"Rural fires were an even more persistent scourge than famine in late imperial Russia, as Cathy Frierson shows in this first comprehensive study. Destroying almost 3 billion rubles' worth of property in European Russia between 1860 and 1904, accidental and arson fires acted as a brake on Russia's economic development while subjecting peasants to perennial shocks to their physical and emotional condition. The fire question especially captured the attention of educated, progressive Russians, who perceived it as a key obstacle to Russia's becoming a modern society on the European model.". "More than anything else, this history of fire and arson in rural European Russia is a history of their cultural meanings in the late imperial campaign for modernity. Frierson shows the special associations of women with fire in rural life and in elite understanding of fire in the Russian countryside. Her study of the fire question demonstrates both peasant agency in fighting fire and educated Russians' hardening conviction that peasants stood in the way of Russia's advent into the company of prosperous, rational, civilized nations."--BOOK JACKET.