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The Crisis in Russian Agriculture at the End of the Nineteenth Century: A Different View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

James Y. Simms Jr.
James Y. Simms Jr.*
Affiliation:
Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia
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Extract

One of the most important and most generally espoused interpretations in Russian history is the existence of a crisis in Russian agriculture toward the close of the nineteenth century. A discussion of this crisis or agrarian problem is found in contemporary, in Soviet, and in the Western scholarly works. Statements such as “the economic condition of the peasantry kept deteriorating,” or “famine conditions, epidemics, increased mortality, decrease in the number of livestock, … this is the spectacle of the growing destitution of a faminestricken Russian village,” are commonplace. In fact, “to numerous observers of Russian rural conditions, the growing destitution of the village seemed so evident that it required no special demonstration.” The purpose of this paper is to examine the indexes used to support the crisis interpretation, and to show that this interpretation is not only arguable, but probably fallacious.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 1977 , pp. 377 - 398
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1977

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References

1. Over two dozen citations could be provided to prove the point. See, for example, the following contemporary sources : Paul, Miliukov, Russia and Its Crisis (New York : Collier Books, 1962, p. 316 Google Scholar; Iuzhakov, S, “Voprosy ekonomicheskago razvitiia v Rossii,” Russkoe bogatstvo, 1893, no. 12, pp. 203–4Google Scholar; N. A., Karyshev, “Letnie vpechatleniia : Padenie khlebnykh tsen,” Russkoe bogatstvo, 1894, no. 8, p. 53 Google Scholar; “Sel'sko-khoziaistvennyi krizis i prodovol'stvennaia nuzhda v Pskovskoi gubernii, ” Russkoe bogatstvo, 1896, no. 2, pp. 188-89; and Chuprov, A. I. and Posnikov, A. S., eds., Vliianie urozhaev i khlebnykh tsen na nekotoriia storony russkago narodnago khoziaistva (St. Petersburg, 1897), p. xli Google Scholar. Soviet sources include : Khromov, P. A., Ekonomika Rossii perioda promyshlennogo kapitalisma (Moscow, 1963), pp. 206–7, 210Google Scholar; Egiazarova, N. A., Agrarnyi krizis kontsa XIX veka v Rossii (Moscow, 1959), pp. 3–10, 83-84, 138-52Google Scholar; and Lyashchenko, Peter L., History of the National Economy of Russia, trans. Herman, L. M. (New York : MacMillan, 1949), pp. 439 ffGoogle Scholar. Western sources include : Vucinich, Wayne S., ed., The Peasant in Nineteenth Century Russia (Stanford : Stanford University Press, 1968), p. xvi Google Scholar; Watters, Francis M., “The Peasant and the Village Commune,” in The Peasant in Nineteenth Century Russia, ed. Vucinich, Wayne S. (Stanford : Stanford University Press, 1968), pp. 133 and 152Google Scholar; Von Laue, Theodore H., “The State and the Economy,” in The Transformation of Russian Society, ed. Black, Cyril (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1960), pp. 298 and 301Google Scholar; Seton-Watson, Hugh, The Russian Empire 1801-1917 (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1967, pp. 514–17 Google Scholar; Sidney, Harcave, The Russian Revolution of 1905 (London : Collier Books, 1970, pp. 19–20 Google Scholar; and Richard, Robbins, Famine in Russia 1891-1892 (New York : Columbia University Press, 1975, pp. 3–10.Google Scholar

2. Alexander, Gerschenkron, “Agrarian Policies and Industrialization : Russia 1861-1917,” in Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 4, part 2, ed. Habakkuk, H. J. and Postan, N. (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1965, p. 776.Google Scholar

3. Lazar, Volin, “The Russian Peasant : From Emancipation to Kolkhoz,” in The Transformation of Russian Society, ed. Black, Cyril (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 298.Google Scholar

4. Lazar, Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture : From Alexander II to Khrushchev (Cambridge Mass. : Harvard. University. Prejs, 1970, p. 57–58.Google Scholar

5. For those interested in a more detailed discussion of this topic, see chapter 5 of James Y. Simms, Jr., “The Impact of the Russian Famine of 1891-92 : A New Perspective” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1976).

6. See, for example, Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 59; Watters, “The Peasant, ” pp. 152 and 157; Harcave, Russian Revolution of 1905, pp. 19 and 20.

