominantly agrarian country at the time. The reforms in the village envisage the implementation of an agrarian reform, expressed in the confiscation of land and means of production from the large landowners and wealthier peasants using hired labor and their distribution among the landless peasants. The first stage of the agrarian reform was carried out until 1952 and was related to the land acquisition of poor peasants. The second stage took place during the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957) and was related to the collectivization of agriculture. In practice, the agrarian reform ends with the complete cancellation of private ownership of land. At the beginning of the period of the so-called "Great Leap Forward" (1958-1961), cooperatives were transformed into people's communes - basic public organizations in which agricultural and industrial production, trade, education, etc. was developed. After a short period of calm between 1962 and 1965, in May 1966 Mao Zedong launched the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution", whose vanguard were the student-run "Red Guard Squads", the so-called "Hóng Wèibīng". Undoubtedly, the impact of the Cultural Revolution (May 16, 1966 – October 6, 1976) on the PRC in social, political, cultural and economic aspects was very negative. The economy was hit particularly hard in 1967-1968. The death of Mao Zedong on September 9, 1976, the elimination of the far-left Gang of Four, the complete seizure of power by Hua Guofeng on October 7, 1976, and the rehabilitation of Deng Xiaoping, set the stage for major changes in the country's economic management. The beginning of economic reform is associated with the 3rd Plenary Session after the 11th Congress of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held from December 18 to 22, 1978 in Beijing. The reforms start in the rural areas where 80% of China's population lived at that time and marked the beginning of the new path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, initially reviving the family form of land management, and then developing channels for the sale of agricultural products, reviving rural enterprises related to the processing of raw materials from the rural economy. First coined by Deng Xiaoping in 1982, the concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics aims to redefine the relations between planning and socialism, and market economy and capitalism. It has preserved institutions of socialism and public ownership while importing sophisticated management experience and advanced market mechanisms from developed countries. The term "socialist market economy" was introduced in 1992 by Jiang Zemin.

A Humble Blind Singer's Autobiographical Song: Oral Creation Facing a Hong Kong Teahouse Audience

Abstract In 1975, I arranged for the blind professional singer Dou Wun (1910–1979) to sing a traditional narrative genre called naamyam in an old Hong Kong teahouse, three times weekly for three and a half months, facing the teahouse diners. Of the forty-five hours he sang there, he sang an original song composed by himself on his own life for six hours, which he reluctantly did after I pressed him on the idea. It totaled about 1,800 lines of verse, interspersed with spoken prose. In this essay, I shall first report on my concept, construction, and implementation of the fieldwork. Second, I use selected passages from his song to outline his life story. Born to a poor peasant family and blind at three months of age, Dou Wun wandered alone on the streets of Canton from age nine, received training to sing naamyam from a master singer, and finally arrived in Hong Kong in 1926, where he sang in brothels and opium dens. He lived through the difficult periods of the Japanese occupation, changing tastes in entertainment, and the early days of mass media. When times changed and his songs were no longer in demand, he ended up singing on the street. In the last part of the article, I argue for the significance of this epic autobiographical song in world oral literature and assess Dou Wun's creativity and artistry.

