Novosibirsk. Science. Siberian branch. 1982, 502 p.

Russian historiography was enriched by work 1 covering the history of the Siberian peasantry from the end of the XVI to the middle of the XIX century. The new work not only summarizes the results of research conducted after the creation of the History of Siberia (its second volume, on the period of feudalism, was published in 1968), but also differs from the aforementioned publication in the subject of research and the range of problems covered.

The history of the Siberian peasantry is primarily "the history of the transformation of the desert expanses of the east of the country into a land of agricultural culture" (p. 9). This specificity of the regional group of peasants prompted the authors to pay much attention to the process of developing new lands in difficult geographical and social conditions. The book contains special chapters on the peculiarities of the peasant colonization of Siberia, but in essence all other sections also reveal this problem.

The rich agricultural experience of the Russian peasantry in Siberia, considered in many ways and in dynamics, testifies to the constant process of adapting the production traditions that have developed in the European part of Russia to the new conditions and peculiarities of certain regions of the region. The authors summarize the information revealed in recent years about tools, systems and techniques of agriculture and introduce new statistical material into circulation, reconstructing on its basis the change in sown areas and the volume of grain production. At the same time, production is considered in organic connection with the history of the peasantry as a class: the social conditionality of the degree of inclusion of a particular group of ploughmen in the number of producers at different stages of development of the region is revealed. Such an aspiration with-

1 Authors ' collective: V. A. Alexandrov, Z. Ya. Boyarshinova, Yu. S. Bulygin, G. F. Bykonya, O. N. Vilkov, I. V. Vlasova, A.V. Dulov, G. P. Zhidkov, E. M. Zalkind, V. N. Ivanov, A.D. Kolesnikov, F. S. Kuzmina, A. A. Lebedeva, V. A. Lipinskaya, M. P. Malysheva, T. S. Mamsik, N. A. Minenko, acad. A. P. Okladnikov, N. N. Pokrovsky, V. V. Rabtsevich, D. Ya. Rezun, E. K. Romodanovskaya, L. M. Rusakova, A.V. Safyanova, L. P. Shorokhov. Editorial Board of the volume: A. P. Okladnikov (ed.), V. A. Aleksandrov, Z. Ya. Boyarshinova, O. N. Vilkov, E. M. Zalkind, N. D. Zolnikova, T. S. Mamsik, N. A. Minenko, I. N. Pokrovsky (Deputy ed.), A. A. Preobrazhensky.

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attributing different aspects of the historical process is typical for many sections of the work; it indicates the systematic approach of its authors to the subject of research.

The influence of the process of agricultural development on social relations is traced both in the chapters containing a general description of the stages of development of feudal relations, and in the analysis of the situation of certain categories of the peasantry (state, attached, monastic). In the course of migrations, " the peasantry still had the opportunity to bring new lands into cultural condition on the basis of customary law. The advantage of this arrangement of relations between the supreme owner of land , the state, and its direct user, the peasant, was obvious to the tsarist administration, since the free emigrant eventually fell under the control of the same owner in a new place" (p.227).

The development of the Siberian peasantry is considered in the book in organic connection with the history of Russia as a whole. A significant role in the implementation of this approach was played by attention to the issues of agrarian policy, legislation on peasants, and the management system. Based on archival materials, the authors reveal the specifics of the conditions of the region: "Here the authorities remained one-on-one with the peasants, addressing them not through the landowner, but through the peasant community, which significantly changed the essence of the matter" (p.335).

It is natural for the authors to analyze the role of the territorial peasant community in its various forms (volost and rural, the latter with a division into complex and single-populated). The book shows the ambivalence of the position of the community in Russia based on Siberian material: being an effective and important institution of its time, the community, on the one hand, performed the fiscal and administrative functions of the grassroots body of the feudal state, and on the other, protected the economic and social interests of the peasants themselves. The authors also reveal the dualism of the community in another sense: the combination of the interests of the collective (the community as a whole) and individual landholders in land relations.

