The peasantry

• Like the landed elites the peasantry was also divided. At the top were the kulaks who bought up land perhaps with the aid of loans from the peasants' Land bank.
• Kulaks sometimes acted as 'pawn brokers' to the less fortunate buying their grain in the autumn to provide them with money to tide them over the winter but selling it back at inflated prices in the spring.
• When their clients could not afford the repayments the Kulaks sometimes accepted land instead.
• In contrast the poorest peasants found life getting harsher as they turned into landless labourers dependent on others. Living standards varied throughout the country. Areas of former state peasants tended to be better off than those of the emancipated privately owned serfs
• Average life expectancy was around 27 years for males and 29 years for women. Economic change failed to improve the life of peasantry and maybe affected them for the worse.