The economy of peasants of the Russian empire in the late XIX - early XX centuries through the eyes of contemporaries

Introduction. Analyzing the causes of political cataclysms of the Russian state in the early ХХ century, most researchers note such an important reason as the unresolved agrarian issue, which led to the growth of peasant discontent, and they were the largest social group in the country. The purpose of the article is to attempt to analyze the problems of peasant farming in Russia at the turn of the XIX - early XX centuries.