Celetti D. Progressive modernisation. The role of peasants in the industrialisation of North-Eastern Italy // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №4. P. 68-97.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-4-68-97

Annotation

The process of industrialization of North-Eastern Italy and, in particular the Veneto Region, spread widely outside urban centers, in agrarian territories historically characterised by a specific type of land use based on the harmonious coexistence of different cultures within individual smallholdings. This article focuses on the key shifts that allowed the wide spread of productive activities in rural areas and the active participation of the rural population in industrial production in the absence of significant migration flows in the direction of large industrial centers. The article is organized as follows: the first section analyses the scientific interpretation of the special path of regional modernization. Section 2 presents the main features of the traditional rural economy of North-Eastern Italy. Section 3 examines the changes in the sectoral structure of the regional economy during the period of industrialization. Conclusions summarize results and ongoing transformation of the Veneto regional economy, society and landscape.

Keywords

Economic development, north-eastern Italy, peasant family, traditional agriculture, industrialization, urbanization processes, industrial clusters.

About the author

David Celetti, PhD of Economics, Professor of Economic History, Department of Historical, Geographical Sciences and of the Ancient World, University of Padua, 30131 Padova, Via Vescovado 30.
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Andreenkov S. N. Labor behavior of collective farmers in Siberia under the state agrarian policy in 1953–1964 // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №3. P. 185-203.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-3-185-203

Annotation

The article considers the labor behavior of collective farmers in Siberia under the agrarian measures of the supreme power during Khrushchev’s thaw. The author identifies factors that influenced the labor behavior of collective farmers, its forms and role in the state agrarian policy, emphasizing contradictory tendencies in the functioning of collective farms. Thus, financial incentives were used more widely, but the state did not abandon mobilization methods for solving economic problems. Therefore, the production and technological discipline in collective farms remained at a low level; many villagers avoided working in the public economy. Personal subsidiary farms had a significant impact on the labor behavior of collective farmers, since the public economy provided main resources for their personal subsidiary plots. Increased wages at the collective farm allowed peasants to strengthen the feed base for their livestock. Collective farmers acquired means for personal subsidiary farming through petty thefts at the collective farm. The peasantry retained many of its past features manifested primarily in the labor behavior of women, who tended to pay more attention to their household than to the collective farm. To reduce the villagers’ labor costs in the private sector of the agrarian economy, the state periodically conducted campaigns to limit the size of personal subsidiary plots.

Keywords

Labor behavior, collective farms, collective farmers, machine-tractor stations, machine operators, personal subsidiary farms, state agrarian policy, agriculture.

About the author

Sergey N. Andreenkov, PhD (History), Senior Researcher, Sector of Agrarian and Demographic History, Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Akademika Nikolaeva St., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090.
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Sharapov S. V. Peasantry of collective farms: Subsistence ethics during the Great Patriotic War (based on the materials from the Novosibirsk Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №3. P. 169-184.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-3-169-184

Annotation

The article considers the social-economic behavior of the collective-farm peasantry during the Great Patriotic War. Under the strengthening mobilization pressure, the imperative of survival still determined the peasant attitude to work, economy, close social circle and higher authorities. The situation in collective farms differed, since their economy depended on the labor supply of lands as subject to taxes in kind, which determined differences in the peasant attitude to work on the collective farm. In the most unfavorable circumstances, participation in the artel work promised the peasant nothing else than super-intensive work without sufficient payment. Although peasants’ behavior could be considered adaptive in general, unbearable conditions in economically unpromising collective farms forced peasants to practice passive resistance (from poor work and missing deadlines to illegal actions). The limits of tolerance towards peasant disobedience kept changing in the 1930s — 1940s; however, their weak supervision in the countryside did not allow the authorities to further reduce these limits during the war. The peasant community morally justified illegal actions as often helping to save themselves from hunger. The persistent peasant violations of the boundaries of legality greatly reduced the authorities’ ability to control the collective farm economy.

Keywords

Collective-farm peasantry, subsistence ethics, Great Patriotic War, agrarian policy.

