Russian Peasant Research Articles

Юридическое оформление крепостного права в России

The origin and development of serfdom in is one of the most complex processes. Unlike European states, in Russia it had some features: a distinctively late period of occurrence, the connection of the emergence process with the evolution of landed property. Serfdom, which formed the basis of the Russian order, inevitably had to receive its more or less clearly developed legal form. Serfdom was formed by virtue of the actual state of affairs, determined by the attachment of the peasant to the land and his subordinate position. In order to sufficiently reveal the issue of the legal registration of serfdom in Russia, it is necessary to consider its development in stages, based on legislative acts, which most fully and objectively affected the enslavement of the peasant population and changed the legal status of residents. The article examines the history of the emergence of serfdom from the moment of its inception to its legal consolidation; changes in the state and the impact of the legal consolidation of serfdom on the development of the Russian state, the essence of serfdom and what stages it went through from its inception to its abolition, inclusive. Also, the article describes the views of Russian and Soviet historians on the circumstances and causes of the emergence of serfdom. Various scientific and historical approaches to the problem of studying serfdom in Russia are analyzed, the consequences of serfdom for Russia and the Russian people are described. Moving on to the stage of emancipation of the peasants, historians are unanimous that serfdom had a negative impact on all aspects of society, but for Soviet historians, serfdom became one of the reasons for the "economic and cultural backwardness of Russia", and for "Western historians –a consequence of backwardness".

Specifics of medical perceptions in the Russian peasantry during the late Empire period

Specifics of medical perceptions in the Russian peasantry during the late Empire period

Землепользование и система хозяйства в России в начале XX века

Relevance. This article is an attempt to study the features of land use in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Land use and the economic system in Russia during the period under study were the result of a complex centuries-old process of development of the country's agricultural sector. The purpose research is to study the features of the development of land use and the economic system in Russia at the beginning of the XX century. Objectives. The tasks of our scientific research will be formulated as follows: to present an analysis of historical information related to the structure of land use and the economic system in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century; ras-look at the dynamics of the development of land relations in the country. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study was: the principle of historicism; methods of objectivity and scientific character; chronological, historical and comparative approaches research served: the principle of historicism; methods of objectivity and scientific character; chronological, historical and comparative approaches. Results made it possible to draw objective conclusions about the structure and dynamics of the development of the land use system and the economic system in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Conclusion Thus, the system of land use in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was closely connected with the system of land tenure, which was formed over several centuries. The Russian peasantry was in dire need due to its limited land resources. It was forced to rent large areas from other owners: landlords, the state, and other peasants. In turn, this became the cause of the poverty of the peasantry, who gave on average half of their crops to the owners of the land. As a result, the poor Russian peasantry was largely exposed to the revolutionary propaganda of various leftist forces. This was clearly manifested during the revolutionary events of 1905-1907. and especially during the revolutionary events of 1917, when mainly representatives of these small-land peasant farms destroyed the entire mechanism of the land use system.

Public moods of peasants and agrarian utopia in the works of Russian Neo-Narodniks

The ideas of the Neo-Narodism’s intelligentsia about the socio-political moods and psychology of the Russian peasantry and building on the basis of these ideas and the basic provisions of the classical populism of agrarian utopia are studied. The relevance of the study lies in the creation of a theoretical base for studying in the field of generational (generation of “revolutionary turning point”) and intellectual (phenomenon of agrarianism in Russian thought) history. The purpose of this research is to study the problem of the historical role of the peasantry and the fate of the Russian village in the ideology of Neo-Narodism. During the study, analytical and historical-comparative methods were used. As a result of the analysis of historical sources, it is concluded that the Neo-Narodism’s ideas about the Russian peasantry, despite the sharply changing socio-cultural and revolutionary political circumstances, remained mainly in line with the ideas of classical populism. Adepts of folk studies turned to the problem of the growth of protest moods in the peasant sphere and found out that it was caused by the problem of land shortage that worsened during the revolutionary turning point. Neo-Narodnik V.G. Bogoraz notes the conservatism of a significant part of rural residents who were distrustful of revolutionary ideas. A.V. Chayanov’s utopian project went beyond the boundaries of purely populist thought, entered into an alliance with scientific agrarianism and took into account the political circumstances that developed after the establishment of Bolshevik power and the domination of Marxist ideology.

