The geography of enclosure in pre-revolutionary European Russia : Tver, Tula and Samara Provinces

• Main Author: Pallot, J.
• Published: University College London (University of London) 1977
• Subjects: 910.9
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.468062

The Stolypin Land Reform passed in 1906 provided for the enclosure of the land of individual peasant households in European Russia. The political, social and legal aspects of the Reform have been studied in detail in the past but little attention has been focused on the actual results the Reform achieved on the ground. It is the author's contention that examination of the results of the Reform is essential if conclusions are to be reached about the significance of the enclosure movement to the changes taking place during the inter-revolutionary period in Russia and to the 1917 Revolution itself. The study of the enclosure movement in Russia is also relevant to the more general discussion among geographers of agrarian change and revolutions. In the thesis, with reference to three provinces selected from different functional regions of pre-Revolutionary Russia, the pattern of adoption of enclosure is described and an attempt made to explain the patterns. In the first part the number of peasant households that enclosed their land, the method by which enclosure was effected and the resultant type of farming units formed in the sample provinces is investigated and hypotheses explaining the patterns observed tested. It was found that the peasants' response to the Reform varied considerably and that this was due to differences in the socio-economic composition of the peasant class, the level of agricultural technique, the existing spatial organisation of the land and ecological conditions. In the second part the post-enclosure situation is examined, attention being focused in particular on the type of farming system that evolved on the newly formed enclosed farms. It was found that, contrary to the expectations of the authors of the enclosure legislation, the improvements of farming in the way of intensification was not widespread on farms after enclosure. The improvement of farming was found to be dependent more upon the resources possessed by individual peasant farmers than upon the system of tenure and spatial organisation of the land.