A Day in the Life of a Russian Peasant
This November, don’t miss an online lecture with Stephan Sveshnikov, presented in a very unusual format. Step into the shoes of a Russian peasant for an entire day, and immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, and struggles of 19th-century rural life.
The history of the Russian peasantry is often focused on catastrophes like famine and Stalinist Collectivization, or dominated by literary figures drawn from Tolstoy and Pushkin. But what was regular daily life really like for the largest class in Imperial Russia? This lecture imagines a day in the nineteenth century, set in a peasant village in the Russian North. What food was on the table? Who milked the cows? What games did the children play?
In reconstructing our picture of a northern Russian village, we will consider the role of the parish and provincial clergy in rural life, animals that lived alongside humans (both domestic and wild), the smells and sounds of rural life, music and courtship, food and clothing, and the social hierarchy of the village household and larger community.
About the Speaker
Stephan Sveshnikov is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History at Yale University. His research focuses on Russian village life and on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. He has traveled widely in rural Russia and the former Soviet Union, both on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2018-2019 and more recently to the mountains of Azerbaijan as a Yale Global Food Fellow (2024). He is a contributing writer at the agricultural magazine Offrange and a Graduate Fellow in the Life Worth Living Program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture.
Connecting with Zoom
This virtual lecture is presented live via Zoom. Registered users will be emailed a link to join this Zoom program. To get started, please download Zoom on your chosen device and explore the Frequently Asked Questions.
This program will be recorded and posted to the museum’s YouTube channel.