Kornienko N. V. Fire-resistant construction of the “governorameliorator Platonov” (based on the materials from the State Archive of the Voronezh Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №1. P. 54-74.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-1-54-74

Annotation

The article considers one of the constant issues of Platonov’s works related to his participation in the fire-resistant construction in his native province. This fact from the Voronezh period of Platonov’s life (when he was a provincial ameliorator) was not mentioned in other chronicles and comments. Thus, the materials from the funds of the State Archive of the Voronezh Region are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time and present a story of the fire-resistant construction in the province, when the governor-ameliorator Platonov was forced to take care of such matters in 1925. This important part of Platonov’s business correspondence in 1925 provides new documentary material for commenting on the biographies of Platonov’s favorite characters (from Ethereal Tract to Aphrodite) and presents another page in the life of the future classic of the Russian literature, to which he returned more than once in his memoirs and work.

Keywords

Platonov, biography, Voronezh Province, fire-resistant construction, reclamation sub-department, correspondence.

About the author

Natalia V. Kornienko, PhD (Philology), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Chief Researcher, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Povarskaya St., 25a, Moscow, 121069.
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The article was submitted on 20.10.2023.

Egorov A. K. Peasant unrest in the North-West of Russia in the summer of 1831 // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №1. P. 39-53.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-1-39-53

Annotation

The article considers the peasant unrest in the North-West of Russia during the cholera epidemic. In the summer of 1831, after the mass outflow of workers from Saint Petersburg due to the cholera riots, a wave of peasant protests swept through Saint Petersburg and Olonets provinces: local residents attacked doctors and government officials, accusing them of abusing power and of poisoning the people under the pretext of fighting the epidemic. Such peasant revolts caused serious concern to the authorities that paid special attention to the population behavior during the epidemic. The distinctive feature of the peasant unrest was a gradual shift of its epicenter to the east along waterways — rivers and canals of the Mariinsky system. Peasant revolts were caused by a combination of factors that had both a nationwide nature and local specifics. The first important factor was rumors of poisoning that spread throughout the Mariinsky water system and its surroundings from Saint Petersburg due to its cholera riots. The second important factor were waterways that allowed people and rumors to travel relatively quickly over long distances. The third important factor was social distrust to authorities, doctors and anti-epidemic measures. The peasant unrest was a part of Russia’s cholera riots in the summer of 1831.

Keywords

Peasant unrest, epidemic, cholera, rumors, poisoning, panic, violence, communication, communication lines.

About the author

Alexander K. Egorov, PhD (History), Associate Professor, Petrozavodsk State University. Lenin St., 33, Petrozavodsk, 185910; Research Fellow, Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History, Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Pushkinskaya St.,11, Petrozavodsk, 185910.
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The article was submitted on 11.12.2023.

Agapov M. G. From the “North of Russia” to the “Russian North”: Intellectual appropriation of the northern territories of the European part of Russia in the mid-18th — first half of the 19th centuries // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №1. P. 23-38.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-1-23-38

Annotation

The normativity of the “Russian North” concept seems self-evident; however, it was introduced only in the mid-19th century and became an integral part of political discourse and everyday language only at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries. The concept of “Russian North” had been developed in the works of Russian scientists, public figures and officials from the mid-18th to the first half of the 19th centuries, when the cultural construction of the territory implied connections based on both facts and fiction; thus, “Siberia”, “Caucasus”, “Russian North” and other “regions” became analytical categories. They were the result of a diverse set of intellectual operations (observation, description, comparison, systematization, differentiation, etc.) carried out by government officials, scientists and travelers, poets and philosophers. The cultural construction of the northern imperial periphery was inseparable from the cultural construction of the center, since observers from the center could hardly describe the main features of the periphery without simultaneously identifying their starting position. In the second half of the 18th century, the discourse about the Northern territory became a part of the Russian imperial cameralism with its special distribution of territories and their peoples according to the “scale of comparative civilization” (L. Wolff). In the second half of the 19th century, the Russification discourse became dominant, aiming at the radical reassembly of the imperial society as a single nation-state body. Thus, the “North of Russia” was reconsidered as the “Russian North”, which provided new grounds for the symbolic appropriation of the northern peoples’ territories.

