Offers a survey of peasant society in Russia between 1600 and 1930, and presents a fresh perspective on the history of Russia itself. The text explores all aspects of peasant life including the rural economy, peasant households, village communities and protest against the landowning elite.

This is the first environmental history of Russia's steppes. From the early-eighteenth century, settlers moved to the semi-arid but fertile grasslands from wetter, forested regions in central and northern Russia and Ukraine, and from central Europe. By the late-nineteenth century, they had turned the steppes into the bread basket of the Russian Empire and parts of Europe. But there was another side to this story. The steppe region was hit by recurring droughts, winds from the east whipped up dust storms, the fertile black earth suffered severe erosion, crops failed, and in the worst years...