Abakumov I. B., Nikulin A. M. “And then I saw a completely different side of agriculture” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2026. V.11. №2. P. 208-230.

EDN: USLHJB

Annotation

This the first part of Igor Borisovich Abakumov’s biographical interview, which begins with his story about family roots, childhood and youth, then describes his choice of journalism as a profession and the stages of his journalistic career — first at the newspaper “Leninskoe Znamya [Lenin’s Banner]” and then at the newspaper “Izvestia [News]” — with the focus on rural journalism. In the interview, Abakumov considers the evolution of rural Russia during perestroika under the political-ideological struggle about economic reforms and the AKKOR [Association of Russia’s Peasant Households (Farms) and Agricultural Cooperatives]; describes the unique Dutch-Russian farming project implemented on the eve of the collapse of the USSR and its difficult history. Another remarkable project discussed in the interview is the leading post-Soviet agricultural newspaper “Krestyanskie Vedomosti [Peasant Newspaper]”, whose founder and Editor-in-Chief was Abakumov. This part of the interview concludes with reflections on the ups and downs in the post-Soviet transformation of the rural mass media, not only newspapers but also television and online media, in connection with the fate of the well-known Soviet-era television program “Selsky Chas [Rural Hour]”. Throughout the interview, Abakumov focuses on the relationship between the individual, society, power institutions and the media. 

Keywords

Kin, family, rural Russia, “Izvestia” newspaper, perestroika, AKKOR, farmers, “Krestyanskie Vedomosti”, “Selsky Chas”.  

About the authors

Igor B. Abakumov, PhD (Economics), Head of the “Krestyanskie Vedomosti” media group. Savvа Morozov St., 1, Zhelyabino village, Krasnogorsk urban district, 143430, Moscow Region. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Alexander M. Nikulin, PhD (Economics), Head of the Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. 119571, Moscow, Vernadskogo Prosp, 82.
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Gordeev A. V., Nikulin A. M. “Developing a culture of trust” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2025. V.10. №3. P. 306-324.

EDN: PYKWUO

Annotation

The second part of the biographical interview with Alexey Vasilyevich Gordeev presents his experience and results of work as the Governor of the Voronezh Region, related to the creation of a favorable human environment and entrepreneurship development. The interlocutors discuss the Voronezh local self-government at the level of rural districts, various aspects of the integration of Voronezh agricultural production, effective interaction between federal, regional and district levels in terms of professionalism and competence of the state and municipal leaders, and the importance of personal reputation. In the field of agricultural policy, the article focuses on the formation and development of the agricultural lobby in post-Soviet Russia as associated with the interests of various large and small agricultural producers, features of rural regional studies, combination of traditional and today’s lifestyles within the debatable concepts of peasantry, farming and Cossacks. The interlocuters conclude with what needs to be done to increase the efficiency of the program for the integrated development of rural areas mainly in the scientific support perspective, and to develop a culture of trust between society and the authorities, for which the territorial public self-government seems promising at the local rural level.

Keywords

Rural Russia, Voronezh Region, local self-government, agricultural lobby, comprehensive program for the development of rural areas, territorial public self-government.

About the authors

Alexey V. Gordeev, DSc (Economics), Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Okhotny Ryad St., 1, Moscow, 103265. 
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Alexander M. Nikulin, PhD (Economics), Head of the Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Vernadskogo Prosp., 82, Moscow, 119571.
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Gordeev A. V., Nikulin A.M. “Today we need to significantly change the state agricultural policy to support the development of rural areas” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2025. V.10. №2. P. 180-195.

EDN: CQTWRT

Annotation

The first part of the biographical interview with Alexey Vasilyevich Gordeev focuses on the milestones of his life and professional path related to agricultural production and rural development, especially on the transformation of institutions at different levels of agricultural management in the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods; the areas and priorities of Gordeev’s activities as Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation are considered in particular detail. Thus, in the first decades of the 21st century, the priority task was to achieve growth in agricultural production to ensure food independence, food security and stable provision of the population with a variety of food products. The interlocuters discussed ways to reform and develop contemporary agrarian sciences and education in Russia and the period of Russia’s accession to the WTO as associated with import-export relations of Russia with foreign countries.

Keywords

Rural Russia, Soviet economy, agrarian reforms, agribusiness, rural development, minister, WTO.

About the authors

Alexey V. Gordeev, DSc (Economics), Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Okhotny Ryad St., 1, Moscow, 103265.
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Alexander M. Nikulin, PhD (Economics), Head of the Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Vernadskogo Prosp., 82, Moscow, 119571.
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Ksenofontov M. Yu., Nikulin A. M. “What is the difference between weather forecasts and economic forecasts?” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №4. P. 280-307.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-4-280-307

Annotation

The interview with Mikhail Ksenofontov, DSc (Economics), Head of the Laboratory at the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, focuses on the challenges of forecasting in economic science and policies. Two scientists discuss the evolution of approaches to forecasting from the late Soviet period to the present time; the issues of forecast accuracy, their alternative nature, fallibility and the influence of the subjectivity factor (on the examples from energy industry and agriculture); economic growth assessments and criteria, its speed, optimality and proportionality; the features of forecasting approaches in natural and social sciences (on the examples of weather forecasts and economic forecasts). In conclusion, the spatial development design is mentioned in connection with issues of assessing the scale of social-economic differentiation.

