'Bab'ye Khozyaystvo': Poultry-Keeping and Its Contribution to Peasant Income in Pre–1914 Russia

Recent scholarship has cast doubt on the traditional view that the Russian peasantry experienced increasing impoverishment at the end of the nineteenth century. The extent to which the commune system was a major inhibitor of agricultural progress has also been questioned. By exploring the expansion of poultry keeping, traditionally the preserve of female peasants, this article suggests that in those provinces where the pressures on peasant living standards were most acute, poultry keeping was a buoyant source of on-farm income, which from the 1880s helped to maintain and even improve living standards at a time when peasant earnings from mainstream agricultural activity were experiencing downwards pressure. Despite their alleged conservatism Russian peasants demonstrated a marked awareness of the benefits of improved poultry strains, taking advantage of the greater availability of pedigree birds. Railway development enabled poultry products to make a significant contribution to Russia's export trade.