Keywords

Northern Territory, Russian North, cameralism, imperial diversity, arable farming, Old-Believers, geography of power, Russification.

About the author

Mikhail G. Agapov, DSc (History), Leading Researcher, Center of Urban Studies, Tyumen State University. Volodarskogo St., Tyumen, 6625003.
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The article was submitted on 18.12.2023.

Khorasani Zadeh H. The rise of the peasant land ownership as a driver of social-spatial differentiation in contemporary rural Veneto and French Flanders // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №4. P. 83-101.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-4-83-101

Annotation

The growth of peasant ownership in peasant societies is usually associated with a reduction in social hierarchies due to the improvement of social-economic conditions, decline of large-scale land ownership and development of small-scale agriculture. When qualifying such assertions, scholars have proved that the peasant ownership’s impact on the evolution of agriculture and social differentiation are highly variable depending on the social-historical contexts. The article aims at contributing to this debate by showing how the rise of peasant ownership may lead to contradictory dynamics in terms of social-spatial differentiation due to the so-called differentiated ‘relationship with land and kinship’ or ‘reproduction patterns’ of peasant families. To test this hypothesis, the paper examines two European rural areas located in Northern France and Veneto, focusing on the evolution of land ownership, tenancy, kinship and social-professional features in a sample of municipalities in these two areas from the mid-19th century to the end of the 20th century. In addition to the analysis of aggregated data at the municipal level, the author also considers the evolution of smaller areas in each municipality under study with the qualitative approach based on the ‘biography’ of some properties and holdings, individuals and families. The research relies on both public sources (population census, property cadasters, agrarian surveys, etc.) and private archives.

Keywords

Ownership, tenancy, agricultural holdings, kinship, family, space, social reproduction, mapping, industrialization.

About the author

Hessam Khorasani Zadeh, PhD (History), Postdoc Fellow, University of Lille. Cité Scientifique Campus, TVES Laboratory, Paul Langevin Avenue, 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
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Crovetto M. M. Peasants and agricultural wageworkers in Argentina in the 20th — 21st centuries: Some paradoxes of the dichotomy ‘rural–urban’ // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №4. P. 72-82.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-4-72-82

Annotation

The article proposes an unusual starting point to consider the peasantry in Argentina — the concept of rurality. This paper is based on the already highly debated conceptualizations of the rural–urban question in dichotomous terms; the author develops an analytical approach that implies a complex perspective of spatiality in non-binary forms. Such a task involves the integration of other variables in the study of societies connected with the agrarian worlds, already stripped of obsolete univocal characteristics. To solve this task, the author revises some of the discussions of peasant decomposition and wage earning in Argentina. These debates have renewed the understanding of the present peasant and agricultural wage-earning in Argentina, given that historically there were only peasants in the ‘non-pampean’ area (outside the Pampas region). It was not until the 1960 that the peasant self-perceptions and organizations emerged under the slowing demand for labor in the industrial sector. After the analysis of documentary sources in various regions of the country, the author argues that there are rural workers of non-peasant origin, which can be empirically proved. They depend on subsistence activities with the classic peasant features. Agricultural workers and inhabitants of rural worlds are not necessarily the same subjects mobilized daily and being the result of the agro-industrial activities since the 1980s. Since then, they have acquired typical characteristics of the globalized capitalist mode of production. Thus, paradoxically, in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century, in some regions of Argentina globalization creates the peasantry.

Keywords

Peasants, agricultural wageworkers, rural societies, urban societies, Argentina, 21st century.

