Standard Of Living And Revolutions In Imperial Russia, The

Description: The traditional view of Imperial Russia is one of perpetual impoverishment and a society mired in a permanent, systemic crisis that discredited the regime and ultimately led to revolution. This book shows that the standard of living changed in a cyclical pattern until the mid-nineteenth century but then, as Russia became integrated into a market economy (in the wake of the Great Reforms of the 1860s), it experienced a breakthrough in the population's standard of living. The economy, society, and state order in Russia developed at a satisfactory pace over the imperial period, but especially from the 1860s, as is evident from a range of indicators: gross domestic product, life expectancy, literacy rates, a rise in the standard of living, improvements in governance, and emergence of a civil society. Routledge is proud to publish the first full-scale anthropometric history of Imperial Russia (1700-1917), in translation from the original Russian. Mirinov mobilizes an immense volume of archival material to chart the growth, weight, and other anthropometric indicators of the male and female populations in order to chart how the standard of living in Russia changed over slightly more than two centuries. It draws on a wide range of data--statistics on agricultural production, taxation, prices and wages, nutrition, and demography--to draw conclusions on the dynamics in the standard of living over this long period of time. The economic, social, and political interpretations of these findings make it possible to reconsider the prevailing views in the historiography and to offer a new perspective on Imperial Russia.

Contents: 1. The Standard of Living in Imperial Russia: Russian and Foreign Historiography 2. Historical Anthropometrics: Goals, Theory, Methodology 3. Historical Anthropometrics in Russia and Abroad 4. Anthropometric Databases 5. The Biological Status of the Russian Population in the Eighteenth Century 6. The Biological Status of the Russian Population in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 7. The Geography of Biological Status 8. Case Study: Saratov Province, 1755-1915 9. Nutrition, Health, and Biological Status 10. Prices and Wages 11. Contemporary Views of the Standard of Living 12. Modernization of Russia and the Standard of Living. Conclusion