Abstract

The subject of the research in the article is the image and socio-economic practices of a middle-income landowner of one of the provinces of European Russia and his attitude to the role of agriculture in the history of the country and the relationship between peasants and landowners. The article analyzes the civic position of a rationally thinking progressive landowner, his ideological attitudes and motives for streamlining economic activity on the eve of the abolition of serfdom and in the first post-reform decades. The article is based on materials from the family archive of the Smolensk landed gentry Neielovs, inter alia, documents penned by P.D. Neielov, owner of the Peski estate in the Gzhatsky district of the Smolensk province. The author demonstrates that the desire to improve the economic efficiency of estates was stimulated by the economic interests and civic responsibility of the nobleman who linked the prosperity of his estate and the future of Russia with the development of the agricultural sector. The treatment of the peasants by the landowner was rational, as they were both involved in the common economic activity. In the era of serfdom, the latter was based on domination and subordination, which did not rule out economic efficiency. After the abolition of serfdom, it was founded on economic responsibility while some elements of paternalism were retained. The basis for the prosperity of the estate in the feudal era was the rationally organized management of the peasants, combined with the application of the achievements in agriculture. In the post-reform period, the specialization of the economy and civil contracts with peasants came to the fore. From the Russian landowner’s viewpoint, the use of rational farming methods had universal relevance for substantiating his civic position during the times of serfdom and the emancipation of the serfs. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the author focuses on the life of one person at a crucial time in the history of Russia while studying the problem of the civil responsibility of a noble man. Addressing the case of a landowner of the Smolensk province is based on the author’s conviction that there is great potential in regional and “anthropological” approaches and the genre of microhistory for the study of economic and social practices, as well as the problems of civic consciousness, rationalism and “moral” economy in the feudal and post-reform Russia.