Business Cooperatives, Political Culture, Political Sociology, Agricultural Labor, Rural Sociology - Europe

Making Peasants Backward

Name: Making Peasants Backward
Author: Yanni Kotsonis
ISBN: 9780312220990

by Kotsonis, Yanni

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Overview

In this first monograph on the Russian cooperative movement before 1914, economic and social change is considered alongside Russian political culture. Looking at such historical actors as Sergei Witte, Piotr Stolypin, and Alexander Chaianov, and tapping into several newly opened Russian local and state archives on peasant practice in the movement, Yanni Kotsonis suggests how cooperatives reflected a pan-European dilemma over the extent to which populations can participate in their own transformation.

About the Author, Yanni Kotsonis

Yanni Kotsonis teaches European and Russian History at New York University.

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Editorials

Booknews

Considers questions surrounding the agricultural cooperative movement in Russia before 1914, asking why Russian peasants were rendered "backward" no matter how impressive their achievement. Places material and social change in the context of Russian political culture in order to show the possibilities and limitations of political and social integration under the Old Regime. Looks at well-known historical figures and draws on newly opened local and state archives in Russia to show how the ideology of progress as practiced in the cooperative movement reflected pan-European tensions in processes of economic, social, and political change. The author teaches European and Russian history at New York University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)