7. See, for example, George, Pavlovsky, Agricultural Russia on the Eve of the Revolution (London : George Routledge and Sons, 1930), pp. 27, 84, 251Google Scholar; and Robinson, Geroid T., Rural Russia under the Old Regime (New York : MacMillan, 1967), pp. 94, 97, 99, 103, 110-11.Google Scholar

8. Von Laue, Theodore H., “The High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System,” in Readings in Russian History, vol. 2, ed. Harcave, Sidney (New York : Thomas Y. Crowell, 1968), p. 72.Google Scholar

9. Lionel, Kochan, Russia in Revolution 1890-1918 (New York : American Library, 1966, pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

10. Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 67. See also Leopold, Haimson, The Russian Marxists and the Origins of Bolshevism (Cambridge Mass. : Harvard. University. Press, 1955, p. 49–50 Google Scholar; Treadgold, Donald W., Lenin and His Rivals (New York : Frederick A. Praeger, 1955), p. 12 Google Scholar; Schwarz, Solomon M., “Populism and Early Russian Marxism on Ways of Economic Development of Russia,” in Continuity and Change in Russian and Soviet Thought, ed. Simmons, E. J. (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1955), p. 43 Google Scholar; and Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 72, who make similar statements.

11. Robinson, Rural Russia under the Old Regime, p. 110. See also Shcherbina, F. A., “Krest'ianskie biudzhety i zavisimost’ ikh ot urozhaev i tsen na khleba,” in Vliianie uroshaev i khlebnykh tsen na nekotoriia storony russkago narodnago khosiaistva, ed. Chuprov, A. I. and Posnikov, A. S., vol. 2 (St. Petersburg, 1897), pp. 3 and 75.Google Scholar

12. See, for example, Robinson, Rtiral Russia under the Old Regime, pp. 94-117; and Lyashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia, pp. 439-75. For a contemporary view, see Slonimskii, L, “Neurozhai i narodnoe bedstvie,” Vestnik Evropy, 3 (May 1892) : 345–64Google Scholar; and Karyshev, “Letnie vpechatleniia, ” pp. 43-71.

13. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 70.

14. Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 54; Seton-Watson, The Russian Empire, p. 510.

15. Lyashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia, p. 534.

16. Vucinich, The Peasant in Nineteenth Century Russia, pp. xvi-xvii.

17. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 75; Kochan, Russia in Revolution, p. 16.

18. Watters, “The Peasant, ” p. 155.

19. Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 62.

20. This basic interpretation can be found in virtually every survey text of Russian history or monograph concerning Russian agriculture, for example, Florinsky, Robinson, Lyashchenko, and Volin. A similar view was also prevalent among the contemporaries, for example, Slonimskii, Karyshev, Plekhanov, Nikolai-on, Skvortsov, and even George Kennan.

21. Wallace, Donald M., Russia (New York : Cassell, 1912, pp. 535–36.Google Scholar

22. Robinson, Rtiral Russia under the Old Regime, pp. 95-96.

23. “Vnutrennee obozrenie, ” Vestnik Evropy, 3 (May 1892) : 372-73; G. A. FaPbork, “Glavnyia mery bor'by s golodom, kak neobkhodimym posledstviem neurozhaia u nas v Rossii, ” Trudy imperatorskago vol'nago ckonomichcskago obshchestva, November-December 1892, p. 253; Von Laue, Theodore H., Sergei Witte and the Industrialisation of Russia (New York : Columbia University Press, 1963, p. 170 Google Scholar; Wallace, Russia, p. 535; Robinson, Rural Russia under the Old Regime, pp. 110-11; Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 51; and Miliukov, Russia and Its Crisis, p. 373.

24. Robinson, Rural Russia under the Old Regime, p. 110. See also Miliukov, Russia and Its Crisis, p. 325.

25. Robinson, Rural Russia under the Old Regime, pp. 110-11.

26. The image of such harsh methods of tax collection is quite common in the literature on the subject. The following is a brief sample : Lyashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia, p. 513; Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 52; Gerschenkron, “Agrarian Policies and Industrialization, ” p. 786; Neiv York Times, July 13, 1891, p. 6; G. V., Plekhanov, “Vserossiiskoe razorenie,” Sotsial Demokrat, 4 (1892), pp. 85 and 93Google Scholar; Free Russia, 2 (August 1891), p. 14; Slonimskii, “Neurozhai, ” pp. 354—55; Fal'bork, “Glavnyia mery bor'by s golodom, ” p. 251; Tolstoi, Lev N., Golod Hi ne golod? (Essex, England : Vladimir Chertkov, 1898), p. 15 Google Scholar; and Nikolaion, , Ocherki nashego poreformennago khoziaistva (St. Petersburg, 1893), p. 257.Google Scholar

27. See Khromov, P. A., Ekonomicheskoe razvitie Rossii v XIX-XX vekakh (Moscow-Leningrad, 1950), pp. 489–99Google Scholar, which shows an increase of 40 million rubles in redemption payments and 12 million rubles in indirect tax receipts on consumer goods.

