Kritsman and the Agrarian Marxists

156 Pages·1984·6.493 MB·English

by  Terry Cox, Gary Littlejohn

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
MARXISM
Volume 9
KRITSMAN AND THE
AGRARIAN MARXISTS
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KRITSMAN AND THE
AGRARIAN MARXISTS
Edited by
TERRY COX AND
GARY LITTLEJOHN
Firstpublishedin1984
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KRITSMAN
AND THE
AGRARIAN MARXISTS
Edited by
Terry Cox and Gary Littlejohn
FRANK CASS
First published 1984 in Great Britain by
FRANK CASS AND COMPANY LIMITED
Gainsborough House, 11 Gainsborough Road,
London Ell 1R S
and in the United States 0/ America by
FRANK CASS AND COMPANY LIMITED
clo Biblio Distribution Center
81 Adams Drive, P.O.Box 327, Totowa, N.J. 07511
Copyright © 1984 Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kritsman and the Agrarian Marxists.
\. Kritsman, L.N. 2. Peasantry-Soviet Union
I. Cox, Terry 11. Littlejohn, Gary
307.7'2'0947 HD1536.R9
ISBN 0-7146-3237-6
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Kritsman and the Agrarian Marxists.
(The Journal of peasant studies; v. 11, no.2)
Bibliography: p.
1. Peasantry-Soviet Union-History. 2. Social
classes-Soviet Union-History. 3. Agriculture and
state-Soviet Union-History. 4. Soviet Union-Rural
conditions. 5. Kritsman, L. (Lev), 1890-1938. I. Cox.
Terry. 11. Littlejohn, Gary. Ill. Series.
HD1513.A3J68 vol. 11, no. 2 305.5'63s 83-25225
[HDI536.S65] [305.5'63]
ISBN 0-7146-3237-6
This group of studies first appeared in a Special Issue on
'Kritsman and the Agrarian Marxists' of The Journal o/Peasant
Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2, published by Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part oft his publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
prior permission of Frank Cass and Company Limited.
Printed in Great Britain by
John Wright and Sons (Printing) Ltd,
at The Stonebridge Press, Bristol
Contents
Editors' Note 3
Glossary and Abbreviations 5
Introduction 7
I. Class Analysis of the Russian Peasantry: The Research
of Kritsman and his School Terry Cox 11
11. The Agrarian Marxist Research in its Political Context:
State Policy and the Development of the Soviet Rural Class
Structure in the 1920s Gary Littlejohn 61
Ill. Class Stratification of the Soviet Countryside (edited and
translated by Gary Littlejohn) L. N. Kritsman 85
Bibliography 144
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Editors' Note
The scholarly work on the countryside done in pre-1917 Russia and in the
Soviet Union in the 1920s was of a remarkably high quality: of a higher
quality, probably, than that on the peasantry of any country before or since. In
that corpus, perhaps least known is the work of L. N. Kritsman and those
influenced by him - the so-called' Agrarian Marxists'. Yet the quality of that
work was extremely high and it was very original. Moreover, its significance is
more than historical, since it has great relevance to the study of pe as antrie s in
contemporary poor countries and especially to the analysis of peasant
differentiation.
This special issue will help dispel ignorance of this important body of
writing. It has been prepared by two guest editors, Terry Cox and Gary
Littlejohn, both of whom are specialists on the Soviet Union and both of whom
have been working on Kritsman and the Agrarian Marxists for several years.
Here they share the results of that work in three major pieces: the first, by Cox,
a detailed account of the work of Kritsman and his school; the second, on the
political context of the work of the Agrarian Marxists and on the significance
of determining the nature of the class structure in the Soviet Union in the
1920s; and the third, an abridged translation of one of Kritsman's important
works, Class Stratification of the Soviet Countryside.
T. B. BYRES
C. A. CURWEN