Poverty is Not a Vice: Charity, Society, and the State in Imperial Russia

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; THE RUSSIAN CULTURE OF GIVING: The Orthodox Perspective on Wealth and Poverty; Ideals of Personal Charity; Piety in Practice: Popular Beliefs and Customs; Conclusion; THE AUTOCRACY AND POOR RELIEF, 1682-1861: Poor Relief in Muscovite Russia; 'Indolent Rogues' and the Natioanl Interes: The Policies of Peter the Great; Catherine the Great and the Secularization of Relief; Government policy on Begging, 1762-1861; The Rural Poor before Emanicpation; Conclusion; ESTATES, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, AND POOR RELIEF, 1861-1914: Poor Relief in the Drafting of the Great Reforms; Alma versus Almshouses: Peasant Communal Assistance after Emancipation; The Estate System and Mutual Aid; The Mestvo Contribution to Poor Relief; Public Assistance by Municipal Governments; Conclusion; THE AUTOCRACY AND POOR LAW REFORM, 1891-1914: Creting a Cadre of Experts: Three Portraits; Government Apathy and teh Impact of the 1891 Famine; The Grot Commission, 1892-1897; The Poor Law Reform Projects of 1898; Opposition and Deadlock.