The fate of the reform: Russian peasantry in government policy before and after the abolition of serfdom (1830-1890-ies)

Abstract

In this impressive new book, Igor΄ Khristoforov assesses the impact of the 1861 emancipation legislation on rural Russia. How successful were the state's attempts to reform the countryside in the mid-nineteenth century? "Not very" is the answer to emerge from this compelling account. According to Khristoforov, the legislation was fraught with contradictions and ambiguities, resulting from attempts to reconcile the reformers' diverse ideological positions within a set of institutional and fiscal constraints. This half-baked legislative compromise, forged by members of a ruling elite who understood few of the challenges faced by peasants, exacerbated rural under development and thus facilitated the emergence of the even more ideologically motivated "counter-reforms" of the 1870s. This string of failed attempts to improve conditions in the countryside ultimately led to a new effort, the Stolypin reforms, in the early twentieth century.

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