The Tsar's Famines: Economic policy and famine in late Imperial Russia, 1891-1911

The turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century witnessed transformational changes in the Russian economy, marked by rapid integration into global markets and state-led industrialization.

In the same period, Russian society faced dramatic crises, the most devastating of which were a series of famines that cost millions of lives.

Both dimensions of development have been subject to extensive study, but the fundamental disconnect between these historiographies leaves a yawning knowledge gap.

TsarsFAMINE will conduct a systematic examination of famine intensity and famine relief strategies in regions of the Russian Empire between 1891 and 1911, constructing the first comprehensive database of demographic and agricultural statistics at the county level.

Using this novel and unique database, a multi-variate analysis will identify the causes of famine including the potentially significant role of trade policy.

The project will then combine quantitative and qualitative sources and analytical methods to examine the effectiveness of different famine-relief strategies adopted in different provinces of Russia over the twenty-year period. TsarsFAMINE advance the state-of-the-art in several ways.

It will improve our understanding of the deeper socio-economic outcomes of the state policies that propelled the industrialization of late imperial Russia.

It will contribute to the broader literature on the effectiveness of famine relief exploiting a richly documented historical case study with significant variation in famine intensity and famine relief policies.

The project promises important insights for development experts and international institutions that engage in the study of modern famines and engage in global famine relief.

TsarsFAMINE will be a major accelerator in the career of the researcher, who will benefit from relevant expertise and training opportunities at the host institutions, expand her international network, and advance her research agenda.