The Question of Moral Economy and Famine Relief in the Russian Baltic Provinces of Estland and Livland, 1841-68

Abstract

Russian rulers recognized the principle that ‘good government’ nourishes its people in bad years. The paper addresses the question how the principle of paternalist ‘moral economy’ was translated into practice or more specifically, what the Russian central government did and ordered the others--manorial lords, communities--to do in this respect. It appears that throughout the period under study, the Russian rulers as well as the Baltic German nobilities made efforts to place the responsibility for the peasants’ maintenance on the shoulders of communities (i.e. local peasants). The paper discusses the results of such policy. Through references to famine experiences in Russia Proper it looks at the adequacy of official relief efforts from the point of whether these kept people from dying and starving, or failed to do so. In different socioeconomic contexts, the same policy gave different results when measured in terms of the demographic response to short-term crisis

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This paper was published in Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto.

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