Changes in the Vilnius, Kaunas and Grodno provinces peasants’ approach to consumption in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries

• Main Author: Aelita Ambrulevičiūtė
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies 2013-12-01
• Series: Revista Română pentru Studii Baltice şi Nordice
• Subjects: peasants; consumption; goods; vilnius; kaunas; grodno
• Online Access: https://f-origin.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/5711/files/2018/12/07.-Ambruleviciute.pdf

This research starts from the premises that peasants as part of the emerging the Vilnius, Kaunas and Grodno provinces consumer group were most rigid, conservative, maintaining traditional, archaic lifestyles. Therefore, peasants, as the ‘bottom’ of absorbing the latest consumer trends, best reflected the change in the consumption patterns of a modernizing society. The theme under the investigation covers the period of 1861—1914. The study attempts to examine the economic modernization of Vilnius, Kaunas and Grodno provinces society and rudiments of the consumer society in the second half of the 19th—early 20th centuries by taking into account the peasants’ habits.