Peasant Inheritance Strategies in Russia

Peasant Inheritance Strategies in Russia Russian peasants in the nineteenth century used inheritance practices long associated with widespread socioeconomic mobility and egalitarianism. The Russian partible inheritance system mandated the equal division of land and other resources among all male children. Contemporary observers and twentieth-century scholars suggest that the frequent subdivision of property led to the breaking apart of large, prosperous households and promoted downward mobility. This custom, the scholars conclude, weakened village socioeconomic stratification. Recent studies indicate that Russian serfs, together with their owners, used the postponement of property division to ensure the economic survival of the newly created households. This article argues that Russian serfs in the first half of the nineteenth century employed a variety of additional inheritance strategies not only to prevent impoverishment, but also to protect the household's economic standing in the community. Many of the strategies successfully constrained socioeconomic mobility and buttressed stratification rather than encouraged egalitarianism.'