About the author

María Marcela Crovetto, DSc (Social Sciences), Adjunct Researcher, National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Gino Germani Research Institute; Professor, Sociology Department, Social Sciences Faculty, University of Buenos Aires. J. E. Uriburu St., 950, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1414.
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Diaz-Geada A. Class differentiation in contemporary rural Galiza: A first approach // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №4. P. 54-71.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-4-54-71

Annotation

The article aims at making a first approach to the study of class differentiation in rural communities of contemporary Galiza. First, the author reconstructs the debates on the ‘agrarian question’ in the history of the Spanish state — from the reformist thought of the late 19th century to the present, focusing on how this question was discussed in the Galizan context, in the field of Galizan agrarian historiography. This field of research developed mainly from the study of the peasants’ access to land ownership in relation to various disentailments introduced by the liberal capitalist state. The author pays particular attention to the consequences of the land tenure regime that prevailed in Galiza — foro, a long-term lease: the increasing number of peasants were becoming owners, which agrarian historiography considered a key element of social-economic changes from the late 19th century to the first third of the 20th century. Another interrelated processes were the antiforal agrarian mobilization, growing commercialization of agrarian production, remittances of Galizan migrants from Americas, and technical development of production. The author emphasizes how social inequalities have changed in rural communities, focusing on the consequences of the liberal capitalist state in social structure and referring to different studies that prove the intensification of social inequalities. Finally, the author describes social changes at the last stage of the Franco dictatorship. Thus, this article is a first step in the study of how class inequalities have transformed contemporary peasant communities.

Keywords

Class differentiation, rural history, Galiza, agrarian question, peasant communities, 19th — 20th centuries.

About the author

Alba Diaz-Geada, PhD (History), Professor, History Department, Faculty of Humanities, University of Santiago de Compostela. Campus Terra Complexo docente do campus de Lugo, s/n, Lugo, 27002, Spain.
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Mikhalenko N.V. Dacha on Nikolina Gora: The case of A.V. Chayanov // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №3. P. 78-86.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-3-78-86

Annotation

The article considers the features of the dacha-consumer cooperative “Workers of Science and Art” (RANIS) on Nikolina Gora. It was created as a village-commune and united the creative intelligentsia of the 1920s and 1930s, often connected by friendly or official relations. RANIS was based on the principles of collectivism: public vegetable gardens and transport, allocation of premises for breeding small livestock, cooperative canteen and collective children’s educational and leisure activities. Performances by artists, musicians, writers and scientists were to unite residents of the village and to develop common cultural ideas. Such events continued the traditions of literature and art of Zvenigorod places visited by A. S. Pushkin, A. I. Herzen, A. P. Chekhov, A. M. Gorky, I. I. Levitan, K. S. Stanislavsky, etc. The article focuses on the activities of A. V. Chayanov as one of three creators and inspirers of the dacha-consumer cooperative, who invited O.Yu. Schmidt, A. I. Kravchenko, B. A. Kril and others to Nikolina Gora. In 1928–1929, Chayanov’s excavations at the Uspensky settlement had both scientific (a new method of excavations) and educational meaning (in addition to practical skills, local adolescents learned the history of the land their dachas were built on). The dacha-consumer cooperative on Nikolina Gora presents a transformation of the estate tradition in the 20th century realities, that is, a collective life in nature harmoniously combined with intellectual and creative activity.

Keywords

Dacha topos, Nikolina Gora, RANIS dacha-consumer cooperative, A. V. Chayanov, A. S. Yakovlev (Trifonov), E. B. Kril, excavations of the Uspensky settlement, village-commune.

