Where is the backward Russian peasant? Evidence against the superiority of private farming, 1883–1913

AbstractThis contribution deals with agricultural dynamics in late-Imperial Russia. Based upon a comprehensive micro-level data set on annual yields between 1883 and 1913, we provide insight into regional differences of agricultural growth and the development prospects of Russian agriculture before WWI. Making use of the fact that contemporary Russian statistics distinguished between mostly communally governed open fields and privately owned land, we are able to test the implications of different land tenure systems for agricultural yield growth. In a broader sense, we seek to challenge the common narrative of Russia as an exception to the pan-European picture of economic development during the era of industrialization.Keywords: Russialand productivitypeasant communal agricultureland tenureJEL Codes: N53O13Q15 AcknowledgementsThis contribution has greatly benefited from research assistance by Irina Shilnikova, Igor Kuznetsov and Oscar Dube. We are grateful to Stephan Merl for comments on an earlier draft, and to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. Daniel Bromley wishes to thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Reimar Lüst Prize for financial support.Additional informationNotes on contributorsMichael Kopsidis studied economics at the University of Münster (Germany). His PhD thesis concerned market integration and agricultural development in peasant agriculture of the German state of Westphalia (1780–1880). Since 1995, he has been a senior researcher at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) in Halle, Germany. He is an adjunct professor of economics at Martin-Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg. His main field of interest is economic history, especially agricultural growth, markets, peasants and their relation to industrialization. Email: kopsidis@iamo.deNotes on contributorsKatja Bruisch is a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Moscow. She holds a PhD in Eastern European history from the University of Göttingen. Her research focuses on the history of science and knowledge and the rural history of late-Imperial and Soviet Russia. Her publications include Als das Dorf noch Zukunft war. Agrarismus und Expertise zwischen Zarenreich und Sowjetunion (Köln: Böhlau 2014); Bol'shaia voina Rossii. Sotsial'nyi poriadok, publichnaia kommunikatsiia i nasilie na rubezhe tsarskoi i sovetskoi epoch (Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2014, edited with Nikolaus Katzer); 'Krest'ianskaia ideologiia dlia krest'ianskoi Rossii: Agrarizm v Rossii nachala XX veka' (Krest'ianovedenie 2012); 'Historicizing Chaianov. Intellectual and scientific roots of the Theory of Peasant Economy' (Jahrbuch für Geschichte des ländlichen Raums, 2010). Email: Katja.Bruisch@dhi-moskau.orgNotes on contributorsDaniel W. Bromley is Professor (Emeritus), University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is listed in Who's Who in Economics. He is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. In 2012, he received the Reimar Lüst Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Among his 14 books are: (1) Economic interests and institutions (1989), (2) Environment and economy: property rights and public policy (1991), (3) Sufficient reason: volitional pragmatism and the meaning of economic institutions (2006) and (4) Vulnerable people, vulnerable states: redefining the development challenge (2012).