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Reviews
In the summer of 1924, the Bolshevik Party called on scholars, the police, the courts, and state officials to turn their attention to the villages of Russia. The subsequent campaign to 'face the countryside' generated a wealth of intelligence that fed into the regime's sense of alarmed conviction that the countryside was a space outside Bolshevik control.
Richly rooted in archival sources, including local and central-level secret police reports, detailed cases of the local and provincial courts, government records, and newspaper reports, Face to the Village is a nuanced study of the everyday workings of the Russian village in the 1920s. Local-level officials emerge in Tracy McDonald's study as vital and pivotal historical actors, existing between the Party's expectations and peasant interests. McDonald's careful exposition of the relationships between the urban centre and the peasant countryside brings us closer to understanding the fateful decision to launch a frontal attack on the countryside in the fall of 1929 under the auspices of collectivization.
Tracy McDonald is an associate professor in the Department of History at McMaster University.
'What sets Face to the Village apart from other studies of the Soviet countryside? Tracy McDonald provides engaging arguments on the loyalties of local officials and the practices of Soviet institutions, which she supports through extensive digging in local archives and an impressive grasp of the secondary literature. Face to the Village is filled with exceptionally colourful descriptions of local structures such as the courts and the police, and offers a unique entry into the dynamics of Soviet provinces in a time of ferment and upheaval.'
Ben Eklof, Department of History, University of Indiana, Bloomington
'Face to the Village presents a portrait of the Soviet countryside that is not only rich with detail, but that also provides rare insight into the tensions that shaped collectivization. Tracy McDonald extends the scholarship on the late Imperial Russian peasantry into the early Soviet era in a way that has never been done before. The links she finds between the development of the soviets, local governments, and villages are absolutely fascinating.'Aaron Retish, Department of History, Wayne State University
‘Tracy McDonald's excellent book offers both authentic details and an illuminating set of important general conclusions drawn from close observation of a fascinating layer of rural experience in the early Soviet Union…. Face to the village will appeal to a broad array of students and scholars interested in early Soviet political and social history and peasant studies.’Brian Bonhomme, The Russian Review vol. 71:01:2012
