Leonard Friesen presents a study of the transformation of New Russia—the region north of the Black and Azov seas—from its conquest by the Russian Empire in the late eighteenth century to the revolutionary tumult of 1905. Friesen is particularly interested in the dynamic and multifaceted relations between the region’s peasants, European colonists, and Russian estate owners. He gives special attention to the settlement process whereby once free peasants were enserfed within a generation, as well as the period of servile emancipation after 1861, when the paths of the region’s agriculturalists converged in unexpected ways. Overall, Friesen sees the region as vital to an understanding of the empire as a whole. He demonstrates how peasants, nobles, and estate owners were key actors in a series of rural revolutions that eventually threatened the empire itself.

This book contributes to our understanding of Imperial Russia, as well as contemporary Ukraine, by describing and analyzing rural developmental patterns over time. It explores how, when, and why agriculturalists made adjustments to long-established agrarian and social practices, and provides a fresh perspective on the link between the end of empire and the rural developments that preceded it.

Contents
List of Maps and Figures
Notes on Names
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 On the Eve of Conquest 
2 Something Old, Something New: 
Settlement and Adaptation on the New Russian Frontier
Introduction
Conquest and Integration
New Russian Estates and the Onset of Serfdom, 1774-1861
The Settlement of State Lands
The Settlement of European Colonists
Balkan Colonists
Mennonites and Germans
New Russia in the Round: The Demographics of Change
Conclusion
3 Land and Livelihood: 
Sheep Husbandry and the New Russian Frontier
Introduction
Wheat and Cattle
Sheep
Peasants and "Safety First" Sheep Breeding
Colonists, Estate Owners, and Fine Fleeced Sheep Breeding
The Crisis of Fine Fleeced Sheepbreeding, and Responses
Conclusion
4 A Revolution in Landed Relations and Land Use, 1840-1880
Introduction
Land and Labour: The Background to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1861
The Crimean War and its Aftermath
Servile Responses to Late Serfdom
The Emancipation and Immediate Reaction
Life After Emancipation
Germans, Mennonites and the "Great Dispute over Land"
Conclusion
5 Cities, Rails and Markets: 
New Russia's Transformation Beyond the Fields, 1850-1900 
Introduction
New Russia's Demographic Explosion
Odessa and the Cities of the Coast 
New Russia's Industrial Revolution: Katerynoslav and the Donbas
6 Weeds in the Wheat Field: 
Peasants and Struggle Toward Intensive Agricultural Economies in the Late Nineteenth Century
Introduction
Peasant Economies at Mid-Century: "Safety First"
The Acquisition of New Implements After 1870
A Crisis Unfolds
The Turnaround in Peasant Agriculture
The Example of Others
Expanding Markets
Markets and the Development of Intensive Garden Economies
The Emergence of an Economic Infrastructure
Zemstvos, Teachers, and Depots
Conclusion
7 Revolting Newlyweds:
The Peasant Obshchina and "Land Hunger" After 1870
Introduction: Peasant life after "The Great Reforms"
Storms and Solutions in former State Peasant villages
Former Serf Villages, and Alternate Strategies
Social Relations on the Eve of Revolution
Conclusion
8 A Fitting Conclusion? 1905 in New Russia
Introduction
Agitators in the Village: Myths, Rumors, and Outsiders
1905 in New Russia - An Overview
The Restoration of Order
Conclusion
Abbreviations
Notes
References
Glossary
Index