Rural Adaptation in Russia

A dominant approach to peasant behavior has been to emphasize rural resistance to reform broadly, and to the introduction of market forces in particular. This book examines historical and contemporary patterns of rural adaptation in Russia for the purpose of illuminating the ways in which peasants respond to new environmental conditions and stimuli created by reform. The substantive material is drawn from the Stolypin reforms in the pre-Soviet era, collectivization of agriculture during the 1930s in the Soviet era, and then four articles from the post-Soviet era. The articles analyzing peasant responses in the post-Soviet era all draw from field work and survey data collected from rural Russia. These chapters examine the relationship between poverty and rural adaptation, the social origins of private farmers in southern Russia and Ukraine, response patterns by large farms (formerly collective and state farms), and household adaptation using a standardized set of criteria in three different regions ofRussia. In total, the volume is entirely original and presents some of the best research being conducted on rural Russia by well-known experts.