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Land Hunger and Nationalism in the Ukraine, 1905–19171

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

H. R. Weinstein
H. R. Weinstein
Affiliation:
Washington, D.C.
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Extract

In the last decades of the Tsarist regime the eight provinces where, according to the census of 1897, Ukrainians predominated—Kiev, Podolia, Volhynia, Poltava, Chernigov, Kharkov, Kherson, and Ekaterinoslav—were largely rural. Less than one seventh of the population in these provinces inhabited urban centers. The rural population, moreover, coincided closely with the Ukrainian nationality: more than nine of every ten Ukrainians lived in the country districts, and most of these were classified as peasants. Since two out of every three of the urban residents were Russians or Jews, the limited number of Ukrainians dwelling among them tended to become absorbed into industries which provided a natural milieu for “Russification.” In the cultural conflict, “Ukrainian” became synonymous with 9peasant”; and the nickname for the Ukrainian—khokhol—has the same derogatory connotation as the Russian term muzhik, which evokes a picture of a shaggily bearded, unwashed, unkempt, illiterate country bumpkin.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , May 1942 , pp. 24 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1942

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References

2 Although the province of Tavri has a majority of Ukrainians, it is being omitted from this study because of its peculiar economic status and its large Tartar population. In the eight provinces mentioned in the text there were 21,982,617 people, of whom 12.7% were classified as living in the cities. These figures were compiled from Pervaia vseobshchaio perepis naseleniia rossiiskoi imperil 1897 g. Obshchii svod po imperii rezultatov razrobotki dannykh pervoi vseobshchei perepisi naseleniia proisvedennoi 28 ianvaria 1897 goda (St. Petersburg, 1905), II, 20–35Google Scholar.

3 Of the Ukrainians, who comprised 79.1% of the population in the eight provinces, 94.4% were living in the country, which included villages and very small towns; 86.5% of the Ukrainians were classified as peasants, 84.1% as peasants actually living in the country; and 87.0% of the Ukrainians were deriving their living from agriculture. Likewise, 87.3% of all peasants living in the rural areas were Ukrainians and 87.5% of all people deriving their living from agriculture belonged to that nationality. Compiled from Pervaia vseobshchaio perepis naseleniia rossiiskoi imperii 1897 g. (St. Petersburg, 1899–1905), VII, XIII, XVI, XVII, XXIV, XXXII, XLVII, XLVIII, Tables XXI, XXII, XXIVGoogle Scholar.

4 The Ukrainians constituted 32.4% of the city population, the Russians 32.5%, and the Jews 28.4%. Of the urban Ukrainians, 39.4% were engaged in manufacturing, construction, transportation, and communication; and they formed 28.7% of the people engaged i n these activities. Compiled from Pervaia vseobshchaia perepis naseleniia rossiiskoi imperii 1897 g. Obshchii svod …, II, 56–59;Google Scholar VII, XIII, XVI, XVII, XXIV, XXXII, XLVII, XLVIII, Tables XXI, XXII.

5 In 1905 the “allotment” lands in the eight provinces totaled 49,058,789 acres, constituting 46.7% of all the arable land, which amounted to 101,143,819 acres. The “allotment” land was divided among 2,878,120 peasant households. While 3,811,211 acres had been added to the “allotment” lands since 1877, the number of peasant households had gained by 1,026,919; this resulted in a drop in the average size of the “allotments” from 24.4 acres in 1877 to 17.0 acres in 1905. At the later date, 2.9% of the households on “allotment” lands had less than 2.7 acres; 4.6% had from 2.7 acres to 5.4 acres; 11.8% had from 5.4 to 8.1 acres; 13.1% had from 8.1 to 10.8 acres; 13.4% had from 10.8 to 13.5 acres; 40.4% had from 13.5 to 27.0 acres; and 13.9% had above 27 acres. Compiled from Tsentralnii Statisticheskii Komitet, Statistika zemlevladeniia 1905 g. Svod dannykh po 50-ti guberniiam ewopeiskoi Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1906–1907), xxxv, xxxvi, 11.Google Scholar A discussion of land holding and living standards among the peasants throughout European Russia is contained in Robinson, Geroid T., Rural Russia under the Old Regime (New York, 1932), 94–116Google Scholar.