About the author

Sergey V. Sharapov, PhD (History), Researcher, Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Nikolaeva St., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090.
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Barsukov E. V., Idimeshev A. A. Villages of the “Ket Ridge” in the 17th – 18th centuries: Prospects for an archaeological-historical study // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №3. P. 149-168.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-3-149-168

Annotation

The article considers the initial stage of the Russian development of the Narym Region (northern part of the present-day Tomsk Region). This vast territory is known for its harsh natural-geographical and climatic conditions, primarily a high degree of swampiness (today this area is considered the Far North). However, already in the second half of the 17th century, there was a network of Russian settlements, the inhabitants of which were engaged in farming. These settlements formed small districts such as the “Ket Ridge” along the lower reaches of the Ket River. In the geomorphological perspective, this is part of the well-drained high terraces above the floodplain and watershed plain, standing out in the completely swampy Narym Region. In the first half of the 17th century, the Ket fort was moved here as an administrative center of the district of the same name and became the center of attraction for the agricultural population. Since the second half of the 17th century, a network of Russian small settlements and villages and first arable lands appeared in its vicinity. Harsh natural conditions contributed to the formation of a distinctive agricultural center. The article identifies Russian rural settlements founded at the initial stage of the Ket Ridge development — in the second half of the 17th — early 18th centuries. The authors use historical cartographic materials and the data of travelers and explorers of the 17th — 18th centuries to identify locations associated with the first Russian settlements to conduct an archaeological-historical study of the rural culture in the north of Western Siberia.

Keywords

Western Siberia, Tomsk Region, Narym Region, Ket River, Ket fort, Russian development of Siberia, agricultural colonization, farming, small settlements, Russian archeology of Siberia.

About the authors

Evgeny V. Barsukov, Researcher, Laboratory of Bio-Geo-Chemical and Remote Methods of Environmental Monitoring, Biological Institute, Tomsk State University; Researcher, Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Lenina St., 36, Tomsk, 634050.
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Asap A. Idimeshev, Junior Researcher, APSACA Laboratory, National Center of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan; Senior Lecturer, Tomsk State Pedagogical University. Mirzo Ulugbek St., 81, Tashkent, 100060, Uzbekistan.
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Kim Chang Jin. Lost Paradise: The phenomenon of ‘Soviet Korean Advanced Kolkhozes’ in Central Asia (Part 1) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 109-138.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-109-138

Annotation

In the history of Soviet kolkhoz (collective-farm) research, the ‘advanced kolkhoz (millionaire) phenomenon’ remains almost unexplored, although it was a notable social-economic phenomenon. Members of the Korean advanced kolkhozes in Central Asia, which operated from the late 1930s to the 1980s, at first adapted to the kolkhoz system through hard work, but later became very active in creating social-cultural institutions within the kolkhoz system for common benefit (not only ethnic Koreans but also natives). Regionally, the overwhelming majority of Korean advanced kolkhozes, including the legendary ‘Polar Star’ and ‘Politotdel’, were active in Uzbekistan, followed by Kazakhstan. Perhaps, Korean advanced kolkhozes in Central Asia reached the peak of the Soviet-style socialist agricultural development in the 1960s — 1970s. These wellto-do Korean kolkhozes in Central Asia developed a strong social infrastructure in their community as a basis for the contemporary living culture. Local common assets were formed from their own abundant undivided funds, consumption and cultural funds. However, what is more important is that Korean kolkhozes-millionaires not only built an excellent material and technical foundation in the village based on their high economic performance, but also created harmonious multiethnic communities while enjoying various social benefits similar to city life.

Keywords

Soviet Korean advanced kolkhoz, Central Asia, community-wealth building, competent dedicated leader, efficient labor organization, kolkhoz garden city, multiethnic community.

About the author

Kim Chang Jin, Dsc (Political Science), Professor, SungKongHoe University. 320 Yeon Dongro, Guro Gu, Seoul, Korea; Visiting Researcher, Institute of Asian Studies, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 Al-Farabi Avenue, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
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Timkin Yu. N. “Face of the village”: Activities of the Vyatka Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) to revitalize rural and volost organizations in 1924–1926 // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 89-108.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-89-108