ФАКТОРЫ ЭТНИЧНОСТИ ПРИ ТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНОМ РАЗМЕЖЕВАНИИ УРАЛЬСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ И БАШКИРСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ В 1920-Е ГОДЫ

The article analyzes the situation of border conflicts between the Ural region and the Bashkir Autonomous Socialist Republic (BASSR) over the territory of the bend of the Belaya and Kama rivers in the 1920s. It is emphasized that nowadays, there is a narrative in historiography about the predominance of “national republics” in the USSR in the 1920s, but this provision may be revised. Until 1918, the lands in question belonged to Bashkir landowners, but were inhabited by Russian peasants who took them on lease. After the Bolsheviks came to power and the abolition of lease relations, both the Ural region and the Republic of Bashkortostan claimed these territories. The former pointed to the Russian composition of the population, the latter indicated the established economic ties. The paper examines in detail the development of this conflict, the application of the existing mechanisms and tools of decision-making of that time, as well as the role of the ethnic component in them. After lengthy negotiations at the level of local authorities, no compromise was reached. The authorities of the Republic of Bashkortostan campaigned among the local population and engaged specially trained respondents for surveys, while representatives of the Ural region refused to accept any opinion that did not correspond to the idea of local peasants transferring with their land to the Ural region. As a result, the issue was considered by the Administrative Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and the disputed territories were assigned to the Ural region. Therefore, in a state that has abandoned the prejudices of the past, the ethnic principle has played a key role in defining the boundaries of regions. This example shows that the Bolsheviks, even in the early years of Soviet power, were guided not only by the policy of unconditional preferential treatment of “national republics”.

Экологическая культура советского крестьянства: традиционные ценности и вызовы современности

The article analyzes the process of evolution of ethics and practices of social behavior that characterize reproduction of traditional values in the field of harmonization of man/nature relations in the 20th century. The thesis of specific formation of the source base has been substantiated: in the absence of a unified system of administrative regulations, most data becomes dispersed, mostly reflected in the testimonies of contemporaries and sources of mass origin (materials of Oral history). The key identifier of the concept of ecological culture is system of ideas, meanings and values, symbols and myths of the rural community, which falls within the subject field of everyday history. The article is to provide source analysis of the problem of studying ecological culture of the Russian peasantry in the post-reform and Soviet eras as a system of social ideas and behavioral strategies reflecting perception of factors and means of ensuring the vitality of the rural world, “saving one’s own place.” The research ascertains the localization structure of ecological consciousness manifestations: ecology of mankind, habitation, settlements, and economic activity. Several major factors transforming the content of ideas have been identified: the need to adapt to the environmental crisis (depletion of the main resource of the traditional economic system of the Russian peasantry); the regulatory activity of the state; public initiatives in the field of environmental education. A periodization of the process of evolution and replacement of traditional ethics and behaviors in the field of ecology is proposed: 1861 – late 1920s; 1929 – late 1940s; 1950–1960s; 1970s – early 1990s. Periods of the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War in Russia, as well as the 1930–40s are considered in the context of extreme destruction of peasants’ ecological ideas. The division criteria are: change in technological patterns, formation of appropriate environmental strategies, formation and development of environmental education. Strategies of ecological behavior of peasantry in the field of health saving and land use are consistently considered. It is noted that the main trend in the development of environmental consciousness in the 20th century was a break in the historical continuity and desacralization of traditional values, which resulted in ecological absenteeism bordering on self-destruction of social identity.

Социальные проблемы земельной реформы и развития сельского хозяйства (на примере Нижегородской области)

The paper reveals the social aspects of agrarian reform and its consequences on the example of the development of agricultural production in the Nizhny Novgorod region. It is shown that the Russian peasantry overcomes communal thinking and its irresponsible behavior with great difficulties and delay. The behavior of persons developing and implementing agricultural policy is equally problematic. It is shown that it is necessary to contribute in every possible way to the development of farming as a stage of the natural development of the peasantry of high responsibility, professionalism and creativity. That without legislative registration of new institutions for the development of agriculture and rural life, without large-scale leadership training in rural areas, it is hardly worth counting on significant success.

ПИЩА В ЯЗЫКОВОЙ КАРТИНЕ МИРА ЖИТЕЛЕЙ БЕЛОЗЕРЬЯ

The article summarizes the results of studying the vocabulary of the “Food” thematic group in the dialects of the historical region of Belozerye. The paper reveals significant ideas about cooking process; the utensils required for this; names for ingredients and ready-made dishes in the language world picture of the North Russian peasants; actional and axiological spheres of the lexis under study.

