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Enclosure and Capitalist Appropriation of the Russian Land Commune

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Enclosure and Capitalist Appropriation of the Russian Land Commune On the Land, Territory, and Crisis Triad: Enclosure and Capitalist Appropriation of the Russian Land Commune Vera Smirnova Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Planning, Governance, and Globalization Paul Knox, Committee Chair David Bieri Timothy Luke Samarth Swarup August 16th, 2018 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: land, territory, property, land enclosure, Stolypin reforms, Russian land commune Copyright 2018 On the Land, Territory, and Crisis Triad: Enclosure and Capitalist Appropriation of the Russian Land Commune Vera Smirnova ABSTRACT (academic) My research examines territorial practices of land enclosure employed to eliminate the Russian land commune in response to the agrarian and economic crises of the late imperial period. Since the land reforms of 1906, the Russian urban periphery became a center of territorial struggle, where complex alliances and strategies, beyond the exclusive control of the state, came together to carry out or resist land appropriation. Using original documentation of Russian land deals that I obtained in the federal and municipal archives, I explore how the coalitions of landed nobility, land surveyors, landless serfs, and peasant proprietors used enclosure as a conduit for extra-legal governance, accumulation of capital, or, in contrary, as a means of resistance. Through critical discourse analysis, I illustrate how the Russian imperial state and territories in the periphery were dialectically co-produced not only through institutional manipulations, state resettlement plans, and husbandry manuals, but also through political and public discourses. I argue that land enclosure exploited practices of customary territorialization in the commune, instigated territorial decentralization of state functions through erosion of the peasant land law, and furthered growing agrarian and economic crises in the countryside. The urban periphery became a strategic and contested territory used for the accumulation of old landed wealth and displacement of two million peasant households, which accommodated capitalist development under the Russian Tsarist and, later, Soviet political regimes. This research reexamines some predominant assumptions about the land, territory, and crisis triad in Russia by positioning the rural politics of the late imperial period within the global context of land enclosure and bringing a territorial dimension into the Russian agrarian scholarship. At the same time, by focusing on the historical reading of territory from a Russian perspective, this study introduces a more nuanced alternative to the traditional territory discourse often found in Eurocentric interpretations. О Земле, Территории, и Кризисе: Захват Земли и Капиталистическая Апроприация Русской Поземельной Общины Вера Смирнова ABSTRACT (Russian) Данное исследование предлагает исторический, географический анализ захвата земли, или так называемого “огораживания,” в контексте экономических и аграрных кризисов в поздней имперской России. Используя оригинальные документы о земельных сделках, полученных в государственных архивах, эта работа изучает коалиции землевладельцев, землеустроителей, безземельных крестьян, и местных собственников и их приёмы использования практики огораживания в качестве проводника для принудительного управления, накопления земельного капитала, или, наоборот, как средство автономии. Используя методологию критического анализа дискурса, данная работа иллюстрирует примеры того, как российское имперское государство и периферийные территории диалектически со-продюсировались посредством институциональных манипуляций, планов переселения и руководств по земледелию, а также посредством политических и популярных дискурсов. В данном исследовании аргументируется факт того, что огораживание способствовало усилению аграрных и экономических кризисов в сельской местности за счёт эксплуатации практик автономного землепользования в общине. Городская периферия стала стратегической территорией, используемой для накопления нового капитала и принудительного переселения двух миллионов крестьянских хозяйств, что способствовало капиталистическому развитию при царском и, позднее, советском политических режимах. Через этот пример, данное исследование критически переосмысляет преобладающие теории о земле, территории и кризисной триаде в России, позиционируя сельскую политику позднего имперского периода внутри глобального контекста апроприации земли при капитализме. В то же время, переосмысляя термин ‘территория’ с российской точки зрения, это исследование вводит более тонкую альтернативу традиционному дискурсу о территории в Евро-центричном контексте. On the Land, Territory, and Crisis Triad: Enclosure and Capitalist Appropriation of the Russian Land Commune Vera Smirnova ABSTRACT (public) My research provides a historical, geographical analysis of land enclosure in the context of economic and agrarian crises in late imperial Russia. Using original records of Russian land deals that I obtained in the federal and municipal archives, I explore how the coalitions of landed nobility, land surveyors, landless serfs, and peasant proprietors used land enclosure as a conduit for coercive governance, accumulation of landed capital, or, in contrary, as a means of resistance. Through critical discourse analysis, I illustrate how the Russian imperial state and territories in the periphery were dialectically co-produced not only through institutional manipulations, resettlement plans, and husbandry manuals, but also through political and public discourses. I argue that land enclosure exploited practices of autonomous land management in the commune and furthered growing agrarian and economic crises in the countryside. The urban periphery became a strategic territory used for the accumulation of new wealth and displacement of two million peasant households, which accommodated capitalist development under the Russian Tsarist and, later, Soviet political regimes. Through this example, my research reexamines predominant assumptions about the land, territory, and crisis triad in Russia by positioning the rural politics of the late imperial period within the global context of land enclosure. At the same time, by focusing on the historical reading of territory from a Russian perspective, this study introduces a more nuanced alternative to the traditional territory discourse often found in Western interpretations. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study was profoundly shaped by many collaborations, conversations, and exciting academic and non-academic encounters throughout four years of research. Numerous people, places, conferences, and travels have left a substantial impact on my scholarship, made this dissertation possible, and prepared me for a long academic journey ahead. I would like to express my sincere acknowledgments and gratitude to many people, several of which I mention here. I would like to thank my dissertation committee at Virginia Tech for guiding me through this challenging process and helping to position my work within the global debates in human geography. All this was possible with the generous help, conversations, and many meetings with Dr. Paul Knox – my primary advisor and a committee chair, and Dr. David Bieri, Dr. Timothy Luke, and Dr. Samarth Swarup, who inspired me to dare to undertake such challenging and deeply rewarding research project. Besides the dissertation team, I would like to show my appreciation to the Virginia Tech Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience, or GFURR, for being my academic home for these years. Engaging and thought-provoking conversations were sustained on a daily basis by GFURR professors like Dr. James Bohland, who, in addition to his love of good music, was a great mentor throughout my last years at the Forum. Also, the work of Christine Haimann and Marcia Donnelson was crucial for making everyone in the Forum organized and ready for work. I am also thankful for the tremendous help I received while conducting archival research in Russia. Workers of the Central State Archive of the City of Moscow helped greatly in introducing the methods of archival search and making me familiar with the available information. While everyone at the Russian State Historical Archive, State Archive of the Russian Federation, and Russian State Archive of Economics, made me feel welcome and fortunate to have access to such valuable information. Engaging in a historical geographic research was the biggest challenge and yet the most gratifying experience of this work. vi The Virginia Tech community of talented graduate students and friends was a place of exciting debates that carried into our different research projects, along with nearby cafes and bars in Blacksburg, Virginia. I am very grateful to have been a part of such vibrant Ph.D. community that stretched from GFURR to the School of Public and International Affairs, Institute for Policy and Governance, Department of Political Science, ASPECT program, and beyond. Many of my ideas were born and shaped through interaction with these young critical scholars and dear friends like Alex Stubberfield, Anna Erwin, Ashleigh Breske, Ben Coleman, Ben Louis, Ben Taylor, Hamza Safouane, Heather Lyne, Huyen Le, Jake Keyel, Jennifer Lawrence, Luis Camacho, Michael Vadman, Neda Moayerian, Paula Ferguson Louis, Reza Fateminasab, Sarah Lyon-Hill, Simone Franzi, Vanessa Guerra, Zibby Greenebaum, among others, to whom I send my profound gratitude.
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