About the author

Mikhalenko Natalia V., PhD (Philology), Senior Researcher, А. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Povarskaya St., 25a, Moscow, 121069, Russia.
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Bezgin V.B. Peasant children and adolescents in the agrarian protests of 1905–1907 // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №3. P. 63-77.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-3-63-77

Annotation

The article considers the participation of village children and adolescents in the agrarian movement of 1905– 1907 as a part of the study of the role of the “generation of revolutionary change” in the peasant revolution of 1902–1922. The study aims at the historical justification of Danilov-Shanin’s concept through generational history combined with peasant studies and interdisciplinary approach. The author focuses on the underage peasants’ participation in the agrarian turmoil of 1905–1907, based on the archival documents and media materials. Police and governor’s reports and court records show that children and adolescents participated in such forms of peasant protest as destruction and arson of landlords’ fields and estates, which is evidenced by deaths and injuries of rural children during punitive actions and by illegal actions of rural adolescents mentioned in investigative cases, court proceedings and newspaper articles. Thus, rural children were observers of protests, while rural adolescents played an active role, sometimes including the role of rioters. Such a participation of children and adolescents in the peasant movement was determined by the nature of collective actions in the peasant community and by the peasant traditional attitude to ‘alien’ property. The experience of peasant protest was used by the younger rural generation during the ‘black redistribution’ of 1917.

Keywords

“Generation of revolutionary change”, rural community, peasantry, children, adolescents, protest.

About the author

Bezgin Vladimir B., DSc (History), Leading Researcher, Tambov State Technical University. Sovetskaya St., 106/5, Tambov, 392000.
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Shapovalov S.N. Peasant resettlement to the North-Eastern coast of the Black Sea in the 1830s–1850s: Settlement and land use // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №3. P. 46-62.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-3-46-62

Annotation

The article considers the peasant resettlement to the southern outskirts of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century. The author focuses on the features of the peasant rural settlement in Trans-Kuban in the 1830s–1850s and on the peasants’ adaptation to local conditions. The article describes a special settlement type created by the authorities in this region — non-Cossack villages with peasants from southern and central provinces, which suffered from the permanent lack of places for accommodation, limited land fund, highlanders’ attacks, and forced construction of new villages. The government provided the peasantry with agricultural implements, weapons, cash benefits, food and possibilities for non-agricultural earnings. After the final settlement of the non-Cossack villages, gardens, arable land and hayfields were transferred to their disposal. However, land use and farming were strictly regulated by the village authorities due to the constant military danger.

Keywords

Trans-Kuban settlement, Anapa, non-Cossack villages, settlers, Natukhai, Black Sea Cossack army.

About the author

Shapovalov Sergey N., PhD (History), Associate Professor, Department of Russian History, Kuban State University. Stavropolskaya St., 149, Krasnodar, 350040.
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Ippolitov V.A. Factors affecting the health of the peasants from the “revolutionary turning point” generation in the 1920s (on the example of the Tambov Province) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №2. P. 46-63.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-2-46-63

Annotation

The author identifies factors that affected peasants’ health in the 1920s based on the unpublished documents of the Health Department of the Executive Committee of the Tambov Regional Council of Workers’, Peasants’ and Red Army Deputies from the State Archives of the Tambov Region. The article focuses on the generational history of rural society, on the “revolutionary turning point” generation, whose representatives were born at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, mainly in the 1890s. The author shows the influence of malnutrition and famine of 1924–1925 on the health of rural residents and the negative consequences of eating various food substitutes and concludes that the famine affected the most the poorest peasants from the “revolutionary turning point” generation. The article presents a comparison of positive and negative factors affecting peasants’ health, focusing on the issues of medical care, morbidity, nutrition, water supply and other factors of the population health status. The author argues that the chronic underfunding of the healthcare system did not allow to provide the rural population with quality medical care, and malaria and syphilis were the most common diseases. The author makes a conclusion about the unsatisfactory health of the peasants from the “revolutionary turning point” generation in the 1920s, referring to the death and birth rates in the countryside and to the relationship between the demographic behavior and depeasantization.

Keywords

Peasants, famine, epidemic, mortality, healthcare, party, NEP, generations.

About the author

Ippolitov Vladimir A., PhD (History), Senior Researcher, Tambov State Technical University. Sovetskaya St., 106/5, Tambov, 392000.
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