The article describes the role of the peasantry as an actor of Russian charity in the pre-revolutionary period of Russia’s participation in the First World War based on the materials of the Perm province. The marginality of this topic in historiography, considered fragmentally in works on the history of charity and the history of the rear, is substantiated. The authors show the widespread practice of rural societies donating money, bread and other products to the needs of the army as the main contribution of peasants to helping the front in the initial period of the war. The main directions and forms of peasant charity in 1914–1916 are characterized: the participation of the rural population in supplying the army, relieving families of conscripts, sick and wounded soldiers, refugees, orphans, prisoners of war. The options for the involvement of rural societies, peasants and peasant women in charitable activities, the specifics of the participation of peasant women in the charitable movement are shown. The role of institutions that ensure local involvement of peasants in charity and their active participation in this activity, as well as cooperation with other social groups in the process of its implementation is analyzed. The main ones among them were parish boards of trustees, volost and village committees, cooperatives, zemstvos, ladies’ committees. It is concluded that the peasants proved themselves in the conditions of war, along with other strata of Russian society, as actors of charity, who made a significant contribution to the cause of helping the front, the victims of the war.
Поршнева et al. (Wed,) studied this question.