Soviet Peasants and Collectivization, 1930-39: Resistance and Adaptation

This article re-evaluates the widely held view that Soviet peasants responded only or predominantly with resistance to collectivization and work in Soviet collective farms. It analyses key examples of the evidence for this 'resistance interpretation' to show that the evidence is not representative of most peasants' actions. It presents new evidence and analysis to show that peasant responses cannot be reduced to resistance, that more often they adapted to the new system, and that they worked hard within the system to overcome famines.     

Resource allocation and agrarian class formation: The problem of social mobility among Russian peasant households, 1880–1930

The relationship between social mobility processes and the development of bourgeois social classes in the pre‐collective Russian peasantry has occupied an important place in recent discussion. On one level the discussion has concerned the ‘specificity’ of the peasantry; this is expressed in two quotations which preface the article. On another level discussion has concerned the use of agrarian statistics to establish the scale and significance of both class differentiation and of inter‐class mobility. It is argued below that the knowledge embodied in agrarian statistics can only be understood in relation to the theories of the statisticians. Theoretically reconstructed, the statistics throw new light upon the roles of underdevelopment and patriarchy in processes of class differentiation within the Russian peasantry.     

Chayanov and the economics of the Russian Peasantry

The years after 1900 saw the emergence of the “neo‐populist” tradition as a leading tendency of economic thought in the study of the Russian peasantry. By the 1920s Aleksandr Vasil'evich Chayanov had become one of the most influential spokesmen of this tradition. His school was dispersed in 1930. But in the Western study of modern peasantries, his work is once more increasingly influential. The article considers Chayanov's place in the development of economic thought and of political controversy, and tries to locate this in the context of the history of the Russian peasantry itself. Problems and theories in the allocation of labour supplies are particularly examined. Finally, we raise the question of ideology in economic thought.     

The “Cultural Mission” in Indigenous Non-fiction Book Publishing in Australia 1960–2000

Non-fiction books by and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have arguably played a crucial role in the framing of public discussion of Indigenous issues in Australia since the 1950s. In this article, I track quantitative trends in the publishing of the approximately 769 such books for the Australian retail trade between 1960 and 2000, as part of what I describe as an emerging “cultural mission” among Australian book publishers through the period. The article then discusses two major trends within the data. The first is an overall increase in the number of titles published annually through the period, while the second is a declining interest by mass-market trade publishers in publishing books in the area from the 1980s onwards versus an increased publication rate by smaller independent presses and two large trade publishers with a particular interest in the area, one of which is also independently owned. The article concludes with a discussion of possible reasons for the latter trend in the context of ongoing debates about white Australian colonialism.     

What Exactly Have We Learned from Decades of Applying “Business Solutions” to Public Organizations?

Editor's Note: The Perspectives in this issue are from prominent higher education leaders with roots in public administration and public policy. I asked the contributors to reflect upon experiences or principles grounded in our field that they have found meaningful during the course of their careers. My thanks to Rebecca Blank, Michael Crow, Mark Emmert and Kenneth Ruscio for their thoughtful and stimulating essays. JLP