Peasant Yard in European North of Russia during Civil War (1917—1921): Characteristics of Survival

The changes in the material well-being of the peasant household in the European North of Russia caused by the agrarian revolution of 1917–1921is examined in the article. The author proceeds from the definition of the European North of Russia as a homo-geneous space, which during the period under study included the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Severo-Dvinsk provinces, the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Autonomous Region of Komi. The factors that influenced the organizational foundations of peasant production are analyzed. The question is raised about the nature of tax withdrawals from the peasant economy during the Civil War and the transition to a system of in-kind withdrawals and duties. Particular attention is paid to changes in the constituent elements of the peasant budget. The level of needs of a peasant family is shown. The article reveals the dependence of the consumption of the peasant household on the size of the sowing, provision of workers with hands and means of production. Particular attention is paid to the constituent elements of the income and expenditure side of the budget of the peasant parcel. The structure of nutrition of a peasant family in farms of different social types is shown. The characteristics of the survival of the rural courtyard and the main directions of its evolution have been determined. An attempt has been made to compare the material wealth of the peasants and townspeople of the region in the specified period.

A Family of Landowner Peasants in the St. Petersburg Province of the mid 19th Century (according to Confessional Murals of Tsarskoye Selo Uyezd)

The rural family of the St. Petersburg province of the mid-19th century is discussed in the article. The structural features, number of people, number of children, the position of widows and widowers in the households of the landowners’ peasants of Tsarskoye Selo Uyezd according to the confession list of 1855 are examined. The scientific novelty of the work is that in the course of the study archival sources, first introduced into scientific circulation, were brought in. It is shown that the average size of the peasant household was 6.5 people, household with 1-2 children aged 0 to 14 years accounted for 61 % of the total number, the share of simple families was 41 %, complex families - 44 %. The results of a comparative analysis of the difference in the age of the spouses, carried out according to the materials of the 1st half of the 18th - the middle of the 19th centuries, are presented, the changes in the mating behavior of the peasants that have occurred over this period are revealed. The author conclude that it is necessary to study the peasant family of the St. Petersburg province based on materials from the second half of the 19th century, which will allow us to analyze the changes in the demographics of the rural population that have occurred under the influence of reforms, and will also expand the possibilities of studying the situation in this region several decades before them.

The originality of the “estate topos” in the A.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the First”

Moscow is the city which united the characters of A.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the First”. Kitay-Gorod is the space where the action of the first book is mainly set. In the novel Tolstoy showed in great detail the everyday life of the city and its inhabi- tants. According to the I.E. Zabelin’s research (“History of the city of Moscow”) in late 17 — early 18 th centuries Moscow was like a big village that is why Tolstoy relied on his childhood memories about the life in the small village Sosnovka (Samara Region) describing the streets of Moscow. The novel begins with the description of a poor peasant household of Brovkin near Moscow, then Volkov’s noble estate is depicted and Menshikov’s house. The space of the city is expanding with each new “address”. Moscow estates, and in particular, connected with the figure of “guardian, lover of the Princess-ruler” V.V. Golitsyn, in Tolstoy’s novel are inextricably linked with the character’s living and with the life of the country. The description of the palace built by Golitsyn at the peak of his career is based on the Sergei Solovyov’s “History of Russia in ancient times”. Golitsyn left it and went to his estate outside Moscow Medvedkovo and from there in exile.

Peasant household and land community in Ukrainian SSR (1922–1930s)

Research aim. Analyze the relationships between the peasant household and land community in the Ukrainian SSR in 1922-1930s. Methodology of the research. The methodological basis of the study is the principles of historicism, objectivity, systematic scientific analysis and synthesis. Objectivity in the study is revealed in the identification of potential opportunities for the development of the agricultural sector of the economy. The principle of historicism provides a focus on the land community activities as a process that developed over time in aggregate of historical interconnections and interdependencies. General scientific and specific historical methods that are aligned with the historical analysis are used in the research. Analysis of the historiography has led to the use of analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification. The systematization method was used in the study of archival materials. The analysis, typologization, classification of the reports of the general assembly of land communities, letters and complaints to the authorities allowed to trace the course of the relationships peasant household and land community. The scientific novelty of the research is further substantiation of the holistic concept of the land community organization and activity in the Soviet Ukrainian village. The essence of the concept: the institute of land communities of the Soviet Ukrainian village in the 1922-1930s played a leading role in the economic and social life of the village, in relations with the Soviet authorities. It was a self-governing and self-regulating organization created by the peasants themselves and based on the Ukrainian historical traditions. The land community experience as a vertical type cooperative can be used in today's Ukrainian village to preserve the peasantry as a stratum of Ukrainian society. There were investigated following issues: the peasant household right to land within the land community; membership in peasant household and rights of its members; entrance and exit from the peasant household; the rights and responsibilities of the head; personal property and property of the household; division of the households; distribution of escheated households land and property. It is shown how the land community resolved disputes between peasants over the issues outlined above using official and customary law. Conclusions. The peasant household is an integral part of the land community. Land community, as a union of peasant households, had inseparability and intertwining of functions in its activity.

