“...To determine the composition of the peasantry meant therefore to determine the fate of one’s social-revolutionary party. For the Social Democrats the issue was resolved. Back in the mid-80s and early 90s, zemstvo statistics collected a lot of material that clearly proved that there was no trace of the former peasant farmer left. The factory industry and the growth of capitalism in agriculture managed to stratify the peasantry into several groups, different in their wealth and in their interests...”