Between the Fields and the City: Women, Work, and Family in Russia, 1861-1914

This book charts the personal dimensions of economic and social change by examining the significance and consequences of Russian peasant women’s migration from the village to the factory and/or city in the years between the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and the outbreak of World War I. The author uses case studies to explore the effects of urbanization and industrialization on the relationship of the migrant to the peasant household, and on family life and personal relations. It differs from other studies in looking at both village and city; in treating personal life, and in drawing on a wealth of archival data, most of it for the first time. The focus on women and the family provides a fresh perspective on the social history of late Imperial Russia.