Introduction

My long-term empirical study, the generalized findings of which are presented in this monograph, applies exclusively to the provincial society in Russia. It is not the society of large- or even medium-sized cities. It is the society of small towns and rural districts—since rural districts surround the small towns, “localities,” forming together an organic continuity, both spatial and social. Even the small towns (as well as considerable areas of many medium-sized cities) are no or little different from our villages. In this sense, the rural district imposes its way of life, the material and spiritual practices of the population, on the small town, thus “absorbing” (devouring) it. The very system of household livelihoods in small towns is similar, and in some places identical, to that in rural areas. This was so throughout all the decades of my research—especially pronounced in the late 1980s and during the crisis of the 1990s; and still the case at the beginning of the 2020s. Therefore, I believe it reasonable to extrapolate the records of my observations covering 300 of the total 1700 local communities to a significant part of Russia’s population. This part ranges from two-fifths to half of the entire population of the country. In fact, this is provincial Russia.