Keywords

Forecasting, economics, politics, energy industry, agriculture, error, regional studies, optimality, proportionality.

About the authors

Mikhail Yu. Ksenofontov, DSc (Economics), Head of the Laboratory, Institute of Economic Forecasting, Russian Academy of Sciences; Deputy Head of the Department, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Nakhimovsky Prosp., 47, Moscow, 117418, Russia.
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Alexander M. Nikulin, PhD (Economics), Head of the Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Head of the Chayanov Research Center, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. Vernadskogo Prosp., 82, Moscow, 119571, Russia.
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Bernstein A., Sivkov D. Yu. “Resurrection is possible not only for people” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №3. P. 119-126.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-3-119-126

Annotation

This interview with Anya Bernstein, Professor of Anthropology at the Harvard University, the author of books on immortality and transhumanism in Russia, focuses on her new research — ethnography of the Pleistocene Park in Yakutia. The anthropologist Denis Sivkov discusses the context of this study and the main ideas of the Zimovs, father and son, creators of the park, about the ecosystem restoration — the mammoth steppe, the revival of species and the preservation of permafrost. The interview considers a broader context — the concepts of Russian cosmism and the issues of regulating nature, immortality and resurrection.

Keywords

Pleistocene Park, soil, ecosystem, permafrost, cryonics, cosmism, future, revival of species.

About the authors

Anya Bernstein, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138, USA.
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Denis Yu. Sivkov, PhD (Philosophy), Senior Researcher, Center for Cosmism Studies, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. Gazetny Per., 3–5, bldg. 1, Moscow, 125009.
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Mikheev E. K., Nikulin A. M., Fadeeva O. P. “Our strategy was based on the principle of doing what was profitable” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 212-234.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-212-234

Annotation

The interview with E. K. Mikheev (DSc (Economics and Management), Head of the agroholding Niva-Mikheev and Co, Honored Worker of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Honorary Citizen of the Nizhny Novgorod Region and Buturlinsky district), which was conducted by sociologists A. M. Nikulin and O. P. Fadeeva in August 2023, reconstructs his life path from the peasant collective-farm family to the world of contemporary agricultural science, politics and business. The interviewers focused on the economic philosophy of Mikheev as agricultural manager, his decision-making logic at the collective farm in the USSR and in the post-Soviet period of the developing market economy in the 1990s, his estimates of the situation at his agroholding, agrarian economy and rural development in the Nizhny Novgorod Region and Russia. The interview emphasizes the rational choice of economic decisions made and implemented in the transforming national and local institutional environment. 

Keywords

Agroholding, collective farm, perestroika, Russia, USA, agricultural strategy, Nizhny Novgorod reforms, profit.

About the authors

Evgeny K. Mikheev, DSc (Economics and Management), Head of the Niva-Mikheev and Co agroholding. Ogorodnaya St., village Valgusy, Buturlinsky district, Nizhny Novgorod Region, 607451, Russia.
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Alexander M. Nikulin, PhD (Economics), Head of the Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; ViceRector for Research, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, Vernadskogo Prosp., 82, Moscow, 119571, Russia.
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Olga P. Fadeeva, PhD (Sociology), Head of the Department, Institute of Economics and Organization of Industrial Production, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Academician Lavrentiev Prosp., 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
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Pokrovsky N.E., Nikulin A.M. “There is and there will be territorial reformatting of rural spaces” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №2. P. 140-158.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-2-140-158

Annotation

In the interview, Professor N. E. Pokrovsky describes his scientific path related to the issues of rural-urban development. Based on his experience as originally a city dweller, Pokrovsky considers how and why city-dwellers move to the countryside with their projects and plans to change the rural reality; identifies the life trajectories of different social strata of city dwellers in their rural searches; focuses on the essential characteristics of rural changes in recent decades, including those identified on the basis of his long-term observations in the Ugorsk rural development project in the Kostroma Region. As a sociologist-Americanist, Pokrovsky refers to the American roots of the rural lifestyle — ideas of T. Jefferson and H. Thoreau — and to his personal impressions of rural regions of the United States. Pokrovsky also mentions the spatial rethinking of rural-urban development as related, on the one hand, to the criticism of life in large cities, and, on the other hand, to the new economic-technological, culturalhistorical and recreational-environmental practices in rural areas. In conclusion, he considers the possibility of a new mapping of rural spaces in order to assess the development of local territories. 

