Bankruptcies and lenders of the Russian Empire. Debt, property, and law during Tolstoy"s time

Despite the fact that informal economic relations affected almost all aspects of the daily life of the Russian Empire of the XIX century and served as the most important element of the public structure, their knowledge outside the narrow circle of special literature is extremely weak. The book of S. Antonova tells in detail about the world of creditors and debtors in the transitional period from the conservative rule of Nicholas I to the era of great reforms. The bank loan in the Russian Empire of the mid -19th century was not available to everyone, but private loans had widespread. The author carefully builds a historical context and demonstrates how social and cultural factors - respectability, social and marital status, honor, honesty, success - influenced the institution of private lending. In his work, S. Antonov uses the numerous court cases of the 1850-1860s, in which a variety of characters appear: men and women, scammers and people of honor, usurors and gamblers, merchants, aristocrats and serfs. The study of their relations in the framework of the loan culture leads the author to new conclusions regarding the system of private property and the legal system in Russia of the 19th century. Sergey Antonov - teacher of Russian history at Yale University in the USA