28. Olga, Crisp, “Russian Financial Policy and the Gold Standard at the End of the Nineteenth Century,” Economic History Revieia, 6, no. 2 (December 1953) : 165.Google Scholar

29. Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, pp. 52-53; Von Laue, Sergei Witte, pp. 26-27; and Chuprov and Posnikov, Vliianie urazhaev i khlebnykh tsen, pp. xviii-xix.

30. See Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 52, for a discussion of the joint responsibility for the payment of taxes.

31. Vladimir Lenin, The Development of Capitalism in Russia, in Collected Works, vol. 3 (Moscow : Foreign Language Publishing House, 1960), pp. 164-65.

32. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 70.

33. Ibid., pp. 75-76. Kochan states : “In the last resort it was the peasantry who had to pay, far beyond the resources, for the development of industry. This was the sequel to the government's fiscal policy of indirect taxation and also to the high prices of imported goods following the imposition of the protectionist tariff. Industry, therefore, far from bringing benefit to the mass of Russians, actively contributed to their impoverishment” (Kochan, Russia in Revolution, pp. 3-4). “But during this transition period, he [Witte] had to acknowledge that taxes and import duties reduced a standard of living that was already at a bare subsistence level, that taxes were paid ‘not out of excess but out of current needs… .’ The Vitte system was tantamount to squeezing the peasantry tighter and tighter for the sake of a problematic future benefit” (Kochan, Russia in Revolution, p. 16). Robinson states that “the proceeds of indirect taxation were drawn chiefly from levies on such things as vodka, sugar, tobacco, kerosene, and matches and from import duties on tea, cotton, iron and the like. In other words, the burden rested chiefly upon articles of general consumption and was therefore borne in considerable part by the peasant mass” (Robinson, Rural Russia under the Old Regime, p. 96). Vucinich states that “another shortcoming was the heavy redemption price the peasant was forced to pay for his land. This, coupled with high taxes, created a fiscal burden that was a prime cause of increasing rural poverty…. the peasant sector, forced to pay most of the cost of his program was ignored” (Vucinich, The Peasant in Nineteenth Century Russia, pp. xvi-xvii).

34. Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, pp. 52-53. See also Kennan, George F., “A Theory of Circumstantial Causation,” in The Russian Revolution, ed. Medlin, Virgil D. (Hinsdale, III. : The Dryden Press, 1974), p. 30 Google Scholar. Contemporaries also believed that the peasantry at large bore the brunt of taxation. See Miliukov, Russia and Its Crisis, p. 325; Ivan, Sergeevskii, Golod v Rossii (Geneva : Society of Old Populists, 1892), p. 32 Google Scholar; and Nikolai-on, Ocherki, pp. 258-59.

35. There is evidence which shows that the peasants did not passively submit to the tax collector. See Shapkarin, A. V., ed., Krest'ianskoe dvizhenie v Rossii v 1890-1900 gg. (Moscow, 1959), p. 114–21.Google Scholar

36. Cited by Pogrebinskii, A. P., Ocherki istorii finansov dorevoliutsionnoi Rossii (XIXXX w) (Moscow, 1954), p. 99.Google Scholar

37. Pavlovsky, Agricultural Russia, p. 78.

38. Skvortsov, A. I., Ekonomicheskie etiudy (St. Petersburg, 1894), pp. 71–72.Google Scholar

39. Nikolai-on, Ocherki, p. 257; and Mendel, Arthur P., Dilemmas of Progress in Tsarist Russia (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40. Chuprov and Posnikov, Vliianie uroshaev i khlebnykh tsen, p. lii.

41. See Lyashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia, p. 510; and Pogrebinskii, Ocherki istorii finansov, p. 191.

42. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 70; and Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 53.

43. Khromov, Ekonomicheskoe razvitie Rossii, pp. 498-99, 502-3.

44. Miliukov, Russia and Its Crisis, p. 322.

45. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 69; Von Laue, Sergei Witte, p. 211. See also Mendel, Dilemmas of Progress, pp. 45 and 48. The context in which the argument was presented suggests that both of these scholars accepted the contemporary view.

