" . . . a readable and enlightening account of peasant life." -Academic Library Book Review"The picture of peasant life is presented in all its harshness and crudity." -Canadian Slavonic Papers" . . . Semenova's account provides a vivid picture of peasant life at the turn of the century." -Irish Slavonic Studies" . . . a marvelous source for the social history of Russian peasant society in the years before the revolution. . . . The translation is superb." -Steven HochA unique firsthand portrait of peasant family life as recorded by Olga Semyonova Tian-Shanskaia, an ethnographer and painter who spent four years at the turn of the twentieth century observing the life and customs of villagers in a central Russian province.