Property Consciousness of the Russian Peasant: A Rethink on the Labor Principle Theory Cover Image

近代ロシア農民の所有観念-勤労原理学説再考-
Property Consciousness of the Russian Peasant: A Rethink on the Labor Principle Theory

Author(s): Hiroshi Yoshida
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Slavic Research Center

Summary/Abstract: The labor principle (trudovoe nachalo) is the prevailing theory in the study of Russian peasant customary law. The essence of this theory is that labor and labor alone is the source of rights to the use and enjoyment of property. But in contemporary debate, there was another explanation of the structure and characteristics of peasant law, which emphasized the emergence of private property in the post-reform period. In this paper the author puts the theory of labor principle to the test by rethinking the process by which the theory evolved and by comparing it with the other contemporary explanation. The study of Russian peasant customary law using concrete materials began in the mid-19th century. The first to point out the existence of special legal systems in the peasant world were N.Kalachev and F.Barykov. What they found was the special significance of labor in Russian village life and that family was regarded as a small economical cooperative association (artel’) rather than a kin union. From this they concluded that the Russian peasantry had little interest in private property and there prevailed common ownership by the family or the peasant commune. Later, A.Efimenko and I.Orshanskii confirmed this opinion using cantonal court decisions of the 1860-70s, gathered by the State Commission of the reform of the cantonal court. But the main point of the theory of labor principle was constructed originally on the materials of the pre-emancipation period when the extended or multiple household was the basic family unit.

  • Issue Year: 2000
  • Issue No: 47
  • Page Range: 157-179
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Japanese