The Mordvinian Village in the Early 20th Century: Peasant Economy in the Age of Dramatic Changes (Evidence from One Settlement)

Abstract

With evidence from the 1911 Farmstead Census and some archival documents, the article examines the population of Mordovia’s villages in the early 20th century, particularly as of 1911 and January 1918, i. e. on the eve of the Russian Civil War. The processes are studied through the example of the Mordvinian (Erzya) village of Povodimovo (present-day Dubyonsky District, Republic of Mordovia) that during the period under consideration was part of Alatyrsky Uyezd of Simbirsk Governorate. Povodimovo had been a large village inhabited by state-owned peasants. The vast majority of the homesteads were engaged in grain growing, oat and rye being the most widespread cultivated crops. Livestock breeding was also of great significance. Still, the agricultural methods were far outdated, and almost all the peasants used some primitive tools and mechanisms. This was somewhat compensated by the fertility of the lands and the fact that in over 60 % of the farmsteads people additionally fertilized their fields. In terms of living conditions and wealth status, the population of Povodimovo was heterogeneous enough. Only few persons possessed large plots of land exceeding 10 dessiatins. No wonder then that representatives of over 70 % of the families got employed as seasonal workers outside the uezd (Russ. ‘district, municipality’). By 1918, the economic conditions in the village had deteriorated, and one can note that in general it was typical for the then crisis phenomena in Russia’s agricultural sector resulting from a number of interrelated reasons. By all means, agriculture was undermined by World War I in the aftermath of which many of the peasant families became impoverished. Moreover, that was followed by the Russian Civil War and the related policy of ‘war communism’. Times of changes were approaching, and the centuries-old rural way of life was to be transformed dramatically.