This book is a comprehensive reconstruction of the successful attempt by rural professionals in late imperial Russia to engage peasants in a common public sphere. Covers a range of aspects, from personal income and the dynamics of the job market to ideological conflicts and psychological transformation. Based on hundreds of individual life stories.

ILYA GERASIMOV holds Russian and American PhDs, and is a founder and the Executive Editor of the international quarterly Ab Imperio dedicated to the studies of new imperial history and nationalism in the post-Soviet space (since 2000). He has published in several languages on Russian social history, the history of criminality and new imperial history.