Agriculture in the Russian Empire
Agriculture in the Russian Empire throughout the 19th-20th centuries Russia represented a major world force, yet it lagged technologically behind other developed countries.
In Russian, "муж" (muzh — husband; venerable man), "мужчина" (muzhchina — mature male human) and "мужик" (muzhik) are derived from the same root word.
This expanse, together with the alluvial zone of the Kuban in the North Caucasus, constituted the fertile `grain-surplus' steppe areas of cereal production.
Their cultivation spread steadily during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they were increasingly grown as part of improved crop rotations (see below).
[5] The reign of Catherine II was associated with the beginning of mass grain exports, which had previously been banned under Elizabeth Petrovna.
[6] Throughout the 19th century the Russian wheat crop developed into a significant export commodity, with trading and shipping mainly in the hands of members of the Greek Diaspora from the Baltic Sea, Taganrog, and Odessa.
Traders and shippers, such as the Vagliano and Ralli Brothers, helped to finance the international trade, with the Baltic Exchange of London developed the market for the Russian wheat crop, while hedging of Russian wheat through futures contracts helped establish the new American futures exchanges, especially during times of uncertainty.
The growth observed in the beginning of the 20th century was driven mainly by the extensive development of agriculture stimulated by the Stolypin reform, while the mechanization and agrarian culture remained relatively low.
Further development was arrested by the dramatic historical events of the period: revolts, World War I and the Russian Revolution.
Here the peasants grew the extensive cereal cultures and, to a limited but increasing extent, row and industrial crops too.
Large numbers of narrow strips were the consequence of a strict egalitarianism in sharing out land of differing qualities.
[8] In dry areas (which included most of the black-earth belt) strips were divided from one another by grass borders and access paths.
As in medieval western Europe, perennial ploughing had gradually produced a `corrugated' landscape of raised ridges or selions with ditches or furrows between them.
Miry usually practiced the common-field system, in which all peasants grew the same crop in the same part of the mir's arable at the same time.
In Russia, with its short growing season,[11] latest times tended also to be earliest, necessitating a fairly tight yearly schedule of tasks.
This resulted in a pattern `of parallel columns of men, women and adolescents from the various households working the narrow strips at sowing and harvesttime'.
Within a six-week period, spring-sown crops had to be harvested and processed and the winter field ploughed and sown — all before the onset of cold inhibited operations.
But within the three-course system flax exhausted the soil's fertility; peasants learned to replenish it by planting clover.
Multi-course systems with sown fodder grasses and clover (travopolye (Травополье), travoseyanie) allowed more cattle and other livestock to be kept, who in turn provided more manure to increase soil fertility.
[16] In the later 19th century the growth of towns and cities in central Russia encouraged the development of market gardening and truck farming in this region.
