An epidemic of celibacy among Russian peasants. Rescue in the XVIII-XIX centuries

In the public consciousness, there has long been an idea of ​​the Russian peasantry as a faithful stronghold of patriarchal-grass values ​​dictating to a woman marriage and unquestioning submission to her husband. The study of the historian D. Bushnella shows that by no means the entire peasant world of the XVIII-XIX centuries corresponded to such a representation. The author’s focus is the life of peasants from the midst of the Old Believers of Spasov’s consent, who widely practiced rejection of marriage. The number of Savior in the middle of the 19th century reached at least a million people, and they settled mainly along the Volga - from Yaroslavl to Astrakhan, so their lifestyle significantly influenced the economy, demography and the rural life of this large region. The widespread of celibacy among the rescue, according to the author, led to the intervention of the nobles in the marriage behavior of their serfs. John Bushnell - Professor of the North -Western University in the USA (Northwestern University)