Interview with Manfred Hildermeier

Stefan Plaggenborg (SP): You wrote two books on the “The Russian Revolution,” which cover the years 1905 to 1921; the “History of the Soviet Union” beginning in 1917; and, recently, you published a “History of Russia” from the Middle Ages to 1917. It seems that 1917 lies somewhat in the middle of your research interests. However, we do not find a chapter about the question of whether or how one should remember this particular year in Russian history. We could start with this question. The beg..

Michael David‑Fox, Crossing Borders, Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union

A simple question demands a complicated answer: What about Soviet modernity? Even without its geographical restrictions the term created a lot of confusion on the basis of countless concepts among all sorts of academic disciplines. A tired out student of science studies already in 1991 moaned, the number of its meanings corresponds to the number of thinkers and journalists writing about it. The problem became more complicated when “modernity” was applied to the Soviet “case” where processes o..

1917

In 2004, Gottfried Schramm published a book full of wisdom as to the structural preconditions of historical success. He asked why at a certain moment of history new ideas gained momentum and acheived historical endurance, i.e., what made them successful. History knows many more examples of lost significance and failure than long‑lasting success. Schramm studied the beginning of monotheism, the emergence of Christendom, the Reformation, the beginning of representative democracy in Northern Ame..

Tax policy and the question of peasant poverty in tsarist Russia, 1881-1905

Stefan Plaggenborg, Tax policy and the question of peasant poverty in tsarist Russia, 1881-1905. One of the most controversial debates among historians concerns the question of peasant poverty during industrialization in Russia 1880-1905. It is the central contention of this article that the tax policy initiated by the Russian Ministers of Finance did not ruin the peasant economy, and, indeed, did not result in the impoverishment of the peasant masses. Peasants were not seriouly burdened by either direct or indirect taxation. Whereas peasants were more and more relieved from state taxes, "modern" sectors of economy were levied more heavily: real estate in towns, capital rents, and industry itself. Moreover, the per capita-tax burdens for excise taxes turned out to be significantly higher in urban and industrial areas than in agrarian ones. This result should be regarded in connection with revisionist interpretations on peasant poverty, indicating that the situation of Russia's peasants in general did improve or at least did not worsen during industrialization. Although poverty existed, it was not caused by tax policy.Stefan Plaggenborg, La politique fiscale et la question de la pauvreté des paysans dans la Russie tsariste, 1881-1905. L'un des points les plus controversés chez les historiens est celui de la pauvreté des paysans pendant l'industrialisation de la Russie entre 1880 et 1905. La thèse centrale de cet article, c'est que la politique fiscale inaugurée par les ministres des Finances russes n'a pas ruiné l'économie paysanne, et par conséquent, n'a pas causé un appauvrissement des masses paysannes. Les paysans n'étaient accablés sérieusement ni par les impôts directs ni par les impôts indirects. Alors que les impôts levés par l'État pesaient de moins en moins sur les paysans, des secteurs « modernes » de l'économie étaient taxés plus lourdement : les biens fonciers en ville, les loyers du capital et l'industrie elle-même. En outre, le poids de la taxe per capita pour les contributions indirectes s'avérait considérablement plus élevé dans les zones urbaines et industrielles que dans les zones rurales. Il faudrait confronter ce résultat avec les thèses révisionnistes sur la pauvreté des paysans, en indiquant que la situation des paysans russes en général s'était améliorée ou du moins n'avait pas empiré pendant l'industrialisation. Bien que la pauvreté existât, elle ne résultait pas de la politique fiscale.Plaggenborg Stefan. Tax policy and the question of peasant poverty in tsarist Russia, 1881-1905. In: Cahiers du monde russe : Russie, Empire russe, Union soviétique, États indépendants, vol. 36, n°1-2, Janvier-juin 1995. Cultures économiques et politiques économiques dans l'Empire tsariste et en URSS, 1861 - 1950. pp. 53-69