“Burds’s book is essential reading for all those with interests in the peasantry and economic development.”
—Russian Review

“This book is a profoundly original work on the Russian peasantry of the end of the nineteenth century. It replaces both the Soviet view (peasants become workers, full stop) and the Western view (peasants become workers, full stop) with a much more subtle one, in which village culture is treated seriously as an influence on peasant (and peasant-worker) consciousness.”
—Slavonic Review

“Burds has done prodigious work in archives and published sources; he has travelled to rural as well as urban archives, visited libraries and rural museums, and his book draws upon a wealth of new documentation and features wonderful illustrations. His data base is extraordinary rich, many of his anecdotes and examples are marvelous. . . . He explores little known and highly significant aspects of village life . . . and offers original interpretations of many key events, not the least of them the revolution of 1905.”
—Journal of Social History