Rusticus natio?

The author argues that while it is extremely difficult to define the concept of "Russian peasant" or "Ukrainian peasant," it is very convenient to study the attempts of political activists or intellectuals to form these communities. In Gerasimov's view, a peasant may unconditionally be a member of a nation, but the question of whether the peasantry can serve as the foundation of a nation is much more problematic. Instead of fitting the "peasantry" inside the framework of the bourgeois public sphere or a "civic society," the author calls for research into how peasants interact with each other without the aid of newspapers, political parties, or complex discursive constructions.