[1][2] In a review in the journal Russian History, Stephan Merl summarizes the scope and contents of Stalin's Peasants: The introductory chapter is on the village in the 1920s.

The question of the living standards and political activities of the peasants is raised, as well as the celebrity of the small group of successful stakhanovites and the procedure of election in the villages.

Based on evidence from the Soviet archives, it refutes the claim that the peasants saw Stalin as the "good Tsar" and shows that they understood he was responsible for the misery and famine they were experiencing.

Using a wide array of grass-roots sources, she examines the strategies of everyday survival, the limits of Soviet power, and the strains and divisions of life in the countryside.

Her work draws heavily on the police and government records and also the petitions and complaints sent to the Kremlin from Soviet peasants seeking relief from famine and redress for the oppression they were experiencing.

[a][7][5] Teodor Shanin writes in the American Historical Review that "this work marks a major step forward in the development of a rural history of Russia- a point from which to proceed.