Corinne Gaudin, Ruling Peasants

In Ruling Peasants Corinne Gaudin considers the ways in which the Russian state exercised authority vis-à-vis peasants after Emancipation and especially after 1889, when the institution of land captains was established and the volost courts were reformed. She rightly includes the village assemblies and land communes, which wielded the state’s authority by an implicit delegation. In all the issues examined, Gaudin displays great subtlety; above all, she reveals the full untidiness of political..