Political and apolitical dimensions of Russian rural development: Populism “from above” and narodnik small deeds “from below”

From the tsarist times to the present, the ideological aspects of various versions of Russian populism are closely related to rural development issues. This chapter considers essential distinctions and terminology in Russian interpretations of populism and the narodnik movement as still represented in political discourse and everyday rural life. The authors identify two main types of contemporary Russian populism: populism “from above” is a superficial, conservative movement, whereas populism “from below” is rooted in the democratic, historical tradition of the narodnik movement. The first part of the chapter presents different personal, rural populisms “from above” - of President Putin and his supporters and opponents (Savchenko, Grudinin and Melnichenko). The second part of the chapter considers the revival of the narodnik movement in the framework of the “theory of small deeds” - micro-initiatives of local, rural development “from below”. The analysis of this traditional communitarian movement is based on some Chayanov school ideas. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Pavel Pospeĕch, Eirik Magnus Fuglestad, Elisabete Figueiredo; individual chapters, the contributors.