Land Reform In Russia 1906-1917

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Since the collapse of the USSR there has been a growing interest in the Stolypin Land Reform as a possible model for post-Communist agrarian development. Using recent theoretical and empirical advances in Anglo-American research, Dr Pallot examines how peasants throughout Russia received, interpreted, and acted upon the government's attempts to persuade them to quit the commune and set up independent farms.

She shows how a majority of peasants failed to interpret the Reform in the way its authors had expected, with outcomes that varied both temporally and geographically. The result challenges existing texts which either concentrate on the policy side of the Reform or, if they engage with its results, use aggregated, official statistics which, this text argues, are unreliable indicators of the pre-revolutionary peasants reception of the Reform.

Review: I strongly recommend this monograph to scholars of this period and to anyone interested in fathoming the process of modernization in a traditional society Slavic Review, Summer 2001 Pallot's reputation as a noted scholar of Russian peasant studies is reaffirmed in this monograph ... This work meets the highest scholarly standards Slavic Review, Summer 2001 Judith Pallot has made a significant contribution to our understanding of Petr Stolypin's land reform Slavic Review, Summer 2001 a most valuable contribution to the scholarship on this topic, presenting a complex and nuanced analysis of the reforms in their various stages of evolution and of the peasants' multiple responses. ... the scrupulous honesty with which she presents both sides of the evidence throughout the book ... this is a sophisticated and often original analysis of the evidence, even as it is harnessed to upholding a very traditional argument.

David A.J. acey, Middlebury College, Revolutionary Russia, Vol 13, June 2000 Pallot has grasped the seldom realized fact that peasant actions can be meaningfully explained only in terms of the 'separate peasant world' which existed parallel to official and intellectual, noble and middle-class Russia.

David N. Collins, EHR This is a book which should be taken seriously as a valuable addition to our understanding of the Stolypin land reform process and the way in which Russian peasants thought and acted. David N. Collins, EHR Pallot has offered enough new evidence, innovative thinking, and revision to make the book indispensable reading for students of agrarian Russia.

Yanni Kotsonis, The Russian Review, Vol.59, No.3. Judith Pallots creative book promises and delivers the first intensive examination of the land reform per se for the whole decade in question, from its inception in the central government to the process of implementation at the local level, all the while bringing to bear the authors considerable skills as a historical geographer.

Yanni Kotsonis, The Russian Review, Vol.59, No.3.