“IN THE MOSCOW ESTATES”: A. N. TOLSTOY’S NOVEL PETER THE FIRST AS AN ESTATE TEXT

The childhood of Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy passed on the steppe farm Sosnovka where his stepfather’s A. A. Bostrom’s estate was located. Subsequently, the writer reproduced both external appearance of the estates familiar to him, and the inhabitants of the estates and their way of life on the pages of his works. Everything that Tolstoy saw in his childhood (peasant yards, the life of a small-scale Samara estate (called ‘khutor’), a city estate) found reflection in his works and, in particular, in the manor texts, which undoubtedly include the novel Peter the Great. The paper considers the A. N. Tolstoy’s novel Peter the Great as an ‘estate text’. The first book of the novel is set in Moscow, in Kitay-Gorod. Tolstoy recreates in great detail the life of the city and its inhabitants that has gone into the past, which in the late 17th – early 18th centuries, according to the historian I. E. Zabelina looked like a big village. The descriptions of the peasant household, Moscow nobles estates and princely mansion are based, on the one hand, on the writer’s impressions and, on the other, on historical sources and represent the image of the estate. The estate plot closely connected with the characters living (both fictional and historical ones), with life of the city and the state. The novel provides a comprehensive description of the courtyard of the poor peasant Brovkin, the impoverished nobleman Volkov, as well as based on the testimony of the French envoy De Neuville and the work of S. M. Solovyov, a detailed image of the Moscow chambers of Prince V. V. Golitsyn. Childhood memories, historical sources and creative imagination allow Tolstoy to painstakingly recreate on the pages of the novel not only the image of the lost Moscow of Peter’s time, but also the ones of its inhabitants.

What drives peasant household to commercialize? An investigation of the factors leading to commercialization of semi-subsistence farming in Ukraine

More than half of the total number of households in Ukraine are engaged in agricultural activities both for food self-sufficiency and for the production of marketable agricultural products, acting as subsistence or semi-subsistence farms. The determination of the right strategy for the further development of this form of farming is the key to the effective development of the agricultural sector, rural areas and the national economy as a whole. Instigated by Europe's CAP policy and its implementation, the study seeks to and delivers the factors influencing the commercialization of the semi-subsistence farms in Ukraine, based on the wealth of statistical data. The findings also show the lack of a strategy to support the establishment of a model of individual farming, which must counteract the risks of industrialized agro-production.

Entrepreneurial Initiatives of the Ukrainian Peasants During the "Thaw" to Satisfy Everyday Needs

The purpose of the article: to analyze the entrepreneurial potential of personal farms of collective farmers during "thaw" period in the field of household needs. Scientific novelty. The peasant stories we have collected during field research, clearly demonstrate the willingness of peasants to earn extra money to meet their needs. In the general structure of cash receipts to the peasant's homestead, it was important to receive income, for example, from such handicrafts as sewing and repairing clothes and shoes. The Ukrainian peasant society of the Khrushchev era remained a secondary subject of socio-economic life for the state, so only the peasant entrepreneurial initiative helped peasants to survive and provide at least a sufficient level and quality of life for their own families. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of comparative-historical and interdisciplinary analysis, socio-cultural approach. Conclusions. The everyday life of the Ukrainian peasant family of the "thaw" era was characterized by the fact that the needs of the peasants were constantly growing, but their satisfaction from the state was minimal. Accordingly, the role of various handicraftsmen became more active, who could satisfy on the spot, at least at a primitive, minimal level, the vital needs of fellow villagers. The peasant stories we have analyzed, collected during field research, clearly enough demonstrate the willingness of peasants to earn additional funds to satisfy their needs. In the general structure of monetary receipts of the peasant household, it remained relevant to obtain income, for example, from such handicraft trades as sewing and repairing clothes and shoes. The Ukrainian peasant society of the Khrushchev era remained for the state a secondary subject of socio-economic life, therefore only peasant entrepreneurial initiative helped him survive and ensure at least a sufficient level and quality of life for his own family.

Roles of Motivation, Opportunity, Ability, and Trust in the Willingness of Farmers to Adopt Green Fertilization Techniques

Green fertilization technologies such as the formula fertilization technology and the water and fertilizer integration technology are important technologies to realize fertilizer reduction and replacement. To explore the willingness of farmers to adopt those technologies and its driving path, can help to improve soil quality and promote the sustainable development of agriculture. In this paper, trust is incorporated into the theoretical framework of motivation, opportunity, ability (MOA). Based on the questionnaire survey data of citrus farmers in Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces in China, the logical relationship of farmers’ willingness to adopt green fertilization technology is analyzed from four aspects of adoption motivation, adoption opportunity, ability (technical operation ability and ant risk ability), and trust by using a structural equation model. The results showed that adoption motivation, adoption opportunity, technical operation ability, and anti-risk ability had significant positive direct effects on adoption willingness, which were 0.610, 0.381, 0.491, and 0.297, respectively. Trust had an indirect effect, which was 0.191. From the results of cross-group analysis, it can be seen that farmers’ participation in organizations or contracts signed will strengthen the influence of adoption opportunity, technical operation ability and adoption motivation on adoption willingness. However, the influence of the anti-risk ability on adoption willingness was strengthened by the non-participation or non-contract peasant household groups.