Egorov A. K. Peasant unrest in the Volga Region in the summer of 1892 // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2026. V.11. №3. P. 55-71.
EDN: OIHHWN
Annotation
The article considers the peasant unrest in the Volga Region during the cholera epidemic in the summer of 1892. Peasant uprisings began in communities along the Volga upstream — in the Astrakhan, Saratov, and Samara Provinces — soon after the cholera riots had ended in Astrakhan on June 22, 1892, and migrant workers had fled the city. Peasants refused to implement anti-cholera measures, denied officials and medical personnel entry to their villages and attacked those suspected of malicious intent against the people. The unrest was fueled by rumors of criminal abuse by officials and doctors who allegedly accepted bribes to kill people in hospitals or poisoned water and food supplies. The spread of rumors was facilitated by heavy shipping traffic on the Volga, which enabled potential instigators to move upriver quickly, which is why the 1892 riots broke out almost simultaneously in two main centers of unrest — in the Lower and Middle Volga regions. In 1892, there were two types of peasant riots by intensity and social composition: first, essentially a continuation of riots in the nearby cities of Saratov and Khvalynsk, which involved different social groups, both locals and migrants, and were characterized by extreme violence and many casualties; second, peasant unrest sparked by independent actions of the local population, without the involvement of outside elements, which was less aggressive and not accompanied by killings. Unlike seasonal workers and marginalized urban groups, the traditional peasantry of the Volga Region showed relative resilience to inflammatory rumors.
Keywords
Epidemic, cholera, rumors, poisoning, panic, violence, communication, transport routes, Volga Region.
About the author
Alexander K. Egorov, PhD (History), Associate Professor, Petrozavodsk State University. Lenin St., 33, Petrozavodsk, 185910, Russia; Researcher, Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History, Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Pushkinskaya St., 11, Petrozavodsk, 185910, Russia.
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Additional Info
- Submitted Monday, 02 March 2026
- Reviewed Monday, 06 April 2026
- Copyright © Auhtors, 2026
- Distribution Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Fadeeva O.P., Nefedkin V.I. Informal public-private partnership as an initiative from below: Rural cases // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2020. V.5. №3. P. 131-145.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-3-131-145
Annotation
Local self-government in Russia has seriously degraded in the last decades. The strengthening power vertical and the centralized budgetary policy minimized the ability of rural administrations to finance the construction of social infrastructure facilities. The existing mechanisms and practices of public-private and municipal-private partnerships aim at implementing large projects rather than at contributing to the rural development. The data from the 2018 field research show that the weakening of local self-government is partially restrained by the increased activity of rural residents. For instance, local entrepreneurs spend their money on building schools with the support of local authorities. Based on the regional and ethnic differences in the stories from the Tatar village in the Volga Region and the Russian village in Siberia, the authors identify some common features of projects from below and analyze both their reasons and motives of entrepreneurs in different regions. Such cases of public-private partnerships ‘not by the rules’ should not be considered charity: they have various motives hidden in the relations between the authorities, business and rural population, and they are a result of informal agreements, in which mutual obligations of the participants are not legally set but are demonstrative manifestations of the local identity and of the intention to keep the traditional order.
Keywords
self-government, public-private partnership, rural entrepreneurs, selforganization, Volga Region, Siberia
About the authors
Olga P. Fadeeva, PhD (Sociology), Leading Researcher, Institute of Economics and Organization of Industrial Production, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Prosp. Lavrentieva, 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
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Vladimir I. Nefedkin, PhD (Economics), Senior Researcher, Institute of Economics and Organization of Industrial Production, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Prosp. Lavrentieva, 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.