Mind and Labor on the Farm in Black-Earth Russia, 1861-1914 / / David Kerans.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Central European University Press eBook-Package 2013-1998
• VerfasserIn: Kerans, David,
• Place / Publishing House: Budapest ;, New York : : Central European University Press, , [2022]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (511 p.) :; photographs

Did Tsarist Russia's political and industrial backwardness result from its rigid and archaic agrarian structure? Did the Russian revolution stem in large part from a parasitical elite's exploitation of an enormous peasant class? Was the Russian peasantry itself backward and 'dark' as a result? The attention contemporaries and historians have lavished on these questions has enshrined them as fundamental issues in Russian history. This text endeavours to recast our understanding of the agrarian problem by uncovering the history of both the physical and mental dimensions of agriculture. Employing literary, agronomic and statistical information on peasant labour and culture, this book also offers new perspectives on the limitations of traditional agriculture to adapt to a rapidly changing economic geography, such as that of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Russia. By taking a ground level view of the evolution of Russian agricultural technique, the author arrives at a very different understanding of the agrarian problem. The book identifies both the achievements and limitations of peasant farmers in adapting farming practices to the economic and technological challenges of the half century preceding the revolution. Most importantly, the book delves deeply into peasant life and culture to demonstrate how and why farming imrovements did not pass determinable levels.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Maps -- INTRODUCTION The Agrarian Problem as a History of Work -- A Note on Sources -- Notes -- PART ONE FARMING THROUGH THE PEASANT'S EYES. THE EVOLUTION OF LABOR, 1861-1914 -- Methods of Cultivation -- Growing Grain -- Notes -- PART TWO TOWARDS A HISTORY AND UNDERSTANDING OF AGRONOMIC APTITUDE -- The Peasant Farmer and Soil: The Four Stages of Comprehension -- Profit Maximizing, Utility Maximizing, or Something Else? -- Conclusion From Faith in Routine to Belief in Agency -- Notes -- PART THREE. THE THREE-FIELD SYSTEM AND BEYOND -- Systems of Agriculture, Systems of Farming, Crop Rotations. Delineation of Terms -- The Fodder Crisis: Decay of the Three^Field System? -- A System Despised -- Multi-Field vs. Three-Field Systems -- Conclusion -- Notes -- PART FOUR. GOVERNMENT'S SOLUTION TO THE AGRARIAN PROBLEM: THE STOLYPIN REFORM IN TAMBOV -- What was the Stolypin Reform? -- The Stolypin Reform in Tambov -- Parcelized Holdings vs. Consolidated Plots: Conclusions -- The Stolypin Reform and the Configuration of Peasant Lands -- The Stolypin Reform in Action -- Peasant Attitudes to Consolidated Plots -- Farming on the Consolidated Plots -- Agricultural Improvement -- Conclusion -- Notes -- PART FIVE ALTERNATIVES FOR REFORM, PROSPECTS FOR DEVELOPMENT -- Introduction -- The Agronomic Aid Effort in Tambov -- Conclusion -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Appendix. Nutrition and Mortality in Tambov, 1880-1914 -- BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALL BOOKS, JOURNALS, AND ARCHIVES CITED -- A MINIATURE GLOSSARY -- SOME RUSSIAN WEIGHTS AND MEASURES -- NOTE ON DATES -- NOTE ON DATES