1920년대 조선총독부 연초전매권 확립에 따른 犯域확대와 ‘違法’행위의 의미 -『朝鮮煙草專賣令』 예외조항의 설정과 폐지과정을 중심으로-

The Joseon Governor General office established the Monopoly Bureau(專賣局) in order to secure fiscal profit and play the role of capital itself. But it was impossible for the authorities to put an end to colonized Joseon’s traditional practices(including consumption) regarding tobacco at once. So, while they did declare full implementation of a monopoly on tobacco, they had to allow certain exceptions. The ｢Joseon Tobacco Monopoly Act(朝鮮煙草專賣令)｣ that was put into effect in 1921 recognized three exceptions: production of Cutted tobacco (Hwang’gak Yeoncho, 荒刻煙草), disposal of Whole Leaf tobacco(全葉喫用) and cultivation of tobacco for private usages.BR Such exceptive clauses could only be found from Joseon, and not from other regions within the realm under the influence of the Japanese Empire. Their existence was indeed colliding with the authorities’ need to secure sufficient monetary income, and thus had to be abolished. So the Japanese imperial authorities started to oppress the traditional Joseon tobacco market, and continued their efforts to eliminate independent cultivators, which were being protected by the exceptive clauses of such exceptional treatment.BR Reducing the number of exceptive clauses or at least narrowing their scope meant expanding the range of illegal activities. Number of offenders breaching the 「Joseon Tobacco Monopoly Act」 continued to rise. It was not a temporary phenomenon caused by rigid enforcement or crackdowns. People who had been operating under the exceptive clauses were poor peasants marginalized by the monopolized market overseen by the Monopoly Bureau.BR With the 「Joseon Tobacco Monopoly Act」 revised in 1929, full monopoly was achieved, but it was still in conflict with Joseon’s social, cultural, and economic reality. Even after a fully monopolized system was established, Joseon people operating outside the law continued to emerge and be caught.

Bengali Mughlai Platter on the Table: Muslim and Indo-Persian Food Culture in Bengal

ABSTRACT Shorn of a strong aristocratic lineage tracing its roots to the Turko-Persian world, Bengal’s Muslim population was created by a wide-ranging conversion of poor peasants. Indo-Persianate cuisine was thus slow to spread here, patronized by the eighteenth-century Nawabi court in Murshidabad, fitfully adopted by Bengal’s predominantly Hindu landed aristocracy in the mid-nineteenth, and spreading among the non-elite only after the move to Calcutta of the deposed Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh. The Partition created two slightly different culinary traditions on either side of the international border, in Kolkata and Dhaka. How does one then approach the question of “heritage food” among the Muslims today in a state – and in a city like Kolkata – that combines such divergent historical trajectories? The paper will offer some tentative answers by examining both the materiality of food consumption, and the discursive processes that crafted an imagined heritage of Indo-Persian food culture in Bengal.

Brian DeMare. Land Wars: The Story of China’s Agrarian Revolution.

Brian DeMare’s Land Wars: The Story of China’s Agrarian Revolution is a beautifully written account of land reform in China, one of the most brutal and transformative historical processes in modern Chinese history. DeMare weaves literary descriptions of life in villages during the late 1940s together with archival sources to uncover the tortuous process by which land was redistributed. In doing so, he highlights how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used land reform to inculcate a revolutionary consciousness into peasants, who were its main objects, intellectuals heading up the work teams that managed it, and urban citizens who were subject to propaganda about how land reform would allow the Chinese to fanshen—to throw off the shackles of the past and construct a new socialist future (133). The book begins with a short account of the stages of land reform in China throughout the mid-twentieth century. This sets the scene for those readers not already familiar with the policy, which is useful, because the rest of the book does not take a chronological approach. There is a nod to Sun Yatsen’s idea of Land to the Tiller, an indication of how land reform was not entirely of the CCP’s own making, and here DeMare could perhaps have highlighted how land reform was a global movement, not one confined to Communist countries. In China, there was no land reform without Mao Zedong, who created the ideological justification for the policy and made decisions about its implementation. It was Mao, who in 1927 advocated violent land reform as the basis of rural revolution, and it was Mao, who divided rural society into rich landlords pitted against poor peasants, even if the reality was much more complicated.

О странностях левоэсеровского мятежа в Жиздринском уезде Калужской губернии 7–14 июля 1918 г.: источниковедческий аспект

