NUCLEAR PEASANT FAMILY OF THE SARATOV PROVINCE (ACCORDING TO DATA OF THE ZEMSKY AGRICULTURAL CENSUS 1880 – 90s)

Abstract

This article considers the simple family of the Saratov province of the Russian Empire at the end of the XIX century. The scientific point of view suggests that as an industrial society develops, a complex, multi-generational family gives way to a simple family consisting of spouses and children. This thesis can be checked on the example of a typical agricultural region. For analysis, we used materials from the Zemstvo agricultural censuses of the 1880s – 90s, stored in the state archive of the Saratov region. This source contains very interesting information of a historical and demographic nature, but it is poorly involved in the scientific literature. As a result of the analysis of the numerical and structural simple families, the author concludes that this type of household dominated the rural population of the Saratov province at the end of the 19th century, accounting for 45 % of all households. At the same time, simple families were numerically inferior to difficult ones, uniting 33 % of the population. In addition, one can note the small average size of a simple family (4.4 people) and a relatively small number of children (the most common option is 2 children per family).