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2024. Vol.9. №2.

Peasants’ exercise of the rights to alcohol trade in excise Russia (1863–1894)

Jul 20 2024

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

Goryushkina Natalya E., DSc (History), Head of the Department of History and SocialCultural Services, Southwestern State University. 50 years of October St., 94, 305040, Kursk, Russia.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

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2023. Vol.8. №2.

Рub as a public space of the peasant world under the excise trade in Russia (1860s — 1890s)

Aug 18 2023

Gorskaya N.I. Рub as a public space of the peasant world under the excise trade in Russia (1860s – 1890s) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №2. P. 21-35.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-2-21-35

Annotation

The article considers Russian rural pubs in the second half of the 19th century as a specific place of peasant meetings with the club features. The author describes rural life based on the narrative and legislative sources of the 1860s –1890s for the north-western and central agrarian provinces. By the end of the 19th century, the number of voluntary associations in Russia had significantly increased, and clubs were very popular. Until recently, clubs were considered as an exclusively social-cultural phenomenon of urban social and everyday life. In the late 19th century, the social functions of clubs widened beyond some leisure places for urban residents. In the second half of the 19th century, there was a tendency to consider pubs in rural areas not only as clubs but also as the sprouts of civil society. The article shows that pubs as a public space of peasant life had signs of urban clubs, but their functions were limited to leisure with some elements of business and communication. The traditional dichotomy of peasant life — family and community — gained additional meanings due to the expansion of peasant interaction and to the additional functionality of rural pubs. Moreover, as a phenomenon of rural life pubs represented a social anomaly (drunkenness) and absorbed some changes in the traditional way of peasant life, which reflected both the developing ties between the village and the city and the greater openness of the peasant world.

Keywords

Russia, the second half of the 19th century, peasantry, public space, excise duty, pub, club, leisure, everyday life.

About the author

Gorskaya Natalia I., DSc (History), Professor, Department of Russian History, Faculty of History and Law, Smolensk State University. Przhevalskogo St., 4, Smolensk, 214000.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

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Russian Peasant Studies. Scientific journal

Center for Agrarian studies of the Russian Presidental Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)

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