The revolt of the Left SRs (Socialist-Revolutionaries) in Moscow in July 1918 was used by the Left SR organization of the Zhizdra uezd of the Kaluga gubernia, which was supportive of the program of its Central Committee, as a pretext to remove the communists from power. The SRs counted on the fact that they held all the decision-making positions in the uezd military commissariat and were in charge of weapons. Moreover, some of the local peasants, who were the main producers of marketable bread, saw in food dictatorship and in Poor Peasants Committees a direct threat to their economic activities. They viewed the SRs as their mouthpiece and defenders of their interests and therefore supported them in their political struggle against the Bolsheviks. Having learned about the events in Moscow by early morning of July 8, 1918, the Left SRs of Zhizdra gathered several hundred peasants in the town and handed them weapons. Until July 10, the armed peasants received allowance in the uezd military commissariat. The communists of Zhizdra, having established the approximate number of armed peasants by covert observation, fled the town and left their posts. We still do not know what happened next in Zhizdra on July 8-10. On the night of July 11, an armed detachment from Kaluga arrived to help the communists of Zhizdra, but found no one, neither armed peasants, nor their leaders. This suggests that the fugitives knew the date and time of the detachment arrival in advance. Almost immediately upon his arrival, detachment commander Saltykov issued an order, announcing the establishment of martial law in the town and uezd, starting July 11. The population was ordered to hand over their weapons by 4 p.m. the following day. The uezd military commissar Trunov, who had fled, was outlawed “for counter-revolutionary actions” and was to be seized. It is worth mentioning that all this happened on the eve of the Uezd Congress of Soviets, which was to be held on July 12. The Left SRs planned to conduct and head the congress; by July 11, 25 delegates had arrived. On that day, the Zhizdra communists, no longer threatened, held a meeting and decided to thwart the congress and offered the executive committee to hold in its stead a meeting in order to inform about political events in Moscow and their local repercussions. On the same day, members of the communist faction overtook all key positions in the Uezd Executive Committee previously held by the Left SRs. As the Zikeevo volost refused to hand over weapons in peasants’ possession, Saltykov received an additional deterrent artillery gun and a group of Latvian riflemen. Having intimidated the population, the detachment entered the village of Zikeevo on July 13. There the chairman of the volost council handed over to Saltykov only 24 rifles, but promised to collect the remaining weapons and transport them to Zhizdra on the following day, July 14. Whether Saltykov received the weapons is unknown. Searches in Zhizdra on July 14 had no result. The reports of Saltykov and Evstafiev shed no light on Bolsheviks collecting weapons previously distributed by the Left SRs. Therefore, the author has good reasons to believe that not all weapons distributed to peasants by the Left SRs were collected.

Impact and Analysis of the Renovation Program of Dilapidated Houses in China on Poor Peasant Households’ Life Satisfaction: A Survey of 2617 Peasant Households in Gansu Province

In developing countries, housing difficulties and environmental problems for poor peasants are prominent. In 2008, China began to explore pilot projects for the renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas and has achieved remarkable results. This paper examines the impact of China's Renovation Program of Dilapidated Houses on the life satisfaction of poor peasant households. Using firsthand survey data of four poverty-stricken counties in Gansu Province and the Propensity Score Matching method, we find that the program significantly improves the poor peasant households' life satisfaction, with a greater impact on non-poverty-stricken villages and general-assurance households. In the mechanism analysis, we find that these positive treatment effects are mainly driven by the increases in wage income and operating income. In addition, we relax the assumption of parallelism and use the Generalized Ordered Logit model to further explore how this impact varies between groups. We show that people with a high level of life satisfaction are more significantly affected by the program. This study provides evidence that a sustainable living environment can improve the overall wellbeing of rural residents.

The Soviet Passport: The History, Nature and Uses of the Internal Passport in the USSR by Albert Baiburin