ФРАЗЕОЛОГИЯ БОРБУШИНСКОГО ГОВОРА

The article summarizes the results of studying the phraseological system of the region dialect, reveals significant ideas about it in the language world picture of the North Russian peasant. The material for the study was the recording of conversations with informants - residents of the village of Borbushino, Kirillovsky district in Vologda region - in different years. The systematized content is presented in the format of the electronic multimedia system “Region dialect of the Northern Village” (https://borbushino.vogu35.ru/). This article is an attempt to develop a region dialect system in the field of phraseology. Modern approaches and classifications were used in the analysis of the dialect material with an emphasis on the anthropological approach. The results of the study allow presenting the language system in its regional version as well as reconstructing a significant fragment of the dialect speaker's world picture.

SPLIT IN THE RUSSOPHILE CIRCLES AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE RUSSIAN AGRARIAN PARTY

The activity of the Russophile party restored in the interwar period, which remained true to its own ideological orientations, declaring the longevity of its historical tradition and succession to the pre-war institution, is studied. Competing for influence in the political arena, this party, with its inherent conformism, was able to gain the support of the Polish government and regain control of its societies: Stauropegion, «People’s House», «Halychyna-Ruthenian Matica». The problem of fighting for the right to the «People’s House» – the only society for which government commissioners were appointed – has long gripped all Ukrainian politics, becoming the cause of inter-party conflicts and intra-party quarrels of Russophiles, the issue of political bargaining between parties and government in election battles, an indicator of relations with the state and one of the main public discourses. It is shown that the struggle for the «People's House» was an important prerequisite for the split of the «Russian People's Organization» (RPO) in 1926. A group of people led by M. Bachynskyi, L. Cherkavskyi, and O. Lysiak left the RPO and founded the Russian Agrarian Party (RAP), explaining this by the desire to create a «healthy opposition» to the Russophile leadership and more actively defend the rights of the peasantry. RAP members enlisted the support of Polish government officials to seize the «People’s House» and win seats in the 1928 and 1930 elections. In the elections to the Sejm and the Senate in 1928, with the assistance of the Polish government, the RPO and the RAP united, but never received a single mandate. In the 1930 election campaigns, the RAP ran on the same electoral list as the pro-government BB party and won two seats. An attempt is made to please the Polish authorities with the head of the RAP M. Bachynskyi, who declared the difference between the ideology of his political force and all Russophilia, positioning its members as «Ruthenians» who, unlike the RPO, did not seek unification with Russia (but at the same time they continued to profess the idea of the unity of the «Russian» people and used the term «Russian» to mean Ukrainians of Halychyna). M. Bachynskyi's anti-Ukrainian position on complex aspects of Ukrainian-Polish relations is highlighted. This Russophile figure negatively assessed the patriotic Ukrainian forces, including the GCC, which he accused of not stopping the Polish-Ukrainian war of 1918–1919 by its clergy. He also did not condemn the «pacification» carried out by the Polish government against the Ukrainian population, opposed the introduction of national identifiers «Ukrainian», «Ukraine» and others. For the first time, the archives of the Stanislav Voivodeship show attempts by the Polish authorities to support Russophiles from the RAP, calling the members of this party «Ruthenians», just as the Poles called the entire Ukrainian people. It was the agreement policy and unpopularity among the masses that led to the liquidation of the RAP (since 1931 – RAO) in 1934. Its members joined the «Russian Peasant Organization» (RPO)

Распространение православия среди калмыков в конце XVII – первой половине XVIII вв.: культурно-исторический анализ

The paper analyzes the process of spreading Orthodoxy among the Kalmyks at the end of the 17th – the first half of the 18th century and their resettlement in the city of Stavropol, specially founded for these purposes. It is argued that the resettlement of Kalmyks to new lands and their Christianization was a matter of state policy, which was distinguished by flexibility and pragmatism. It was carried out taking into account internal and external factors. Great importance was attached to the baptism of the Kalmyk elite resulting in the creation among them of a pro-government-minded elite. Influencing their fellow tribesmen, the elite was to become a pillar in the policy of Christianization. The study focuses on activity of state and church leaders who contributed to this process: V. N. Tatishchev, A. P. Volynsky, A. I. Rumyantsev, I. K. Kirillov, A. I. Zmeyev and others. When laying Stavropol, they were guided by the need to protect Russia from the raids of the Bashkirs: the fortress occupied a middle place between the Zakamsky and Orenburg fortifications. The city had good prospects of development, thanks to its favorable geographical position on a main waterway of Russia. The benefits received at baptism attracted a significant number of Kalmyks, but among them were many who did not accept Christianity at a deep spiritual level, continuing to follow their usual faith, most adapted to nomadic lifestyle. The new faith took root with difficulty. From the very beginning, Stavropol was built as a multinational city, since it was decided to settle Russian peasants, merchants and commoners next to the Kalmyks, so that the Kalmyks would learn, looking at them, to a settled way of life and tillage. In December 1738, the founder of Stavropol, V. N. Tatishchev, together with his first commandant, Colonel A. I. Zmeyev, went to the Collegium of Foreign Affairs with a proposal to allocate lands to the Kalmyks, to endow the poorest of them with horses, to arrange schools and hospitals. Settlement, enlightenment, health care, together with Christianization, were seen as mechanisms for turning the population of the colonized imperial outskirts, including the Kalmyks, onto a path of social and cultural modernization common to all of Russia. It is convincingly proved that the government's policy regarding the transfer of the Kalmyks to a settled way of life failed, because the traditions and habits of the nomads were too deep. Thus, the Christianization of the Kalmyks was of a rather formal nature, since they remained faithful to the former faith, facts of dual faith included.

