Aleksandr Nikolaevich Engelgardt's Letters from the country, 1872-1887

the long version

From the rye field and threshing barn to the gentry manor and village court, A.N. Engelgardt's Letters painted a lively, entertaining, and insightful portrait of Imperial Russia's rural countryside. Now translated into English for the first time, judiciously abridged, and fully annotated for the modern reader, Engelgardt's account stands revealed both as a major primary source on nineteenth-century Russian and as an ever-more-timely analysis of a peasant culture in the wake of reform. A distinguished chemist at the St. Petersburg Agricultural Institute, Engelgardt was an eloquent spokesman on behalf of Russia's peasant majority. Accused of conspiratorial activities by the Tsarist government, he was exiled in 1871 to his modest estate in impoverished Smolensk province, where, under police surveillance, he wrote his Letters for publication in St. Petersburg. With scientific precision, Engelgardt produced a comprehensive eyewitness account of the peasant's daily affairs and environment, with detailed descriptions of land reform, reflections on the role of peasant women and the effects of emancipation, discussions of local agriculture and the economy, and vivid accounts of peasant attitudes about everything from the Russo-Turkish War to infant death. With an extensive introduction and copious notes, this translation is ideal for students of Russian history and peasant studies.