PEASANT FARMS OF THE TSAROSELSKY UEZD OF ST. PETERSBURG PROVINCE ON THE TURN OF THE XIX - XX CENTURIES (AGRICULTURE AND CRAFTS)

Abstract

The article studies the state of peasant households in the Tsarskoselsky Uyezd of the St. Petersburg Governorate in the late XIX - early XX centuries using mainly materials from zemstvo surveys. The paper reveals the distribution of peasant households’ labour force between agriculture and other occupations, and it notes the character of male and female labour. If the men engaged mainly in various other occupations, with the predominance of seasonal employment, the women mostly worked the fields, engaged in household work, and focused on local occupations. Additionally, the article raises the issue of territorial distribution of other occupations, determining that the majority of peasants worked within the province, such as within the administrative boundaries of their volost or county, as well as in the capital. The paper shows influence of climatic conditions, St. Petersburg, infrastructural changes in the transport system of the North-West on the processes that took place in the economic life of the peasants of Tsarskoselsky Uyezd. It concludes that the number of farms that were jointly commercial and agricultural in nature overshadows those peasant households in which the peasants engaged only in agriculture or only in other occupations. Non-agricultural latrines were one of the most important elements of village life. For many farmers, additional earnings were almost the only source of income, since agricultural labor on allotment land did not provide for their lives, became unprofitable and continued to exist only thanks to fishing earnings. Otkhodnichestvo undermined the foundations of a large Patriarchal family, affected the situation of farmers, both involved in the retreat and left at home, had a serious impact on the socio-psychological appearance of farmers engaged in crafts

Keywords

• st. petersburg governorate
• tsarskoselsky uyezd
• peasantry
• agriculture
• farming
• peasant occupations
• seasonal work