Warriors and Peasants (St Antony's)

"Warriors and Peasants investigates the lives of the Don Cossacks, the largest of all the Cossack communities, in late Imperial Russia. It attempts to understand why the Cossacks believed that they were a unique community. Arguing that the uniqueness of Cossack culture lies in their dual identity deriving from the Mongol/Tatar nomads and the sedentary Slavic peoples, it examines Cossack life and communities in a period of prolonged crisis and instability. Population increase, sharp rises in the cost of military service and a wider cultural modernization ongoing within the Empire threatened to destroy the Cossack way of life. By focusing on the economic impact of the crisis, the structure of authority within Cossack communities, and the relationship between family, kin and community, the book concludes that the Cossack tradition, far from being on the point of dissolution, was by 1914 among the most vibrant within the Empire. As well as opening up new perspectives on Cossack history such as the impact of environmental degradation, the vitality of local government and the relationship between men and women, the book also offers pointers to Cossack behaviour during the Russian Civil War."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.