Kuznetsov I.A. Production of grains and potatoes per capita in European Russia in 1883–1913: Regional dynamics // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2020. V.5. №1. P. 53-83.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-1-53-83

Annotation

The article presents the calculations of the annual production of grains and potatoes per capita in the regions of European Russia and the analysis of its dynamics from 1883 to 1913. The calculations are based on the harvest statistics of the Central Statistical Committee: the gross harvest of rye, wheat, oats, barley, einkorn, buckwheat, millet, peas, corn and potato in poods. Potatoes is considered both separately and together with grains (recalculated in the ratio 4:1). The data on the annual population was taken from the demographer V. Zaitsev book published in 1927: 49 provinces were grouped in 12 regions based on the classification of the Central Statistical Committee with some changes. The author analyzed the dynamics of moving averages by five-year periods and identified the average upward trend in the production of grains and potatoes per capita in European Russia as consisting of multidirectional trends in the regions of different natural-geographical and economic types. The upward trend was typical for the Novorossiysk, Little-Russia, Transurals, Baltic, Southwest, Western regions and the Samara Province, while the downward trend was typical for the Non-Black-Earth-industrial, Northern, North-Western, Central-Black-Earth and Central-Volga regions. The author provides an interpretation of these trends taking into account differences in the agrarian systems of grain-producing (net exporters) and grain-consuming (net importers) regions.

Keywords

agrarian history, grain production per capita, harvest statistics, population statistics

About the author

Kuznetsov Igor A., PhD (History), Senior Researcher, Research Laboratory of Economic and Social History Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Russia, 119571, Moscow, Vernadskogo Prosp., 82.
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