Aleksandr Nikolaevich Engelgardt's Letters from the Country, 1872-1887 - Softcover

Engelgardt, Aleksandr Nikolaevich

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195076214 ISBN 13: 9780195076219

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1994

Synopsis

From the rye field and the threshing barn to the local gentry and the village court, A.N. Engelgardt's Letters painted the most lively, entertaining, and insightful portrait of Imperial Russia's rural countryside. Now translated into English for the first time, judiciously abridged, and fully annotated for the modern reader, Engelgardt's account stands revealed both as a major primary source on nineteenth-century Russia and as an ever-more-timely analysis of a peasant culture in the wake of reform.
A distinguished chemist at the St. Petersburg Agricultural Institute, Engelgardt was also an eloquent spokesman for liberty and reform, especially on behalf of Russia's peasant majority. Accused of conspiratorial activities by the Tsarist government, he was exiled in 1871 to his modest estate in impoverished Smolensk province, where, under police surveillance, he wrote his Letters for publication in St. Petersburg. With scientific precision, Engelgardt produced the first comprehensive eye-witness account of the serf's daily affairs and environment, with detailed descriptions of land reform and collectivization, reflections on the role of peasant women and the effects of emancipation, discussions of local agriculture and the economy, and vivid accounts of peasant attitudes about everything from the Russo-Turkish War to anti-semitism. With an extensive introduction and copious notes, this translation is ideal for anyone interested in Russian history and peasant studies.

About this title

Review:

Engelgardt provides an unsurpassed glimpse of peasant society in the aftermath of emancipation...They have been carefully edited and translated...enduring images of rural life in Russia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0195076214
• ISBN 13: 9780195076219
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 306