Abstract: The article studies home crafts as an element of peasant economy within the framework of their general state before the Russian Empire’s fall in 1917. The author examines two main aspects. These are the number of home crafts in three volosts of Nizhegorodskaya Guberniya in 1889 and 1917 as well as the use of uezd 1917 census data collations to study the state of home crafts. Emphasis is laid on 1917 census data providing for home crafts state analysis on the basis of primary data. The author statistically analyzes the state of home crafts in three volosts (micro analysis) and cartographically analyzes the state of home crafts in the Russian Empire considering uezd 1917 census data collations (macro analysis). The main conclusions are as follows. Firstly, by the summer of 1917 not all home crafts but male ones (especially metalwork) had been in depression. Secondly, the uezd 1917 census data are a non-reliable source to study home crafts. The main author’s contribution is the introduction of 1917 census primary data (household cards for three volosts of Nizhegorodskaya Guberniya) into scientific discourse. The research novelty is the comparison of home crafts state within 28 year period from 1889 to 1917 that provided for portraying the state of home crafts in the last year of the Russian Empire.

Abstract: The article studies home crafts of the Russian Empire. The territorial framework covers the Russian Empire as a whole including the central guberniyas, Asian Russia, the Caucasus, the Kingdom of Poland and Finland. The study was carried out on the territorial basis. The author analyzes statistics and reveals the home craft distribution level throughout gubernyas and oblasts using localization indices. At the second stage of the study home crafts are analyzed according to groups and types. Guberniyas and centers with prevailing home crafts are identified. The author employs interdisciplinary approach, localization indices, MS Excel statistical, spatial and statistical analysis in the MapInfo geoinformation system. It is the first time in history when home craft localization indices are used within the frames of the whole empire and indices are compared in relation to home craft population and factory workers. The data obtained allowed the author to identify 4 groups of guberniyas. The first group (Kamchatskaya Oblast) totally lacked home crafts. The second group covers 35 regions with the low home craft level scattered throughout the empire. The third group with the medium level of home craft localization includes 21 regions that are also scattered. The fourth group counts 9 guberniyas located in the northern and the central industrial parts of the empire, Tobolskaya Guberniya and Semipalatinskaya Oblast. More than half of the 32 guberniyas and oblasts understudy had low indices of the factory industry localization thus casting doubts on wide-spread conclusions about the decline of home crafts throughout the empire before the First World War.