Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929–1941

by David L. Hoffmann

During the 1930's, 23 million peasants left their villages and moved to Soviet cities, where they comprised almost half the urban population and more than half the nation's industrial workers. Drawing on previously inaccessible archival materials, David L. Hoffmann shows how this massive migration to the cities―an influx unprecedented in world history―had major consequences for the nature of the Soviet system and the character of Russian society even today. Hoffmann focuses on events in Moscow between the launching of the industrialization drive in 1929 and the outbreak of war in 1941. He reconstructs the attempts of Party leaders to reshape the social identity and behavior of the millions of newly urbanized workers, who appeared to offer a broad base of support for the socialist regime. The former peasants, however, had brought with them their own forms of cultural expression, social organization, work habits, and attitudes toward authority. Hoffmann demonstrates that Moscow's new inhabitants established social identities and understandings of the world very different from those prescribed by Soviet authorities. Their refusal to conform to the authorities' model of a loyal proletariat thwarted Party efforts to construct a social and political order consistent with Bolshevik ideology. The conservative and coercive policies that Party leaders adopted in response, he argues, contributed to the Soviet Union's emergence as an authoritarian welfare state.

Genres: Soviet History, History, Russia

Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Dr. David L. Hoffmann is a historian and an expert in Russian, Soviet, and East European history. His other interests include Environment, Health, Technology, and Science, as well as Power, Culture, and the State. Since 2017 he has been Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of History at the Ohio State University.

Hoffman received his B.A. in history from Lawrence University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Russian History from Columbia University.

Reviews

[Nikhil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exemplary study on the transformations seen when millions leave rural life behind for urban industrial society. It's hard to find other books that cover as many facets of the lives of rural-urban migrants, and it's even more impressive here given the setting and data limitations.