Social aspects of the development of the peasant family are considered in the work against the background of the process of settling and developing Siberia. At the same time, the features of the family structure at different stages, the ratio of two types of family - small and undivided-are characterized. Inclusion of social demography issues in the study should be noted as a positive experience.

The process of developing the region is presented in the book as a result of the creativity of the masses, and this is the most important result of the work of a team of historians, obtained through a comprehensive coverage of peasant life, material and spiritual culture, social and family life, and the social consciousness of the peasantry.

It is no exaggeration to say that today Siberia has provided the greatest material for studying the inner life of the community, the spiritual interests and everyday life of the peasantry. The authors ' team demonstrated the effectiveness of combining historical and ethnographic materials and research methods. An appeal to the little-studied aspects of peasant life also revealed difficulties associated with the lack of development of the conceptual apparatus, the lack of clear classification boundaries in this area. The question of the relationship between the culture and social consciousness of the peasantry (in the book, enlightenment, empirical knowledge, art, folklore and literature are referred to spiritual culture, and socio - political views and beliefs are referred to social consciousness) needs further study, and we do not have the right to demand a complete solution from the reviewed publication.

Attempts to study peasant culture are a relatively new phenomenon in our historiography; the book takes important steps in this direction. Thus, it examines peasant literature in close connection with folklore-historical, polemical, epistolary and other works (despite the limited volume of the corresponding chapter, the main points of interpenetration of folklore and literature are also outlined - from copying and singing spiritual poems to recording lamentations); the versatile characteristics of peasant art are organically linked with the peculiarities of material culture and crafts. The issues of socio-utopian views of the peasantry, ideas of imposture are analyzed in the book directly based on the materials of various forms of protest. The authors managed to avoid exaggerating the level of class consciousness of the peasantry of the XVII-XIX centuries.

Due to the general lack of development of many

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problems of the history of the culture of the peasantry a number of topics were not touched upon in the book. It would be appropriate to highlight the role of the Siberian peasantry in conducting academic expeditions, to note the connections of the peasants with the Decembrists, to characterize the carved calendars common in the Siberian countryside, to show the specifics of the empirical knowledge of peasant pilots of river and sea navigation, etc.,

Summarizing the work on the Siberian peasantry allows us to outline some prospects for further research. At the current stage of studying the history of Siberia, it is especially important to include local material as much as possible in the circle of all-Russian problems, to overcome the regional framework in all aspects of studying the history of the region. Much has already been achieved in this regard in this publication: the conclusions on specific issues are always compared with the European part of the country. But we are talking about more than that-referring to materials from other regions in the very course of the study. Thus, for the period of feudalism, the problem of migration in its broad formulation, which presupposes taking into account the position of peasants in places of exit and behavior in the migration process,has not yet been solved. Particularly significant are the unused materials concerning the movement for the Urals in the first half of the 19th century from the central, western, and southern provinces. In particular, the role of the community in resettlement, the correlation of peasant aspirations (they are reflected in numerous petitions, powers of attorney, and sentences) and the policies of central and local authorities, and other issues are still almost completely undisclosed. Siberian archives contain (in connection with migrations) many documents reflecting the history of other regions.

To the same extent, going beyond local borders is necessary when studying the culture and social consciousness of the peasantry-not only in theoretical terms and in typology, but also in the very structure of a particular study. We are talking, for example, about identifying direct contacts, peasant correspondence, the movement of books and manuscripts, stereotypes of argumentation of petitions, the influence of ideological centers.

The task of studying customary law, its reflection on law-making and the legal consciousness of the peasantry, also seems promising for studying the feudal period. As a result of raising this problem at symposia on agricultural history, the main ways to solve it have already been outlined. The reviewed volume and other recent works on Siberia reflect the first steps in implementing this task.

"The Peasantry of Siberia in the era of feudalism" - the first of a series of planned generalizing publications on the history of this class - can be confidently assessed as successful.

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