The Peasants’ War
Russia’s Home Front in the First World War and the End of the Autocracy
Seiten
2025
McGill-Queen's University Press (Verlag)
978-0-2280-2640-2 (ISBN)
McGill-Queen's University Press (Verlag)
978-0-2280-2640-2 (ISBN)
The Peasants’ War examines how Russian peasants reacted to the mass mobilization of the First World War, and why they ultimately turned against the tsarist regime, culminating in the 1917 Russian Revolution.
During the First World War, Russia relied on the mass mobilization of its peasant population. In the summer of 1914, approximately four million peasants answered the state’s call to arms, while the millions who remained at home donated labour and other resources to the cause. Within three short years these same peasants were refusing to pay taxes or turn over their grain, dooming the autocracy to collapse.
The Peasants’ War argues that the experience of total war convinced peasants that the measure of a state’s legitimacy was its ability to safeguard the wellbeing of its subjects. When the autocracy failed to meet this standard, peasants rejected its authority by challenging four areas of wartime policy: the prohibition of vodka, the conscription of peasant families’ only workers, the redistribution of land belonging to enemy subjects, and the provisioning of the home front. The war awakened peasants to the reciprocal nature of the relationship between a state and its people. Colleen Moore investigates how peasants leveraged their wartime service to negotiate with the state for improved rights and privileges and how they used this power to shape the contours and legitimize the authority of the world’s first socialist state.
The Peasants’ War charts the timing and success of the 1917 Russian Revolution by showing how total war flipped the script on peasant–state relations, transforming the state from something that peasants existed to serve into something that existed to serve peasants.
During the First World War, Russia relied on the mass mobilization of its peasant population. In the summer of 1914, approximately four million peasants answered the state’s call to arms, while the millions who remained at home donated labour and other resources to the cause. Within three short years these same peasants were refusing to pay taxes or turn over their grain, dooming the autocracy to collapse.
The Peasants’ War argues that the experience of total war convinced peasants that the measure of a state’s legitimacy was its ability to safeguard the wellbeing of its subjects. When the autocracy failed to meet this standard, peasants rejected its authority by challenging four areas of wartime policy: the prohibition of vodka, the conscription of peasant families’ only workers, the redistribution of land belonging to enemy subjects, and the provisioning of the home front. The war awakened peasants to the reciprocal nature of the relationship between a state and its people. Colleen Moore investigates how peasants leveraged their wartime service to negotiate with the state for improved rights and privileges and how they used this power to shape the contours and legitimize the authority of the world’s first socialist state.
The Peasants’ War charts the timing and success of the 1917 Russian Revolution by showing how total war flipped the script on peasant–state relations, transforming the state from something that peasants existed to serve into something that existed to serve peasants.
Colleen M. Moore is associate professor of history at James Madison University.
Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 3
1 Turning Peasants into Heroes 28
2 Wartime Prohibition and the Right to Drink 48
3 Military Conscription and the Repeal of Family Exemptions 80
4 Land in Exchange for Peasant Sacrifices 114
5 Food Supply Work and the War in the Rear 148
Conclusion 188
Notes 197
Bibliography 229
Index 243
| Erscheinungsdatum | 03.12.2025 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | States, People, and the History of Social Change |
| Zusatzinfo | 7 maps, 4 photos |
| Verlagsort | Montreal |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-2280-2640-7 / 0228026407 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-2280-2640-2 / 9780228026402 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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