Local Rural Holidays of Russian Peasants as a System of Sacred Communication (based on the materials of the Nizhny Novgorod region)

Introduction. The article proposes a worldview approach for typologizing local religious holidays of the rural population of the Nizhny Novgorod region, in which they are considered as a system of communication between the human collective and the divine. Results. The life of the Russian peasant was built up in a constant dialogue with the divine, the mediators of this dialogue were the patron saints of the community, communication with whom was carried out through local holidays established in their honor. Various forms of celebration correlated in the worldview of Russian peasants with different reasons for turning to the patron saints, which allowed the author to distinguish two types of local religious holidays that differ in their functions: petition holidays and thanksgiving holidays. Discussion and Conclusion. The system of local religious holidays was not only an accessible mechanism of religious practices for Russian peasants, but also a traditional way of life support. The holidays of supplication and the holidays of thanksgiving, complementing each other in a number of functions, were closely connected with the life of the peasant community. The former was responsible for earthly goods and united people using common natural resources in religious communication, the latter ensured the spiritual kinship of members of tribal groups united in a single veneration of their patron saint. Every significant event in the secular and spiritual life of the peasant world found its expression in the local holiday calendar.

PARTICIPATION OF PEASANTS OF THE SIMBIRSK VOLGA REGION IN REVOLUTIONARY AND TERRORIST ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY PARTY (1905–1907)

In the second half of the XIX century, revolutionary terrorism emerged in the territory of the Russian Empire. This particular kind of socio-political violence was promoted in those years by some populist groups that worked primarily in Moscow and St. Petersburg, for example, the Ishutin circle, which consisted mainly of students. One of its participants, a former student D. Karakozov, shot at the Russian Emperor Alexander II 155 years ago in April 1866 in St. Petersburg. The most famous “revolutionary terrorists” of Russia were members of the largest Russian opposition political organization of the XIX century, “Narodnaya Volya”, most of whom were, as one used to say then, raznochinets. Revolutionary terrorism in the empire reached its peak in the first years of the XX century (1902–1907), when it became part of the strategy and tactics of a number of opposition political parties and organizations of neo-populist orientation. They acted both in the national regions of the country (Little Russia, Transcaucasia) and in Russian capitals and regions. First of all, this has to do with the All-Russian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs). At the same time, in the territory of the Russian provinces in the era of brutal revolutionary terrorism in the country, not only the Socialist revolutionaries had their revolutionary-terrorist (combat) formations. So, during this period, terrorist units were created by the SR Maximalists who left the party during the First Russian Revolution and contributed to the ideological and organizational split of the Social Revolutionaries. In the same years, various anarchist structures had combat organizations. Having become a significant phenomenon of the socio-political life of a huge country, terrorism drew representatives of different social groups of the population into its practice. What was the role of the peasantry in the Socialist-Revolutionary terror? The author gives examples where the peasants of the Simbirsk Volga region took part in carrying out terrorist attacks. The researcher concludes that Russian peasants were among the active participants in combat units, which is clearly seen in the examples of combat structures of Simbirsk provincial organization of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, in the ranks of which, for example, in rural areas, there were combat squads consisting mainly of peasants.

