Peasant Identities in Russia's Turmoil
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PEASANT IDENTITIES IN RUSSIA’S TURMOIL: STATUS, GENDER, AND ETHNICITY IN VIATKA PROVINCE, 1914-1921 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Aaron Benyamin Retish, M.A. The Ohio State University, 2003 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor David Hoffmann, Adviser Professor Eve Levin _________________ Professor Nicholas Breyfogle Adviser Department of History Copyright by Aaron Benyamin Retish 2003 ABSTRACT From 1914-21, the Russian countryside underwent an enormous social and political transformation. World War I and civil war led to conscription into the tsarist, Bolshevik, and anti-Bolshevik armies, removing over fourteen million young male peasants from their villages. Revolution destroyed the centuries-old peasant-landlord relationship, redistributed land among the peasantry, democratized the countryside, and allowed villages to install autonomous governing bodies. War and social turmoil also brought massive famine and government requisitioning of grain and possessions, killing thousands of peasants and destroying their means of existence. The Bolshevik victory, a defining event of the twentieth century, was ultimately determined by the temporary support of the peasantry, the vast majority of Russia's population. This project studies the interaction between peasants and government in the Russian province of Viatka from the beginning of World War I to the end of the Civil War in 1921. In doing so, it will advance how scholars understand the nature of the Revolution, peasant-state relations, and peasant society and culture in general. On the ii one hand, I analyze Russia’s changes through a study of peasant responses to tsarist, Provisional Government, and Soviet recruitment into the armed forces; requisitioning of grain and possessions; and establishment of local administrations. In examining peasants’ language and interaction with the state, I show how the population adopted, rejected, and helped to shape government power, just as it shaped them. The destruction of the tsarist system created an ideal environment for the rural populations to break free from traditional roles. Indeed, political and social turmoil helped to fashion new peasant identities and social relationships. On the other hand, I strive to understand the diverse peasant experiences by conducting a case study of the internal dynamics and cleavages in the countryside. My study underscores that the experiences of war and revolution and participation in Russia’s national transformation differed for peasants based on a complex interaction of their geographic locale, social status within the village, gender, age, and ethnicity. This project thereby paints a more complicated picture of Russia’s peasantry and peasant-state relations as a whole. iii To the memory of two great historians and personal inspirations, William Chazanof and Allan K. Wildman iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Several people have helped me to complete this work. I am indebted to my adviser, Professor David Hoffmann, and my committee members Professors Eve Levin and Nicholas Breyfogle, all of whom have listened to my ideas from the beginning days of this project, read chapters in all of their stages, and provided invaluable comments. Throughout my graduate career, they have provided sage advice and good humor, and I thank them for that. I have had the good fortune to have a number of institutions support my work. Two Foreign Language Areas Studies (FLAS) grants helped me hone my skills in Russian and take me to St. Petersburg for initial research. Subsequent grants from Fulbright-Hays and American Council of Teachers of Russian/U.S. Information Agency provided resources to conduct another eighteen months of research in Russia. In the United States, a Kennan Institute short-term fellowship allowed me to scour the Library of Congress. Generous support from The Ohio State University Office of International Studies, Graduate School, Slavic and East European Studies Center, and Department of History has provided the means for an additional research trip to the Hoover Institution at v Stanford University, conference travel, and time for writing. A Social Science Research Council writing fellowship gave me time and resources to complete the writing process. I am grateful to all these institutions. My time in Russia would not have been nearly as productive or enjoyable had it not been for the people in the archives and libraries. The Kirov academic community welcomed me with open arms and seemed sincerely interested in what this American had to say about their region’s peasants. Valerii Egor’evich Musikhin shared with me his friendship and intricate knowledge of the archives and Viatka’s peasantry. The archivists of the State Archive of Kirov Region (GAKO) and Center for the Documentation of Contemporary History of Kirov Region (TsDNIKO) and librarians in the Kraevedcheskii otdel of the Gertsen Library patiently helped me track down numerous sources and invited me for tea. In Izhevsk, the archivists at the State Archive of the Udmurt Republic made their first American feel welcome. Professor Galina Arkad’evna Nikitina, the leading scholar on the Udmurt peasantry, discussed the complexities of village life and introduced me to the wonderful ethnographic materials at the Scientific Subject Archive of the Udmurt Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Urals Branch (NOA UIIIaL URO RAN). I would also like to thank the workers at the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) in St. Petersburg and at the St. Petersburg Public Library. In Moscow I would like to thank the hard work and good vi cheer of the archivists at the Russian State Archive of the Economy (RGAE), State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF), and the Russian State Archive of Socio- Political History (RGASPI), and librarians at the Lenin and Historical Libraries. Discussions with scholars at various points of this project provided me with additional insight and helped to hone my argument. Steven Hoch, David Moon, Yanni Kotsonis, Peter Holquist, Michael Melancon, Christine Worobec, Gareth Popkins, Michael Hickey, Sarah Badcock, Katherine David-Fox, Michael David-Fox, Sheila Fitzpatrick, Paul Werth, David McDonald, Larry Holmes (the “other American” in Kirov), and the participants in the Reading Group on the Russian Revolution have shown me new ways in which the peasantry of Viatka were crucial to Russian history and the making of the modern world. The friendship and conversations with Greg Wu, Luyen Tran, Febe Armanios, Paul Hibbeln, Sue-Yong Hong, Sean Martin, Matt Masur, Matt Romaniello, Tricia Starks, and Jennifer Walton have sustained me during graduate school. I would also like to thank Sarah Parmelee, who has put up with most of the writing process, for her patience and kindness. My family gives me love, friendship, encouragement, and energy; without them this work would have been impossible. vii VITA June 16, 1971......................................Born, Iowa City, Iowa 1992....................................................B. A., University of Wisconsin-Madison 1996....................................................M. A., History, The Ohio State University 1995-1997..........................................Editorial Assistant, The Russian Review PUBLICATIONS “Sotsial’nye konflikty v srede viatskogo krest’ianstva v khode provedeniia zemel’noi reformy v 1918 g.” (Social Conflicts Among the Viatka Peasantry During the Implementation of the Land Reform in 1918). Nauchnyi vestnik. Kirovskogo filiala Moskovskogo gumanitarno ekonomicheskogo instituta. Nauchno-metodicheskii zhurnal, (Academic Bulletin of the Kirov Branch of the Mosocw State Economic Institute. Academic-Methodological Journal) no. 5. Kirov, Russia, 2000. “Statisticheskie istochniki i ikh znachenie pri izuchenii viatskogo krest’ianstva (1914- 1921 gg.).” (Statistical Sources and their Significance in the Study of the Viatka Peasantry, 1914-1921). 165 let gosudarstvennoi statistike v Kirovskoi oblasti: Etapy stanovleniia i razvitiia. Materialy mezhregional’noi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii 18 maia 2000 g. (165 Years of Government Statistics in Kirov Region: Stages of Formation and Development. Materials of the Multi-regional Academic and Practical Conference, May 18, 2000) Kirov, Russia, 2000. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract......................................................................................................................... ii Dedication..................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments......................................................................................................... v Vita.............................................................................................................................. viii List of Tables............................................................................................................... xii List of Figures............................................................................................................. xiii Chapters: 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1 The Identity of Viatka Province........................................................................ 6 Geography and Peoples....................................................................................