Social and political activity of Voronezh Governorate peasants in 1917: cooperation with the authorities and geography of reduced conflicts

The research is based on data on acts of cooperation of various peasant population categories with the revolutionary authorities. The relevance of the problem lies in the minimal study of these issues, since historiography studied mainly the conflict behavior of peasants. We point to the presence of a large number of forms of interaction between peasants both with the February and October authorities in 1917. Using the methods of textual analysis we givethe analysis of the welcoming telegrams to the State Duma. An intermediate conclusion was made that the desire of the peasants to interact with the authorities did not lead directly to a decrease in the social conflict degree. Attention is drawn to the presence in 1905–1907 and 1917 so-called “zones of low activity” of peasant revolts. Asking the question about the reasons for the existence of such zones, we turn to the comparative analysis of the situation at the county-volost level (using the example of Ostrogozhsky and Bogucharsky districts), concluding that the traditional explanation of the existence of such zones with a small share of private land ownership does not fully explain the situation. An explanation of the emerging situation is offered by a more complex of socio-economic, socio-political and socio-everyday factors, as well as source problems.