Keywords

City, village, suburbanization, deurbanization/counterurbanization, migration, dachas, ecology, Henry Thoreau, Ugor project.

About the authors

Nikita E. Pokrovsky, DSc (Sociology), Chief Researcher, Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Professor, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Myasnitskaya St., 20, Moscow, 101000.
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Alexander M. Nikulin, PhD (Economics), Head of the Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Vice-Rector for Research, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. Prosp. Vernadskogo, 82, Moscow, 119571.
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Merl S. “I consistently contribute to the assessment of the Soviet economic model” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №1. P. 131-163.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-1-131-163

Annotation

As a part of our traditional “Interviews” we present the selected fragments from the biographical memoirs of Stephan Merl, Professor of the Bielefeld University, a famous researcher of the agrarian economy and policy of the Soviet state. The memoirs were written as answers to the questions formulated by Stephan Merl together with his colleague and friend Alexander Nikulin. The questions set the direction for the biographical reflections as connected with the study of the Russian history and culture, in particular the fate of the Russian village, tragedy of collectivization, and turns of the Soviet agrarian policy. The memoirs reflect the dramatic episodes of the European history in the second half of the 20th century, some of which the author experienced, while others studied in the scientific perspective. Professor Merl’s diligence, deep knowledge of historical sources and research objectivity allowed him to suggest a new interpretation of the events that have become history quite recently or are becoming history now. We present an excerpt from his memoirs which will be published in full in the book series of the Russian Peasant Studies. 

Keywords

Russia, Germany, USSR, agriculture, collectivization, agrarian policy, perestroika.

About the author

Stephan Merl, DSc (History), Professor, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr., 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
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Serova E. V., Nikulin A. M. “Today, in the rural development, the main goal is to change the paradigm” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2022. V.7. №3. P. 210-236.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2022-7-3-210-236

Annotation

In the interview, the famous economist E. V. Serova talks about the features of the life path of the agrarian scientist and describes the stages of her scientific career — studies at the Faculty of Economics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, work at the Agrarian Institute headed by the Academician A. A. Nikonov and in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Government in the early 1990s, and later in the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The interview pays particular attention to the research directions at the Institute for Agrarian Studies and to the development of agrarian education at the Higher School of Economics. Based on the ideas of randomness and regularity in the choice of the scientific profession, on the meaning of controllability and spontaneity of social-economic processes in the course of agrarian reforms, Serova identifies the system features of the strategic transformations of agriculture and rural development in Russia and abroad, which are related not only to economy but also to policy and culture. At the same time, Serova emphasizes the importance of social institutions and historical-cultural patterns of the rural residents’ behavior, on which the efficiency of the state measures in market transformations largely depends. The final part of the interview focuses on the prospects for the development of agrarian science and education, in particular on the need for a new paradigm for the development of rural areas in Russia.

Keywords

Economics, agrarian science, agricultural policy, agrarian education, transitional economy, agriculture, rural development.

About the authors

Evgeniya V. Serova, DSc (Economics), Head of the Institute for Agrarian Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Pokrovsky Blvd., 11, Moscow, 109028, Russia.
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Alexander M. Nikulin, PhD (Economics), Heal of the Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Head of the Chayanov Research Center, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences; Vernadskogo Prosp., 82, Moscow, 119571, Russia.
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Lerman Z., Nikulin A. M. “What surprises me the most is the conviction of so many scientists and politicians in the special importance of large farms” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2022. V.7. №2. P. 158-173.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2022-7-2-158-173

Annotation

In the interview, the famous agricultural economist Zvi Lerman tells about his family roots and trajectories of his biographical path connected with the Far and Middle East. Despite the relatively late start of agrarian research, Zvi Lerman quickly conducted a great number of both empirical and theoretical rural studies of the development and transformation of production cooperatives — from Israeli kibbutzim to Soviet collective farms. For several decades since the 1990s, Zvi Lerman has participated as an expert-economist in the international research projects on post-socialist and post-Soviet agrarian reforms. He considered the features of the study and implementation of agrarian reforms in most post-Soviet republics — Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan. Zvi Lerman also considered the peculiarities of agrarian reforms in such countries of Eastern Europe as Hungary, Slovenia and Albania. He believes that the conviction of many scientists and politicians in the exceptional importance and progressiveness of large agricultural enterprises leads to an imbalance in the rural development policy and damages the sustainable rural development by underestimating the potential of small family farms. Zvi Lerman also mentions the paradoxes of limitations in the development of small family units.

Keywords

Russia, China, Israel, post-socialist countries, agrarian reforms, cooperatives, family households, agroholdings.

About the authors

Zvi Lerman, DSc (Economics), Professor Emeretus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 76100, Israel, Rehovot, 12.
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Alexander M. Nikulin, PhD (Economics), Head of the Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy ans Public Administration; Head of the Chayanov Research Center, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. 119571, Moscow, Vernadskogo Prosp., 82.
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