Colleen M. Moore

“At War with the State” explores how the mobilization of the Russian peasant population for the First World War undermined peasants’ faith in the autocracy and transformed their understanding of state power. The autocracy’s reliance on peasant resources to sustain the war effort engendered among peasants the expectation that the state would recognize their sacrifices by safeguarding their welfare. Based on research in Russian archives, this project reconstructs the ways in which the autocracy’s failure to satisfy peasant needs rendered its authority illegitimate in the eyes of the peasantry. The grant will support the completion of the book manuscript.