Village Life in Late Tsarist RussiaÒ . . . a marvelous source for the social history of Russian peasant society in the years before the revolution. . . . The translation is superb.Ó ÑSteven Hoch Ò . . . one of the best ethnographic portraits that we have of the Russian village. . . . a highly readable text that is an excellent introduction to the world of the Russian peasantry.Ó ÑSamuel C. Ramer Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia provides a unique firsthand portrait of peasant family life as recorded by Olga Semyonova Tian-Shanskaia, an ethnographer and painter who spent four years at the turn of the twentieth century observing the life and customs of villagers in a central Russian province. Unusual in its awareness of the rapid changes in the Russian village in the late nineteenth century and in its concentration on the treatment of women and children, SemyonovaÕs ethnography vividly describes courting rituals, marriage and sexual practices, childbirth, infanticide, child-rearing practices, the lives of women, food and drink, work habits, and the household economy. In contrast to a tradition of rosy, romanticized descriptions of peasant communities by Russian upper-class observers, Semyonova gives an unvarnished account of the harsh living conditions and often brutal relationships within peasant families. |
Contents
IVANS PARENTS I | 1 |
CHILDHOOD | 22 |
COURTSHIP AND SEXUAL RELATIONS | 50 |
IVAN PREPARES FOR MARRIAGE | 62 |
PLEDGING THE BRIDE THE BRIDESHOW AND MARRIAGE | 74 |
INFANTICIDE EMOTION SEXUAL DISORDER | 95 |
HOUSING PROPERTY TRADES BUDGETS | 116 |
PEASANT IDEALS WORK HABITS AND CAUSES | 139 |
COURT CASES AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE | 157 |
Appendix | 171 |
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Common terms and phrases
accordion Aksiuta Akulina ALEKSANDRA Anisia apples archive Arkhiv AN SSSR baby bast shoes beat bench birth boys bread bride brideprice brother cabbage child church clothes couple dance Dankov daughter desiatina diarrhea district of Riazan drink drunk ethnographic farm father field-work season girl girlfriends give godmother godparents Grishka groom harvest head horses household husband iconostasis Imperial Russia Ivan's kerchief kopecks kulaks kvass labor landlord landowners Little Ivan live livestock look marriage married merchant midwife Mikhalek Moscow mother mother-in-law Muraevnia neighbors newlyweds older parents party payment peasants person Petersburg poor potatoes priest punishment radish Riazan Museum Riazan province rubles Russian Geographical Society Russian villages sarafans Semyonova sexual sheep shirts Shneider sister sometimes Spassk Stepan stove taxes threshing barn township supervisor tsar usually uterus vodka wedding widow wife workers yard young woman