In the period following the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, Russia began to industrialize, and peasants, especially peasants of the Central Industrial Region around Moscow, increasingly began to interact with a market economy. in response to a growing need for cash and declining opportunities to earn it at home, thousands of peasant men and women left their villages to earn wages elsewhere, many in the cities of Moscow or St. Petersburg.

The significance and consequences of peasant women's migration is the subject of this book. Drawing on a wealth of new archival data, which contains first-person accounts of peasant women's experiences, the book provides the reader with a detailed account of the move from the village to the city. Unlike previous studies this one looks at the impact of migration on the peasantry, and at the experience of peasant workers in nearby factories, as well as in distant cities.

Case studies explore the effects of industrialization and urbanization on the relationship of the migrant to the peasant household, and on family life and personal relations. They demonstrate the ambiguous consequences of change for women: while some found new and better opportunities, many more experienced increased hardship and risk. By illuminating the personal dimensions of economic and social change, this book provides a fresh perspective on the social history of late Imperial Russia