Annotation

The author considers the litsom k derevne (‘turning to the village’) policy implemented by the ruling party in 1924–1926. The article is based on the materials of the Central State Archive of the Kirov Region and on the principles of historicism, objectivity and historical institutionalism. The author focuses on the activities of the commission for work in the village of the Vyatka Provincial Committee and its practical measures to create a non-party activist group, attract peasants and strengthen the lower Soviet level. The study of the peasant everyday life in one volost of the province, in particular of the communist peasants’ farms, showed that many members of rural and volost party organizations were not much different from the so-called “well-off village elite” and were closely connected with it. By joining the ruling party, young active peasants got a good chance to improve their social status and make a career. The provincial committee aimed at encouraging poor peasants, hired farm workers, peasants who served in the Red Army, Komsomol members and activists of delegate women’s meetings to join the party by promoting them to various paid positions in the Soviet and party apparatus and cooperation. The author argues that the litsom k derevne policy allowed the party elite to organize the rural poor and farm workers, thus, creating “rural proletariat”, splitting the village, and “making” a “class” of kulaks as its main enemy in the village.

Keywords

Vyatka Province, provincial committee, commission, volost organizations of the RCP(B), communists, peasants, poor people, kulaks.

About the author

Yuri N. Timkin, PhD (History), Associate Professor, Department of Theory and History of State and Law, Vyatka State University. Moskovskaya St., 36, Kirov, 610000, Russia.
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Nikolaeva A. A. “Village Languishing in Ignorance...”: Woman’s fate in the lyrics of S. A. Esenin during the World War I // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 79-88.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-79-88

Annotation

As its witness and participant, S. A. Esenin responded to the World War I with works written in 1914–1915. As the “singer of the village”, the poet sincerely worried about peasants who were close to him and went to the front. Most of Esenin’s works about the World War I reflect the village life and changes in the usual peasant way of life, especially the unfortunate fate of the peasant woman, to whom the poems “The Patterns” () and “The Mother’s Prayer” () are dedicated. Esenin shows the bride’s grief and tells the story of the lonely mother commemorating her breadwinner son. Other works inspired by war events also present female images: in the little poem “Rus” (1914), Esenin describes militia, departure of men, women waiting for and receiving news from the front and faith in victory as moments in the life of peasant women inseparable from village realities. When repeatedly describing the sendoff of men from villages, Esenin not only emphasizes the crying of women anticipating troubles but also mentions outdoor festivities of recruits with playful girls, referring to his personal experience (“Through the Village by the Crooked Path...”, 1914). However, the main result of war for the poet is the death of soldiers; therefore, the images of peasant women in his works of the World War I are associated mainly with tears, suffering and commemoration.

Keywords

S. A. Esenin, World War I, village, motives, “Rus”, “The Mother’s Prayer”, “The Patterns”, “Through the Village by the Curved Road...”.

About the author

Alla A. Nikolaeva, PhD (Philology), Senior Researcher, Scientific Seсretary of the Esenin Group, А. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Povarskaya St., 25а, bldg. 1, Moscow, 121069, Russia.
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Ivanov A. A., Chemakin A. A. “Revolutionary revolt” of the Black-Hundred peasantry: The 1914 unrest in Podolia // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 61-78.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-61-78

Annotation

The article considers the peasant riot that spread to several villages of the Podolsk Province in the spring of 1914. Those events were special, because the “troublemakers” were monarchist peasants influenced by the Black-Hundred Pochaev Union of the Russian People led by the Archimandrite Vitaly (Maksimenko). The fact that the peasant strike, protests against the zemstvo and other “revolutionary” manifestations were the result of the right-wing political agitation attracted special attention of local and central authorities. Based on the documents of Russian and Ukrainian archives and pre-revolutionary periodicals, the authors reconstruct in detail the peasant unrest in Podolia, its causes and consequences, focusing on the reaction of the provincial authorities, government bodies and special services, their attitude to the awakening peasant political activity. The authors argue that these issues, despite being particular cases, are vivid illustrations of complex relationship between the authorities and the Black Hundreds and allow to understand representations and moods of the peasantry in Right-Bank Ukraine, which joined en masse the Union of the Russian People in the early 20th century. This episode from the history of the peasant movement in the Podolsk Province explains why the former Black-Hundred peasants began to join the left-wing radical political movements and Ukrainian rebel groups during the 1917 Revolution and civil war.

Keywords

Russian Empire, peasant unrest, Right-Bank Ukraine, Podolia, Pochaev Union of the Russian People, Black Hundreds, Vitaly (Maksimenko).