6 See Kachinskii, N., Selionskii rukh no Ukraini v roki 1905–7 g. (Kharkov, 1927), 18, 28–29;Google ScholarKhristiuk, P., 1905 rik na Ukraini (Kharkov, 1925), 32, 48–49;Google ScholarMirza-Avakiants, N., Selianski rosrukhi na Ukraini, 1905–1907 roki (Kharkov, 1925), 4–14Google Scholar.

7 In the eight provinces, the peasants had acquired 12,155,597 acres of nonallotment land. Of this land, 6,250,414 acres were held “personally” and the remainder was held by peasant associations. Only 119,683 households held land personally. Of these, 88,585 households held 789,601 acres in parcels up to 27 acres; 23,515 held 698,609 acres in parcels ranging from 27 to 135 acres; and a very few households—7,583—owned 4,762,204 acres or 65.5% of the land in this category, in parcels of 135 or more acres. Compiled from Tsentralnii Statisticheskii Komitet, 12–13, 56–63, 68–69.

8 Only 5,905.183 acres were held by peasant association.,: icluding the peasant commune. Ibid.

9 Ibid. L. This very rough estimate was arrived at indirectly: by adding the number of households possessing “allotment” lands to the number having individually owned “private” lands (even though these two categories overlapped to an unknown extent), and by comparing this total with the number of peasant households engaged in agriculture at the time of the 1897 census. If the overlapping of “allotment” owners with owners of “private” lands were considered and if the increase of population between 1897 and 1905 were taken into account, then the proportion of landless peasants in the total number of peasant agriculturists would be even greater. On the other hand, this number would be reduced by a consideration of those who had neither “allotment” nor “private” lands but who shared in land purchased by associations of peasants and by the communes.

10 Estimates of the amount of land rented by peasants vary considerably. The figures used for this compilation, which gives the sum of 9,936,450 acres, are taken from an official survey made in 1901. See Vysochaishe uchrezhdennaia 16 noiabria 1901 g. Komissiia po issledovaniiu voprosa o dvizhenii s 1861 po 1901 g. blagosostoianiia selskago naseleniia sredne-zemledelcheskikh gubernii sravnitelno s drugimi mestnostiami evropeiskoi , Rossii, Materialy (St. Petersburg, 1903), I, 148–149Google Scholar.

11 For the rise in rental fees, see ibid., I, 140–141. See also Kachinskii, 20–21, 23; Khristiuk, 31; Mirza-Avakiants, 5–7.

12 Wage movements are described in Vysoch. uchrezhd., I, 234–243.

13 The sale of passport blanks in the Ukraine in the decade 1891–1900 was eight times as great as in the decade 1861–1870; throughout European Russia the sale of blanks in the later decade was only five times as great as in the earlier decade. Between the decade 1861–1870 and the decade 1891–1900, the sale of blanks for three-month periods had increased in the Ukraine by five hundred twenty-three times, in European Russia by eleven times; for passports longer than one year the increase in the Ukraine was one hundred eleven times, and in all of European Russia thirty-two times. Compiled from Vysoch. uchrezhd., I, 222–227.

14 Ibid., I, 88–89.

15 Ibid., I, 28–33.

16 Including “allotment” and “private” lands, the peasants held 61,214,386 acres of the total of 101,143,819 acres of arable land. The government, church, and monasteries held 7,383,508 acres. Other nonpeasant owners possessed 32,545,925 acres, or 32.2% of all arable land. Of this nonpeasant “private” land, the nobles owned 74.9% and the classes of “merchants” and “honorary citizens” owned 10.0%. Compiled from Tsentralnit Statisticheskii Komitet, 12–15, 56–63, 68–69, 72–73.

17 Of the nobles' land, 97.6% was held in parcels of more than 135 acres by 13,547 families. There were 2,895 estates of from 135 acres to 270 acres, 8,331 of from 270 to 2,700 acres, and 2,321 above 2,700 acres. Other members of the upper classes (“merchants,” “honorary citizens,” clergy), city people, and foreigners owned 2,089 estates of from 125 acres to 270 acres, 3,573 of from 270 to 2,700 acres and 670 above 2,700 acres. Compiled from ibid., 12–15, 56–63, 68–69,72–73.

