Rural Revolutions in Southern Ukraine: Peasants, Nobles, and Colonists, 1774–1905 (Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies) - Hardcover

Friesen, Leonard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1932650008 ISBN 13: 9781932650006

Publisher: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2009

Synopsis

Leonard Friesen presents a study of the transformation of New Russia--the region north of the Black and Azov seas--from its conquest by the Russian Empire in the late eighteenth century to the revolutionary tumult of 1905. Friesen is particularly interested in the dynamic and multifaceted relations between the region's peasants, European colonists, and Russian estate owners. He gives special attention to the settlement process whereby once free peasants were enserfed within a generation, as well as the period of servile emancipation after 1861, when the paths of the region's agriculturalists converged in unexpected ways. Overall, Friesen sees the region as vital to an understanding of the empire as a whole. He demonstrates how peasants, nobles, and estate owners were key actors in a series of rural revolutions that eventually threatened the empire itself.

This book contributes to our understanding of Imperial Russia, as well as contemporary Ukraine, by describing and analyzing rural developmental patterns over time. It explores how, when, and why agriculturalists made adjustments to long-established agrarian and social practices, and provides a fresh perspective on the link between the end of empire and the rural developments that preceded it.

About this title

About the Author

Leonard Friesen is Associate Professor and founding Chair of the Global Studies Program at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Review

This is an important book. In a richly documented monograph, Friesen contributes to an evolving scholarly reassessment of provincial life in imperial Russia. Against the longstanding consensus of a countryside mired in stagnation, Friesen describes the economic dynamism and demographic growth of New Russia (today, southern Ukraine) in the 19th century. (P. E. Heineman Choice 2010-01-01)

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1932650008
• ISBN 13: 9781932650006
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 325