About the authors

Andrey A. Ivanov, DSc (History), Professor, Institute of History, Saint Petersburg State University. Universitetskaya Nab., 7–9, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russia.
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Anton A. Chemakin, PhD (History), Senior Lecturer, Institute of History, Saint Petersburg State University. Universitetskaya Nab., 7–9, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russia.
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Goryushkina N. E. Peasants’ exercise of the rights to alcohol trade in excise Russia (1863–1894) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 39-60.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-39-60

Annotation

The author considers the peasants’ rights to open or close pubs under the excise system in Russia. Such an analysis is important for understanding the communal legal consciousness, peasant perception of the alcohol trade and consumption, external and internal factors of peasant behavior at communal gatherings, and the government reasons for refusing free alcohol trade in the 1890s. Rural peasant community was considered by the government as a stronghold of national stability, sobriety and order; therefore, it was given the right to authorize or prohibit the sale of alcohol in villages. In fact, moral principles did not prevail in the communal perception of alcohol trade. Most decisions of peasant gatherings had no moral basis, and a permission to open a pub was usually based on the wine merchant’s bribe. Despite legislative prohibitions, peasant gatherings accepted backsheesh in alcohol, money or their combination. In the excise period, the number of pubs remained high, there was a monopolization trend, and drunkenness was a serious social problem. The author argues that all attempts to make peasants guardians of the state interest in alcohol trade were unsuccessful. The ease with which peasant votes were bought, omnipotence of rural authorities, and peasant dependence on the wine merchant forced the government to involve provincial and district authorities in the public control of alcohol trade. However, the result did not meet expectations; thereby, the government banned free alcohol trade and introduced wine monopoly.

Keywords

Peasants, excise reform, (free) alcohol trade, pub, peasant gathering and its decisions, sobriety.

About the author

Natalya E. Goryushkina, DSc (History), Head of the Department of History and SocialCultural Services, Southwestern State University. 50 years of October St., 94, 305040, Kursk, Russia.
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Belykh A. A. What was the price of the Pushkin family estate Mikhailovskoe? // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 20-38.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-20-38

Annotation

The article considers the history of financial relationships between A. S. Pushkin and his relatives about their family estate Mikhailovskoe, which has not been studied by Pushkinists, historians or economists despite its importance for understanding the economic life of both Pushkin and Russian nobility in the mid and late 19th century. Mikhailovskoe belonged to Pushkin’s mother, Nadezhda Osipovna. After her death in 1836, according to the law, Pushkin’s father, Sergey Lvovich received its seventh share, Pushkin’s sister Olga — its fourteenth share, while the rest was divided equally between brothers — Alexander and Lev. Pushkin’s father refused his share in favor of his daughter. The real division of the estate with 80 male serfs was complicated and economically meaningless, unlike financial settlement. Pushkin suggested to buy out Mikhailovskoe for 40 thousand rubles (500 rubles per serf). N. I. Pavlishchev, Olga’s husband, wanted to receive more money, insisting that the estate was twice more expensive. Later he reduced the price, but Pushkin did not have enough money, and it was the second half of 1936, when the events that led to Pushkin’s tragic duel were already unfolding. In February 1837, Pushkin’s widow, Natalia Nikolaevna, asked the Tsar for permission to buy out Mikhailovskoe for her children. The сustody of Pushkin’s children was appointed, and, after lengthy negotiations, in 1841 Mikhailovskoe was bought out. The heirs — Lev, Olga and Natalia Nikolaevna — received money for their shares based on the estate’s price of 34 thousand rubles. Owners of the estate with equal shares were Pushkin’s children — Maria, Alexander, Grigory and Natalia. In 1856, Pushkin’s sons bought out their sisters’ shares. In 1870, Grigory became the sole owner of Mikhailovskoe. In 1899, the estate was bought out by the Treasury for 144,600 rubles; however, this was mainly the price of forest rather than serfs.

Keywords

A. S. Pushkin, Mikhailovskoe estate, Pushkin family, evaluation methods, price of estate, custody of Pushkin’s children, G. A. Pushkin, buy out estate.

About the author

Andrei A. Belykh, DSc (Economics), Deputy Head of the Centre of Applied History, Institute of Social Sciences, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Prosp. Vernadskogo, 82, Moscow, 119571, Russia.
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