Tatiana Voronina holds a PhD in history from the European University in Saint Petersburg and the University of Zurich. She is an independent scholar who specializes in the social and cultural history of the late Soviet period.Maeve Zimmerbaum is a graduate student and scholar of Russian literature specializing in Russian symbolism.

• Translator’s NotesAbbreviationsList of Photos Introduction Part I. Being Rural in the USSR1. Ruralism in the State Discourse of Developed Socialism 2. Staying Rural: Ex-Peasants and IdentitiesPart II. Rural Schools3. The Colonization of Rural Knowledge Begins 4. Education is Enlightenment, Ignorance is Darkness5. On the Margins of Vologda Villages: Poor-Performing and “Mentally-Deficient” StudentsPart III. Agrarian Institutes: "High Modernity" in the Rural Outback.6. Cadres for the Village 7. Molochnoe: Urban Meets RuralPart IV. The Rural Komsomol and the Reproduction of Inequality8. Modernity’s Conductor and Hostages of Backwardness9. The Invisible Komsomol: Kolkhoz and Sovkhoz VLKSM OrganizationsConclusionBibliography

Tatiana Voronina holds a PhD in history from the European University in Saint Petersburg and the University of Zurich. She is an independent scholar who specializes in the social and cultural history of the late Soviet period.Maeve Zimmerbaum is a graduate student and scholar of Russian literature specializing in Russian symbolism.

• Translator’s NotesAbbreviationsList of Photos Introduction Part I. Being Rural in the USSR1. Ruralism in the State Discourse of Developed Socialism 2. Staying Rural: Ex-Peasants and IdentitiesPart II. Rural Schools3. The Colonization of Rural Knowledge Begins 4. Education is Enlightenment, Ignorance is Darkness5. On the Margins of Vologda Villages: Poor-Performing and “Mentally-Deficient” StudentsPart III. Agrarian Institutes: "High Modernity" in the Rural Outback.6. Cadres for the Village 7. Molochnoe: Urban Meets RuralPart IV. The Rural Komsomol and the Reproduction of Inequality8. Modernity’s Conductor and Hostages of Backwardness9. The Invisible Komsomol: Kolkhoz and Sovkhoz VLKSM OrganizationsConclusionBibliography

Tatiana Voronina holds a PhD in history from the European University in Saint Petersburg and the University of Zurich. She is an independent scholar who specializes in the social and cultural history of the late Soviet period.Maeve Zimmerbaum is a graduate student and scholar of Russian literature specializing in Russian symbolism.

• Translator’s NotesAbbreviationsList of Photos Introduction Part I. Being Rural in the USSR1. Ruralism in the State Discourse of Developed Socialism 2. Staying Rural: Ex-Peasants and IdentitiesPart II. Rural Schools3. The Colonization of Rural Knowledge Begins 4. Education is Enlightenment, Ignorance is Darkness5. On the Margins of Vologda Villages: Poor-Performing and “Mentally-Deficient” StudentsPart III. Agrarian Institutes: "High Modernity" in the Rural Outback.6. Cadres for the Village 7. Molochnoe: Urban Meets RuralPart IV. The Rural Komsomol and the Reproduction of Inequality8. Modernity’s Conductor and Hostages of Backwardness9. The Invisible Komsomol: Kolkhoz and Sovkhoz VLKSM OrganizationsConclusionBibliography