THE PROBLEM OF PROPERTY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE OWNER PEASANTS OF RUSSIA XVIII - FIRST HALF OF XIX CENTURIES

The problem of the correlation of the concept of «property» (or «private property») with the situation in Russia in the pre-reform period is insufficiently studied in historiography. There is no definite opinion about the time of the appearance of this concept in the socio-political life of the Russian Empire, about what was considered movable and immovable property (especially in the countryside) then, especially since about the middle of the XVIII century, how the owner (landowner) peasantry was perceived in legislation and in practice in this context – as movable or immovable property of landowners-nobles, whether the owner peasants themselves at that time had rights to movable or immovable property. To study the problem, the author draws on numerous materials of noble projects for solving the peasant question, published by him in a number of collections of documents, as well as data on legislation, memoirs, etc. At the same time, only a part of them is directly used in the study itself. The materials of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern Russian historiography, as well as some studies of foreign historians related to this issue, are drawn. As a result of the analysis of sources, literature and materials of his own research, the author first raises questions, offering in some cases certain intermediate solutions, drawing attention to the need for historians to develop a certain consensus on the use of certain concepts in this context, since the materials of legislation and its implementation in the practical life of the prereform time allow for different interpretations. The work is in a certain sense a continuation of the author's research on the main components of serfdom in Russia in the last 1.5 centuries before the peasant reform of 1861.

American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination

American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination

“It Must Be Preserved”: Adolph Bolm's Revival of Le Coq d'Or

“It Must Be Preserved”: Adolph Bolm's Revival of <i>Le Coq d'Or</i>

Editor's Introduction

Editor's Introduction

THE POLICY OF RESETTLEMENT OF RUSSIANS TO THE TERRITORY OF TURKESTAN, TURNING IT INTO A RAW MATERIAL BASE FOR COTTON

One of the motives for the subjugation of Central Asia was the desire of tsarism to turn it into a colonization area for the resettlement of peasants from the central provinces of Russia. However, Uzbekistan did little to justify the calculations of the tsarist government, since there was no free irrigated land. Peasant colonization became widespread only on the territory of Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. The resettlement of Russian peasants was often accompanied by a violent seizure of the lands of the indigenous population. The kulak settlers exploited both the local population and the Russian poor. The tsarist government attached great importance to the resettlement of part of the peasants of Russian villages to Central Asia in order to mitigate the social contradictions in Russia caused by the lack of land in connection with the development of capitalist relations in Russian agriculture. Already in 1869, rules on peasant settlements in Semirechye were developed, which created favorable conditions for the influx of Russian settlers. During the period from 1888 to 1916, the sowing of cotton increased by almost 10 times (from 68.5 thousand dessiatins to 680 thousand 911 dessiatins), and the gross cotton harvest increased by almost 7 times (from 2.27 million poods per year). 1879 to 14.9 million poods – in 1916) The area of irrigated land and the production of agricultural products increased significantly, the range of agricultural sectors expanded. Cotton attracted Russian capital to Central Asia. At least 30 of the largest trading companies were engaged in its production and purchase. The main creditors were the largest banks in Russia

Peter the Great and the “modernisation” of serfdom in Russia

The article examines the transformations of Peter the Great in the context of the evolution of serfdom in Russia. The author substantiates the thesis that during the Peter’s transformations, the so-called “second edition of serfdom” took place, replacing its original, forced by objective conditions of survival and development of the country, estate-legal grounds. The substitution of the serfdom’s grounds is seen primarily in the rejection by the state of the conditionality principle of noble rights to the estate by compulsory lifelong service in the army, namely, this followed from the extension to estates of the patrimony’s possessory format. The analysis of the decree on single inheritance and its interpretations in historiography allowed us to conclude that the liberation of noble land ownership from the encumbrance of compulsory service created a legal basis for the subsequent “freedom of the nobility”, the rapid expansion of the privileges of the “noble estate” and, mainly, the ownership rights to land and peasants. The tax reform of Peter led to the fact that landlords began to assimilate the view of peasants as serfs, completely dependent on them, especially in the conditions of the responsibility imposed by the state on the owner of the estate for the payment of poll taxes and the supply of recruits.

The image of the Russian peasantry in A. Platonov’s the stories and plays during the Great Patriotic War

Fiction embodies the diverse cultural and historical memory of society and offers its own answers about the impact of war on a person, the long-term humanitarian consequences of the war. In his military stories and plays A. Platonov presented a wide panorama of images of the fighting people, among which the image of peasantry occupies a central place. Memory is considered as the leading concept of the writers creativity. Features of perception of war, life and death, good and evil by ordinary soldiers are revealed. A. Platonovs military stories are very significant for the cultural memory of Russian society. Focusing on the peasant roots of the fighting people, the writer warned of the danger of forgetting this. Platonovs constant interest in the memorial aspects of culture is realized in his military prose largely from the point of view of the world picture of Russian peasants. Village and its inhabitants, faith and family, land, bread, labor-symbols of the Motherland in Platonov, the embodiment of historical continuity. These aspects were reflected later in popular memories of the war, in the peasant perception of the war as sacrificial heroism.