This book, an examination of the debate among rural scholars, explores the controversy that divided social scientists studying the economy and society of the Soviet peasant during the 1920s. It also explores the theoretical orientation of the Agrarian-Marxists and their empirical work.

Susan Gross Solomon received a doctorate in political science from Columbia University and is now associate professor in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Toronto. Dr. Solomon studied at Moscow University in 1968-1969.

Preface -- The Problem and Its Setting -- Introduction -- Rural Social Studies in the 1920s -- The First Stage of the Controversy, 1923 to 1927 -- Organization-Production Theory -- Organization-Production Research -- Agrarian-Marxist Theory -- Agrarian-Marxist Research -- The Second Stage of the Controversy, 1927 to mid-1928 -- The Differentiation Debate -- Controversy in a New Key -- The Resolution of the Controversy -- Aftermath and Conclusion -- The Politicization of Rural Social Studies -- Reconsiderations -- Organization-Production Scholars -- Agrarian-Marxist (and Other Marxist) Scholars -- List of Research Reports -- The "Minions"