Bukkers, Plows and Lobogreikas: Peasant Acquisition of Agricultural Implements in Russia before 1900
1994; Wiley; Volume: 53; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/131194
ISSN1467-9434
Autores Tópico(s)Soviet and Russian History
ResumoR emarkable developments were under way in peasant grain economies of southern Ukraine at end of nineteenth century. Peasants in districts north of Sea of Azov in Tavrida Province, for instance, who had previously cultivated their fields with a limited array of self-manufactured, wooden implements, were now purchasing steel plows and harrows. They were also utilizing locally designed and manufactured bukkers (a plow/harrow hybrid) in ever larger numbers to aid in soil preparation and seeding. Even crudely constructed ox-carts previously used in district of Melitopol had given way to steel-framed carts modeled after those manufactured and used in neighboring colonist villages.' Further to north within this same region, annual report of Ekaterinoslav Provincial Zemstvo Council for 1895 and 1896 declared that peasant aspirations to obtain new agricultural implements exceeded modest supplies available in zemstvo's recently formed Implement Depots. The Novomoskovsk District Zemstvo Implement depot alone had sold 226 plows in that two-year period, along with a miscellaneous assortment of reapers and other implements, for a sum of over 7,500 rubles. Everywhere, report concluded, the wooden plow is seen as behind times, and dismissed by all but poorest peasants.2 These images of agricultural innovation collide with longstanding view that Ukrainian and Russian peasant agriculture was in a static state during late Imperial period. In his classic study of rural Russia, Geroid Robinson portrayed postEmancipation peasants as almost incapable of innovation: Instead of applying new
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