Sleptsova (Kyzlasova) I. S., Smurova O. V. Entrepreneurial activities of seasonal migrant workers from Kostroma in Saint Petersburg (1860s–1914): Informal practices within the formal economy // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2026. V.11. №3. P. 32-54.

EDN: MZUPAO

Annotation

The article considers the entrepreneurship of seasonal peasant workers from the Kostroma Province in Saint Petersburg in the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries, emphasizing the need for an interdisciplinary approach as such peasant activities combined norms of different social orders and cannot be explained by the classical economic theory. The suggested theoretical framework combines ideas of informal economy (T. Shanin), institutional approach (D. North), theory of habitus (P. Bourdieu), and concept of the “strength of weak ties” (M. Granovetter), which allows to consider the seasonal peasant workers’ practices as a socially embedded system in which informal institutions — regional and kin connections, reputation and mutual trust — played a key role. The study is based on the 50-volume “Reference Books on Members of the Saint Petersburg Merchant Class…” (1865–1916), which registered peasants engaged in entrepreneurship, and on “General Audit Journals”, which revealed their practices of avoiding official registration. The article describes the stages in life trajectories of seasonal migrant workers, mechanisms of community formation based on “elective affinity”, and transformation of social ethos in the urban environment. The authors identify three entrepreneurial strategies: adaptive, iterative (trial-and-error method), and experimental, based on the recombination of traditional elements in the new market conditions (path dependence), including diversification of activities and deviant practices (tax evasion, payment of fines). Thus, the “Reference Books” allow to reconstruct the integration of seasonal migrant workers into urban social groups; however, the data is incomplete due to the existence of an informal sector, which is why future research should draw upon fiscal and judicial documents to examine the relationship between formal and informal practices.

Keywords

Economic anthropology, informal economy, expolar economy, peasant mentality, network organization, imperial period.  

About the authors

Irina S. Sleptsova (Kyzlasova), Senior Researcher, N. N. Miklukho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Leninsky Prosp., 32a, Moscow, 119334, Russia.
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Olga V. Smurova, DSc (History), Independent Researcher. Stopani St., 48, Kostroma, 156022, Russia.
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