The Economics of the Russian Village

A systematic study traces the historical evolution of rural landholding and community institutions, explaining how communal tenure and inherited shares grew out of earlier forms of fee and patrimonial tenure and changes associated with emancipation. It describes varieties of village land organization, the subdivision and communal use of arable land, meadow and pasture, and the development of agrarian communism alongside hereditary allotments. It assesses peasant productive forces and household economics — farm size, livestock, fuel and fodder shortages, soil exhaustion, yields and budgets — and analyzes fiscal burdens, including redemption and per-capita taxation, arrears, and their effects on village life.