Foreword, compilation by V. Koshelev; commentaries by V. Koshelev, B. Melgunov and V. Budagarin

140×215 (60×90/16), hard cover, ill., 784 pp., 2006
ISBN 5-86793-360-1

For almost two centuries, Russia’s peasants formed the majority of the country’s population. Mostly illiterate, their personal history and experiences has been cloaked in silence to this day. Peasant writing, especially diaries, are extremely rare, and almost impossible to find. This unique collection of peasant memoirs from the late 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries allows the reader to see Russian life of the time from the viewpoint of the country’s most numerous and repressed social class. This is the first attempt to collect the diaries and memoirs of peasants in a single volume, and many of the texts are published here for the first time. The book is lavishly illustrated with paintings by Russian artists and engravings by foreign travelers in Russia, which show the work, daily routine and pastimes of the Russian peasantry.

World rights available