Reviewed by: The Soviet Passport: The History, Nature and Uses of the Internal Passport in the USSR by Albert Baiburin Mark Edele Baiburin, Albert. The Soviet Passport: The History, Nature and Uses of the Internal Passport in the USSR. Translated by Stephen Dalziel. New Russian Thought. Polity Press, Cambridge and Medford, MA, 2021. xvii + 451 pages. Illustrations. Appendix. Glossary. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £35.00: $39.60. This book explains everything about the Soviet internal passport you ever wanted to know — and a lot beside. Based on both published and archival sources as well as in-depth interviews with former Soviet citizens about their relationship with and experience of the passport, this book provides a comprehensive history of one of the central documents of Soviet life. In part, this is a history of the tenacity of an institution. Passports were a central tool to try and control population movement under the old regime. As such, they were construed as a means of repression and abolished with the revolution. However, the new regime had as much need to control the circulation of people around this vast empire; and soon efforts to stem this relentless mobility reappeared. At first, as befits a Marxist dictatorship, these were class based rather than universal. Employment booklets were the most important of these, but various other forms of identification were also used to track who was legitimately travelling where. Most did not work very well in practice. And as both mobility and general chaos increased with Stalin's revolution from above at the end of the 1920s and early 1930s a crisis point was reached. In response, the Soviet state introduced internal passports in 1932, which were patterned in many ways on their old regime predecessors. These were, again, not universal documents uniting the citizenry, but issued only to the 'deserving', that is, those of the right social background. 'Passportization' was intimately linked to the system of residency registration (propiska), which regulated who could live in the cities (or in particular cities) and who could not. Hence, the passport became a sign of social status in Soviet society. Collectivized peasants were not eligible for one, which showed their lower-rank position in the Soviet social hierarchy. Only in 1974 was 'passportization' extended to the entire population. Contrary to commonly held assumptions, however, this reform did not free the peasants from their serfdom-like ties to the collective farm: despite holding passports, they could still only leave if the farm administration gave them written permission. Even those who had a passport were not created equal. The passport noted your social origin which, if it was not the 'right one' (i.e., poor peasant or working class) caused problems; your nationality (which, if you were part of 'enemy nations' such as Poles or Germans could cause serious grief, while if you were from a non-Russian but otherwise respected minority you could get special privileges); whether or not you had a prison record; and if you were [End Page 774] excluded from living in 'regime cities' (such as Moscow or Leningrad) or near the border zones. The passport thus anchored the individual in a complex web of stratification which tied the population to the state. Given that your life chances depended on where you were located in this web, the issuing, re-issuing and renewing of passports was enmeshed in complex games of individuals trying to manipulate the system to their least disadvantage. These are described in detail in part three of the book. The Soviet Passport is an inherently multi-disciplinary book. Albert Baiburin is a trained historian teaching in the anthropology department of the European University in St Petersburg and working in the Anthropology and Ethnography Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His history training shows in his careful use of sources while anthropology pushes him to theorize his topic much more than most historians would. This tendency adds to the bulk of the volume as does the overall, tripartite structure: first comes a general history of the Soviet passport regime — the best extant overview over this topic. It is followed by a detailed consideration of the same history from the perspective of the state...

The Textualization of Guo Dingxiang

The story of Zhang Wanliang and Guo Dingxiang, who upon their deaths became king and queen of the stove, was a popular item in "stove singing," a genre of amateur entertainment from Gushi district in southern Henan. The story was best known by the name of the female protagonist. It was orally transmitted and performed not only as a ballad but also as a play. Guo Dingxiang has been published in three different editions of 1981, 2007, and 2009, respectively, which not only are quite different in length but also in nature, even though the basic plot is the same in all three versions. This article assembles the available evidence on the textualization process, and highlights the differences between the resulting versions. The textualization started as a private initiative, but in the early twenty-first century was supervised by a governmental committee. While the protagonists in the 1981 edition were given a background as poor peasants, they are the offspring of elite families in the later versions. Compared to the 2007 edition, the 2009 edition devotes more space to the inner life and motivation of the protagonists as more emphasis is placed on internal cohesion.

The initial period of the campaign to eliminate illiteracy in the Sumy region in the 1920s: agitation for literacy, encouragement to study on an ideological factor (according to the State Archives of Sumy region).

The initial period of the campaign to eliminate illiteracy in the Sumy region in the 1920s: agitation for literacy, encouragement to study on an ideological factor (according to the State Archives of Sumy region).

