The myth of the urban peasant

This paper explores,the 'myth of the urban peasant: the widespread belief t hat urban Russian households are surviving the collapse of employment and m oney incomes by turning to subsistence agriculture. On the basis of the ana lysis of official and survey data the paper shows that although many urban households grow food in their garden plots, those with low money incomes ar e the least likely to do so, while subsistence production is a complement r ather than an alternative to paid employment. Moreover, those who do grow t heir own food work long hours for very little return, spending no less of t heir money income on buying food than do those who grow nothing. The implic ation is that dacha use is a leisure activity of the better-off rather than a survival strategy of the poor. Regional data suggests that urban agricul tural production persists in those regions in which commercial agriculture and monetised relations are least developed which, it is surmised, retain m emories of past shortages.