18 Ukrainians constituted 29.1% of the hereditary nobles, 25.4% of the personal nobles, 7.3% of the “merchants,” 43.2% of the “honorary citizens.” Of the hereditary nobles, the class owning most of the large estates, 41.1% were Russians and 23.0% were Poles. Compiled from Pervaia vseobshchoia perepis naseleniia …, VII, XIII, XVI, XVII, XXIV, XXXIII, XLVII, XLVIII, Table XXIV.

19 See Stebnitzkii, P. I., Ukraina v ekonomike Rossii (Petrograd, 1918), 9–19, 26Google Scholar.

20 Ibid., 19–28; Khristiuk, 23–26.

21 Of those engaged in trade in the rural areas, 73.9% were Jews. Omitting Kharkov, in which there were few Jews, the percentage was 77.3. Compiled from Pervaia vseobshchaia perepis naseleniia…, VII, XIII, XVI, XVII, XXIV, XXXIII, XLVII, XLVIII, Tables XXI, XXII.

22 See Porsh, M., Ukraina v dershavnomy biudsheti Rossii (Ekaterinoslav, 1918), 11, 16–17, 20–21Google Scholar.

23 Skorevetanskii, P., Revoliutsiia na Ukraine (Saratov, 1919), 7–8Google Scholar.

24 For descriptions of the extent and nature of the peasant uprisings in the Ukraine during 1905 and 1906, see Mirza-Avakiants, 16–33; Khristiuk, 19, 92–99, 160–163, 213–215; Kachinskii, 29–114, 128–132.

25 For discussions of the political activity among the peasantry, of the growth of the all-Russian peasant movement, and of the nature of the petitions, see Khristiuk. 97–100, 140–141, 162, 202–205, 213–215; Kachinskii, 41–42, 137–150, 176–183, 186–191, 202–207; Mirza-Avakiants, 26–42, 45–47; Kuznetsov, I. D., Natsionalnoe dvizhenie v period pervoi revoliutsii v Rossii (Moscow, 1935), 37Google Scholar; Dmitrova, L., Ukraina v 1905 roki (Kharkov, 1925), 46–48Google Scholar.

26 See Kachinskii, 148.

27 Khristiuk, 101, 161.

28 Mirza-Avakiants, 42.

29 For the programs of the Ukrainian parties up to and including 1905, see Gaidalemivskii, O., Ukrainski politichni partii; ikh rosvitok i programi (Zaltzvedel, 1919), 5–9;Google ScholarRavich-Cherkasskii, M., Istoriia Kommunisticheskoi Partii Ukraini (Kharkov, 1923), 28–33;Google ScholarIavorskii, M., Revoliutsiia na Ukraini v ii golovnishikh etapakh (Kharkov, 1923), 23Google Scholar; Popov, N. N., Naris istonii Kommunistichnoi Partii (bilshovikov) Ukraini (Kharkov, 1929), 38–44, 65–67;Google ScholarShapoval, M. I., Revoliutsiinii sotsializm na Ukraini (Vienna, 1921), I, 40Google Scholar; Khristiuk, 56–57, 60–62, 65–66, 132–138, 143–145, 182–183.

30 For the composition, program, and influence of the Ukrainian Social-Revolutionary Party, see Popov, 70; Skorevetanskii, 14–15; Gaidalemivskii, 10; Iavorskii, 30; Khristiuk, P., Zametki i materiali do istorii ukrainskoi revoliutsii 1917–1920 (Vienna, 1922), I, 35–37Google Scholar.

31 The vote in Podolia was not recorded In Poltava, Ekaterinoslav, Chernigov, Volhynia, and Kiev, the Ukrainian Social-Revolutionaries won 3,368,574 or 63.1% of the 5,332,078 votes cast. The Russian Social-Revolutionaries won 10.3%, the Bolsheviks 9.8%, and the Constitutional-Democrats won 2.3% of the total, the remainder being scattered among the smaller parties. The bloc of the Ukrainian and Russian Social Revolutionaries won 70.4% of the votes in Kharkov and 51.0% in Kherson. Compiled from figures in Sviatitskii, N. V., Itogi vyborov vo vserossiiskoe uchreditelnoe sobranie (Moscow, 1918), 38–45.Google Scholar The information for Kherson is considered incomplete and possibly very inaccurate.