Building Schools Near the Front Doors of Poor Peasants: The Effects of a Massive Rural Education Expansion in Pre-reform China

Building Schools Near the Front Doors of Poor Peasants: The Effects of a Massive Rural Education Expansion in Pre-reform China

Kerentanan Sosial Ekonomi dan Resiliensi Keluarga Petani Miskin Selama Pandemi COVID-19: Kasus Dari Madura

The Covid-19 pandemic, in addition its health impacts, also has a serious impact to people's socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Socio-economic vulnerabilities due to the Covid-19 pandemic forced people to adapt, one of which was a poor peasant family in rural Madura. This article presents the results of research focusing on the socio-economic vulnerability of poor peasant family as well as various efforts in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. Using descriptive qualitative approach and data collection method through participation observation, interviews, airy records, and documentation, this study revealed that the socioeconomic vulnerability of poor peasant family in Ponteh Village resulted from social restrictions so that the household income sector decreased. Though they have to adaptation meet the cost of household consumption, health threats in the Covid-19 pandemic. Adaptation strategy carried out by poor peasant family in rural areas is, first, building group solidarity according to values and norms that are strong, for example, mutual help in the form of basic needs. Second, every poor peasant family makes use of very strong family ties. Parental assistance as a source of supporting living is now a basic source used to make ends meet during pandemics. Third, poor peasant family in rural areas minimize household in spending and utilizing-social networks for business development. The contribution of this article is to provide views, efforts, accompanied by resilience in keeping the public from the threat of future pandemics.

The "Motherland": An Archetypal and Postcolonial Reading of Ghassan Kanafani's Umm Saad

Working at the intersection of postcolonial and archetypal criticism, this article investigates the role of women in resistance literature by looking at a piece of postcolonial Arabic fiction, Ghassan Kanafani's Umm Saad (1969). Rooted in Arab politics concerning land rights and anti-Zionist struggle, the text offers a related archetypal approach to the depiction of women in politicized literature. Umm Saad allegorizes the struggles of Palestinians to reclaim their land. A poor peasant woman, the titular heroine embodies the intimate connection between Palestinians and their land, acting as a helper to combative men and a primal symbol for attachment to the enduring land. Umm Saad is a personal mother and a trope for a feminized colonized territory, metaphorically representing the Palestinian nation and assuming mythological features enabling her to identify with the Earth Mother to send a message against dispossession. Since she embodies positive mother archetype symbolism (the personal mother and the Earth Mother), she acts as a source of fertility and protection. Expressing a political statement via the mother archetype, Kanafani appeals to a basic human need, i.e. the need to settle down in one’s land, which makes woman an indispensible part of the collective unconscious of any nation. Keywords: Archetypal Criticism; Kanafani; Mother(land); Postcolonial Arabic Fiction; Umm Saad.

The impact of M. O. Menshikov's childhood upon the formation of his publicistic interests

The subject of this research is the early life of M. O. Menshikov – one of the ideologists of the Russian nationalism of the early XX century and leading publicist of the largest all-Russian newspaper “Novoe Vremya”. The goal consists in full reconstruction of the conditions of his childhood and early youth. The methods of deduction, induction, comparative and prospective analysis were used for reconstructing separate circumstances of the initial stage of development of Menshikov’s personality and holistic biographical picture. The synthesis of objective analysis of the facts with subjective assessments of the events described by Menshikov himself in his diaries and articles allowed depicting the external circumstances of his youth, as well as reconstruct the peculiarities of development of his inner world and social reflection. The conclusion is made that a range of the core themes of Menshikov's publicistic writing, which were covered in the newspaper “Nedelya” and later in “Novoe Vremya”, and ultimately brought him popularity, take roots in his childhood and early youth: “family relations”, “upbringing and education”, “pursuit of belonging”, “finding  happiness through harmony with the world”. These topics were covered by Menshikov based on the rich life experience, a long path from the poor peasant family to the cadet of Naval Engineering School in Kronstadt. The fact that he was able to understand the problems  of the commoners made him closer to the reader. The provided biography is currently the most detailed study of the early life of M. O. Menshikov's; many facts are introduced for the first time. The article also presents additional empirical material on the history of childhood, elementary and secondary education in Russia of the late XIX century.