This book is the story of a generation of Russians who sought to improve their personal lives but managed to effectively change the ways of the entire country during the decade following the abortive revolution of 1905. This happened largely beyond the administrative apparatus of the state and outside the organized, if collapsing, revolutionary movement. They formed a new social class of rural professionals: agronomists, physicians, educators, instructors, and managers of peasant cooperatives. Several tens of thousands strong by 1914, this group successfully bridged the proverbial gap between the educated elite and the 'people' by establishing an intensive dialogue with the peasants. An attempt to turn Russian imperial villagers into self-conscious economic subjects through the 'apolitical politics' of self-organization quite unexpectedly led to the creation of different versions of political nationhood by means of society's self-mobilization. These processes explain much about the events of 1917 and the outcome of the civil war.
'Ilya Gerasimov's study of agricultural modernizers in early twentieth century Russia gently smashes long-standing historical conventions. Russians into Peasants reveals the goals and careers of young activists who, between the disappointing 1905 revolution and the collapse of 1917, turned away from extremist, anti-state politics and worked with rural people to create a progressive and productive agrarian society. This is history with a human touch; Gerasimov cares about salaries and housing, as well as tractors. His fresh, independent perspective normalizes both professionals and peasants, and brings to life a forgotten generation of people who thought they could improve their society without overthrowing or occupying the state. Based on rich and unusually diverse materials–agronomists' journals, provincial newspapers, the trans-Siberian train car devoted to increasing migrants' agricultural productivity, short courses and film shows addressed to the rural public–Gerasimov's innovative book should change the way we look at Russian society, before 1917 and after.'
- Jane Burbank, New York University
Introduction
PART I: STRUCTURES OF MOBILIZATION
Becoming 'Progressive': Structural Settings and Mental Mapping of Reformism
Bringing Up a New Generation of Intelligentsia
Transfer of the Italian Technology of Modernization and Birth of the Russian 'Public Agronomy' Project
PART II: DYNAMICS OF MODERNIZATION
The Ambivalent Role of the State: A Conservative Patron and a 'Progressive' Rival
The Economic Foundations of Social Mobilization
From Knowledge to Influence: Building a Bridge to the New Peasant
At the Crossroads: Coping with Modernization as Routine
PART III: PATTERNS OF 'NATIONALIZATION'
Nation as Motherland
Nation as the People
Revolutionary Nation
The Dissolution of the 'Imagined Community': Nationalization as Expropriation
Postscript
ILYA GERASIMOV holds Russian and American PhDs, and is a founder and the Executive Editor of the international
quarterly Ab Imperio dedicated to the studies of new imperial history and nationalism in the post-Soviet space (since
2000). He has published in several languages on Russian social history, the history of criminality and new imperial history.
Description
This book is the story of a generation of Russians who sought to improve their personal lives but managed to effectively change the ways of the entire country during the decade following the abortive revolution of 1905. This happened largely beyond the administrative apparatus of the state and outside the organized, if collapsing, revolutionary movement. They formed a new social class of rural professionals: agronomists, physicians, educators, instructors, and managers of peasant cooperatives. Several tens of thousands strong by 1914, this group successfully bridged the proverbial gap between the educated elite and the 'people' by establishing an intensive dialogue with the peasants. An attempt to turn Russian imperial villagers into self-conscious economic subjects through the 'apolitical politics' of self-organization quite unexpectedly led to the creation of different versions of political nationhood by means of society's self-mobilization. These processes explain much about the events of 1917 and the outcome of the civil war.
Reviews
'Ilya Gerasimov's study of agricultural modernizers in early twentieth century Russia gently smashes long-standing historical conventions. Russians into Peasants reveals the goals and careers of young activists who, between the disappointing 1905 revolution and the collapse of 1917, turned away from extremist, anti-state politics and worked with rural people to create a progressive and productive agrarian society. This is history with a human touch; Gerasimov cares about salaries and housing, as well as tractors. His fresh, independent perspective normalizes both professionals and peasants, and brings to life a forgotten generation of people who thought they could improve their society without overthrowing or occupying the state. Based on rich and unusually diverse materials–agronomists' journals, provincial newspapers, the trans-Siberian train car devoted to increasing migrants' agricultural productivity, short courses and film shows addressed to the rural public–Gerasimov's innovative book should change the way we look at Russian society, before 1917 and after.'
- Jane Burbank, New York University
Contents
Introduction
PART I: STRUCTURES OF MOBILIZATION
Becoming 'Progressive': Structural Settings and Mental Mapping of Reformism
Bringing Up a New Generation of Intelligentsia
Transfer of the Italian Technology of Modernization and Birth of the Russian 'Public Agronomy' Project
PART II: DYNAMICS OF MODERNIZATION
The Ambivalent Role of the State: A Conservative Patron and a 'Progressive' Rival
The Economic Foundations of Social Mobilization
From Knowledge to Influence: Building a Bridge to the New Peasant
At the Crossroads: Coping with Modernization as Routine
PART III: PATTERNS OF 'NATIONALIZATION'
Nation as Motherland
Nation as the People
Revolutionary Nation
The Dissolution of the 'Imagined Community': Nationalization as Expropriation
Postscript
Authors
ILYA GERASIMOV holds Russian and American PhDs, and is a founder and the Executive Editor of the international
quarterly Ab Imperio dedicated to the studies of new imperial history and nationalism in the post-Soviet space (since
2000). He has published in several languages on Russian social history, the history of criminality and new imperial history.
|