46. Alexander, Gerschenkron, “The Problem of Economic Development in Russian Intellectual History of the Nineteenth Century,” Continuity and Change in Russian and Soviet Thought, ed. Simmons, E. J. (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1955), pp. 14–15, 37Google Scholar. A parallel argument is made by many students of Soviet economic history, in that it is hypothesized that the rapid industrialization program of the 1930s was predicated on the exploitation of the agrarian sector, which thus made a net contribution to the industrialization of the Soviet Union. My findings suggest that the peasant sector did not disproportionately bear the brunt of industrialization in the 1890s. James R. Millar has drawn a similar conclusion for 1928-34 in Soviet Russia. See James R., Millar, “Soviet Rapid Development and the Agricultural Surplus Hypothesis,” Soviet Studies, 22 (July 1970) : 77–93Google Scholar; and James R., Millar, “Mass Collectivization and the Contribution of Soviet Agriculture to the First Five- Year Plan : A Review Article,” Slavic Review, 33, no. 4 (December 1974) : 750–66.Google Scholar

47. Vladimir, Lenin, “On the So-called Market Question,” in Collected Works, vol. 1 (Moscow : Foreign Language Publishing House, 1963), p. 107.Google Scholar

48. Raymond W., Goldsmith, “The Economic Growth of Tsarist Russia 1860-1913,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 9 (April 1961) : 412–13Google Scholar. See also Crisp, “Russian Financial Policy, ” p. 165, who feels that conditions might have been improving rather than declining within the agricultural sector.

49. Lyashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia, p. 509; Khromov, Ekonomicheskoe razvitie Rossii, pp. 452-53, 460-61; and Von Laue, Sergei Witte, p. 268.

50. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 69. See also Butmi, George V., Itogi finansovago khoziaistva s 1892 po 1903 (St. Petersburg, 1904), pp. 48–50.Google Scholar

51. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 69; and Von Laue, Sergei Witte, p. 274.

52. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 69.

53. Butmi, Itogi finansovago khoziaistva, pp. 50-51.

54. Osipov, N. O., “O nekotoroi zavisimosti mezhdu tsenoiu khleba i postupleniem aktsiznykh soborov za poslednee 10-letie,” in Vliianie uroshaev i khlcbnykh tsen na nekotoriia storony russkago narodnago khosiaistva, ed. Chuprov, A. I. and Posnikov, A. S. (St. Petersburg, 1897), p. 377.Google Scholar

55. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 69.

56. Butmi, Itogi finansovago khoziaistva, pp. 52-53; and Von Laue, Sergei Witte, p. 274.

57. Osipov, “O nekotoroi zavisimosti, ” p. 380.

58. Butmi, Itogi finansovago khoziaistva, p. 52; and Von Laue, Sergei Witte, p. 274.

59. Butmi, Itogi finansovago khoziaistva, p. 52.

60. See Osipov, “O nekotoroi zavisimosti, ” p. 379; and Butmi, Itogi finansovago khoziaistva, p. 52.

61. See Osipov, “O nekotoroi zavisimosti, ” p. 379, who shows a slow but gradual increase in consumption of kerosene from 1888 to 1894.

62. Ministerstvo, Finansov, Russia, Its Industries and Trade (Glasgow : Hay, Nisbet and Co., 1901), p. 212 Google Scholar; and Russian Journal of Financial Statistics (St. Petersburg, 1899), pp. 30-31, 62-63.

63. Russian Journal of Financial Statistics, p. 31; and Khromov, Ekonomicheskoe rasvitie Rossii, pp. 498 and 502.

64. Crisp, “Russian Financial Policy, ” p. 165.

65. Khromov, Ekonomicheskoe razvitie Rossii, p. 540.

66. Von Laue, Sergei Witte, p. 170; Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 73; Khromov, Ekonomika Rossii, p. 207; and Lyashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia, p. 447.

67. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 69; and Lenin, The Development of Capitalism in Russia, pp. 166-67.

68. Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 70. Emphasis added.

69. Lyashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia, p. 453. See also Nifontov, A. S., Zernovoe proisvodstvo Rossii vo vtoroi polovine XIX veka (Moscow, 1974), p. 284.Google Scholar

70. Alexander, Gerschenkron, “Problems and Patterns of Russian Economic Development,” in The Transformation of Russian Society, ed. Black, Cyril (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 48 Google Scholar; and Gerschenkron, “Agrarian Policies and Industrialization, ” p. 778.

