Rural Russia under the new regime /

A study of peasant life under the New Economic Policy and one of several works by Danilov, a Russian historian, that deal with Soviet peasantry. The first of the book's three chapters deals with population numbers, occupations, employment, and the evolving social structure in the agrarian sector. Data are drawn from the all-Russian census reports of 1926, agricultural censuses, and what the author describes as the "spring inquiries." Chapter 2 explores the influence of changing land codes devised by the party to encourage socialist collectivization as a countermeasure to the kulak's land enclosures and the inefficiency of the repartitional communes, the dominant form of peasant land use in 1927. Chapter 3 encompasses an analysis of output of a variety of crops produced on the various types of peasant holdings, with some effort to measure productivity of each according to type of organization, e.g., communal, enclosures, or collective. Davilov concludes that the spontaneous development of socialist agrarian development was a proved alternative to enclosures and the dissolution the peasant classes. Though the study is rich in statistical detail, the author fails to provide any price data for the various crops or to discuss price policy and peasant responses to price changes. A valuable source of information for students of Soviet history, economics, and sociology. -R. A. Battis, Trinity College (CT)