Peasant children and adolescents in the agrarian protests of 1905-1907

Abstract

The article considers the participation of village children and adolescents in the agrarian movement of 1905- 1907 as a part of the study of the role of the “generation of revolutionary change” in the peasant revolution of 1902-1922. The study aims at the historical justification of Danilov-Shanin's concept through generational history combined with peasant studies and interdisciplinary approach. The author focuses on the underage peasants' participation in the agrarian turmoil of 1905-1907, based on the archival documents and media materials. Police and governor's reports and court records show that children and adolescents participated in such forms of peasant protest as destruction and arson of landlords' fields and estates, which is evidenced by deaths and injuries of rural children during punitive actions and by illegal actions of rural adolescents mentioned in investigative cases, court proceedings and newspaper articles. Thus, rural children were observers of protests, while rural adolescents played an active role, sometimes including the role of rioters. Such a participation of children and adolescents in the peasant movement was determined by the nature of collective actions in the peasant community and by the peasant traditional attitude to ‘alien' property. The experience of peasant protest was used by the younger rural generation during the ‘black redistribution' of 1917.