The Peasants of the St. Petersburg and Moscow Provinces after Abolition of Serfdom

Abstract

The article examines the condition of the peasantry in the St. Petersburg and Moscow provinces in 1850–1890 against the background of the development of 50 provinces of European Russia as a whole. The aim is to test the adequacy of the concept of the agrarian crisis of the post-reform village, which occurred as a result of the unfair reform of the 1860s predatory towards peasantry. The article criticizes the dominant concept of the Soviet historiography, which is regarded as controversial in modern scholarship. The first part of the article assesses the dynamics of the standard of living of the peasantry based on the traditionally used data: firstly, on production factor and sources of income, and the degree of sufficiency of peasant incomes for normal life and, secondly, on anthropometric indicators. The analysis of anthropometric data is preceded by a methodological introduction, which explains the theoretical foundations of using the body length data and the technique and procedure of processing primary information to obtain an adequate picture. Special attention is paid to the interpretation of the results of anthropometric analysis, which poses a difficulty to classical historians. The analysis of traditional and anthropometric indicators characterizing the condition of the metropolitan peasantry of the capital and 50 provinces of European Russia leads to the conclusion: in 1861–1890, the standard of living of peasants in the capital provinces had improved, moreover, to a larger extent compared to European Russia as a whole. The agreement of the results of economic and anthropometric analysis enhances the reliability of the conclusion about the improvement of the welfare of the Russian peasantry during the first 30 years after the peasant reform.