71. Gerschenkron, “Agrarian Policies and Industrialization, ” p. 778.

72. Goldsmith, “Economic Growth of Tsarist Russia, ” p. 442.

73. Ibid., p. 454. See also Nifontov, Zernovoe proizvodstvo Rossii, p. 310, whose data relating to grain available for rural consumption tends to support Goldsmith's conclusion.

74. See Simms, “Impact of the Russian Famine of 1891-92, ” p. 309.

75. Nifontov, Zernovoe proizvodstvo Rossii, p. 310.

76. “Obezpechenie narodnago prodovol'stviia v sviazi s khlebnoi promyshlennosti, ” Russkoe bogatstvo, 1892, no. 3, p. 131; luzhakov, “Voprosy ekonomicheskago razvitiia v Rossii, ” pp. 203-4; Nikolaion, , “Apologiia vlasti deneg kak priznak vremeni,” Russkoe bogatstvo, 1895, no. 1, p. 178 Google Scholar; and Karyshev, “Letnie vpechatleniia, ” pp. 61-68, 52. See also Mendel, Dilemmas of Progress, p. 47, who outlines the legal populist view concerning low prices and the “fear” of a good harvest.

77. Watters, “The Peasant, ” pp. 154—55. See also Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 60.

78. Khromov, Ekonomika Rossii, pp. 206-7.

79. Laue, Theodore Von, “The High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System : A Chapter in the Industrialization of Russia,” Journal of Economic History, 13 (1953) : 431.Google Scholar

80. Chuprov and Posnikov, Vliianie urozhaev i khlebnykh tsen, pp. ii-iii. For a more complete discussion, see Simms, “Impact of the Russian Famine of 1891-92, ” pp. 311 ff.

81. Chuprov and Posnikov, Vliianie urozhaev i khlebnykh tsen, pp. iv-v.

82. Ibid., p. vi.

83. Ibid., p. viii. See also Robinson, Rural Russia under the Old Regime, pp. 102-3; and James, Mavor, An Economic History of Russia, vol. 2 (New York : Russell and Russell, 1965, p. 290 Google Scholar.

84. See Shcherbina, “Krest'ianskie biudzhety, ” pp. 54-79.

85. Chuprov and Posnikov, Vliianie urozhaev i khlebnykh tsen, pp. xlvii-lii, liv.

86. Ibid., p. lvi.

87. Ibid., pp. lvii-lviii

88. Ibid., p. xx. See also Shcherbina, “Krest'ianskie biudzhety, ” pp. 54-79.

89. Von Laue, “The High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System : A Chapter in the Industrialization of Russia, ” p. 431.

90. Chuprov and Posnikov, Vliianie uroshaev i khlebnykh tsen, p. xxi. This material is quoted at length because it stands in stark contrast to the usual picture concerning Russian rural life.

91. Ibid., p. xxii.

92. Ibid., pp. x-xiii.

93. Lenin, The Development of Capitalism in Russia, pp. 148 ff.

94. Shcherbina, “Krest'ianskie biudzhety, ” pp. 54-55.

95. Ibid., pp. 54-79. On page 75, the author acknowledges that she is holding all other variables constant.

96. Ibid., pp. 60, 74, 76. See also Osipov, “O nekotoroi zavisimosti, ” p. 372. The budgets were based on average expenditures and incomes of budgets throughout Russia for the period 1883-87.

97. Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture, p. 61.

98. Chuprov and Posnikov, Vliianie uroshaev i khlebnykh tsen, p. xiv.

99. Ibid., pp. xvi-xvii

100. Ibid., pp. xvii-xviii.

101. Ibid., pp. xv-xvi.

102. Robinson, Rural Russia under the Old Regime, pp. 105-6.

103. Lenin, The Development of Capitalism in Russia, p. 167.

104. Robinson, Rural Russia under the Old Regime, p. 110.

105. Ibid., p. 10S.

106. Lenin, The Development of Capitalism in Russia, p. 154. In 1893, Lenin argued that the majority of the peasants met their total needs by selling their labor (Lenin, “On the So-called Market Question, ” p. 123).

107. Chuprov and Posnikov, Vliianie uroshaev i khlebnykh tsen, pp. xii and xiv. See also Shcherbina, “Krest'ianskie biudzhety, ” p. 55.

108. Lenin, The Development of Capitalism in Russia, p. 151.

109. See Von Laue, “High Cost and the Gamble of the Witte System, ” p. 63.