Problems of the Expanding of Peasant Land Resources in the Works of the Special Council on the Needs of the Agricultural Industry (Based on the Materials of Ryazan Province)

The article is devoted to the problems of the agrarian sector reforms in the Russian Empire in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. It is proved that the main purpose of the Special Council on the Needs of the Agricultural Industry was to identify the economic problems of certain regions in the country, and its priority was an extension of peasants' land ownership. Historiography materials show that the main source for studying the functioning of the Council in Ryazan Province is Proceedings of the Local Committee on the Needs of the Agricultural Industry. The committee had a complex structure and functioned at the provincial and district levels. Based on the materials of agrarian statistics, the author reveals the specificity of the economic development of Ryazan Province in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Allotted land use, adverse natural and climate conditions, three-field crop rotation, the limited set of crops and crisis in the livestock sector had a negative influence on the functioning of the local peasant farms. The lack of free cash and crisis in cattle breeding slowed peasants' purchase of plots with the help of mortgage institutions and slowed the leasing of plots. The main result of 1861 was that farmers had little land and community economy was preserved. Based on the materials of central and local archives, it is found that Ryazan councilors' attitude to the peasant community depended on personal political preferences and productive capacity of soil of a particular region: councilors who lived in agricultural districts (Ranenburg committee) wanted to preserve the peasant community, while councilors who lived in poor farmlands (Yegoryevsk, Ryazan committees) wanted to create individual peasant farms. The economic preferences of Ryazan peasants were related to the level of their finance: rich proprietors wanted to destroy the peasant community, and poor peasants wanted to preserve it. It is revealed that the common point in the local district committee proposals was relying on financial support of the government and district council, a progressive demand was to introduce proportional taxation, depending on the quality of the land. The provision on the liquidation of the peasant community and the creation of individual peasant farms in Ryazan Province was not included in the final note of the Local Committee on the Needs of the Agricultural Industry. The author concludes that local councilors indicated economic problems primary not only for a particular region, but also for the entire Russian Empire. Proceedings of the Local Committee on the Needs of the Agricultural Industry anticipated the fundamental principles of Stolypin's agrarian reform.

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