The Famine of 1891–1892 in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate — a disaster that followed the drought and crop failure of 1891 and lasted until the new harvest of summer 1892[1]. The hardest hit were the peasants of the southern grain-producing districts of the governorate[2]; the most acute events unfolded in Lukoyanov Uyezd, where a dispute over whether there was a famine at all escalated into a conflict between the uyezd authorities and the provincial ones[1]. This story was told by V. G. Korolenko in his book "In a Year of Famine," while photographer Dmitriev documented it in the album "The Failed Harvest Year of 1891–92 in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate"[3].
The Crop Failure of 1891
The drought began with the low-snowfall winter of 1890/91; spring passed without rain, and summer brought intense heat. The harvest was lost, and grain prices on the markets rose three- to fourfold[2]. Forests burned; one correspondent of the provincial zemstvo board, a rural priest, wrote that "all the peat bogs and marshes" had burned and that "the grain shortage has been felt for three years running"[1]. In all, the statistical bureau of the board received 744 reports from villages in 1891, and the compiled responses painted a picture of decline in farming, trades, and equipment[1]. That same year, the statistical division of the provincial zemstvo board published the book "The Harvest of 1891 in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate"[4][5].
The disaster was nationwide: the famine swept across 29 governorates, affecting 33–35 million people; the death toll across the country is estimated at between 400,000 and 600,000, and the treasury spent 151.4 million rubles on food and seed loans[6].
Famine by Uyezd
The main hotbed of famine denial was the "far corner" of the governorate — Lukoyanovskiy Uyezd, along the Alatyr, Tyosha, and Rudnya rivers — even though in the Central Statistical Committee's compendium Harvest of 1891 the column for rye yield against it reads "00." The poorest villages there were considered to be Pralevka and Dubrovka: "no better than Pralevka's" became the district's measure of destitution[1]. In the neighboring Sergachsky Uyezd, residents received two to three times as much; at the office of zemstvo chief A. M. Yermolov, according to the peasants, they handed out forty pounds at a time, and the people of Lukoyanov asked: "Are we not subjects of the same tsar?"[1][3] The chairman of the Sergachsky Uyezd Zemstvo Board, A. I. Yepifanov, was awarded a silver medal for his work combating the famine[7]; Dmitriev opened public canteens in Sergach and Chornovskoye[8].
In Knyagininskiy Uyezd, grain was distributed on loan in Knyaginino and the village of Urga; seed grain was distributed in the non-county town of Pyansky Perevoz; and a public canteen operated in Bolshoe Murashkino[8]. The Vetluga side of Makaryevsky Uyezd normally purchased up to 240,000 poods of grain each year from Kostroma and Vyatka Governorates, but in 1891 exports from those regions were banned[1]. In Makaryevsky Uyezd, public-works crews floated rafts down the Kerzhenets, while in Lyskovo they unloaded a barge carrying food grain[8].
Dispute over the scale of the disaster
In the summer of 1891, the Lukoyanov authorities themselves were sounding the alarm. The district marshal of the nobility, M. A. Filosofov, wrote to the Governor on 1 June that without timely assistance "nothing could be expected but death by starvation, crime, and so forth." In July, an emergency session of the district zemstvo in Lukoyanov calculated the necessary loan at 4,700,000 rubles: the zemstvo chiefs Pushkin and Strugovshchikov estimated that no more than one percent of the population could feed themselves on their own means. The Statistical Bureau of the provincial board reduced the Lukoyanov needs to six hundred thousand, whereupon the district food commission — Filosofov, Pushkin, Strugovshchikov — "without explanation" refused half of the loan allocated by the government, three hundred thousand puds. In Nizhny, this was jokingly referred to as "the secession of Lukoyanov District"[1].
Governor N. M. Baranov initially held a position almost identical to Lukoyanov's, but by February 1892 he had accepted the conclusions of the zemstvo statisticians, headed by N. F. Annensky, and came over to the side of "feeding the people"[1]. Prince Meshchersky, writing in Grazhdanin, accused him of having "invented the famine in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate." On 29 March, Baranov himself set out for the district, compelled the zemstvo chief Pushkin to visit Pralevka and Dubrovka for the first time, and led the officials through the izbas of typhus patients. On 2 April he reported to the provincial food commission that in the Lukoyanov izbas, apart from the soup kitchens, he had not even encountered cockroaches: "a cockroach won't eat bread mixed with goosefoot"[1].
Relief
The government loan in Lukoyanov District was cut short: in the selo of Elfimovo, with 1,650 inhabitants, only six people received the full loan — thirty pounds a month — through to March[1]. The Special Committee under the chairmanship of the Tsesarevich declared in December 1891 that the activity of private benefactors "must by no means be constrained," and these provisions formed the basis of the charter of the provincial charitable committee. The Lukoyanov district board of trustees, by contrast, resolved on 19 February 1892 that soup kitchens could be opened only by zemstvo chiefs, and withheld funds sent to the benefactor Filatov for six soup kitchens[1].
At the end of February, Korolenko set out from Nizhny along the Arzamas road; he carried with him approximately one thousand rubles in donations received through the editorial office of Russkie Vedomosti, and an open letter from the provincial charitable committee. Baranov tried to dissuade him: "the district is completely serf-like… the entire police force is on their side." Korolenko opened his first soup kitchen on 11 March in Elfimov Maydan; the second, in Pichingushi, began operating the following day, by which time he had already left for Vasilev Maydan. He was forced to buy 275 puds of bread for the soup kitchens at one ruble seventy kopeks — "a terrible price"[1]. By mid-May, 43 public soup kitchens were operating in the district; in June and July, 17 more opened with his assistance[9]; according to other accounts, Korolenko himself opened all sixty[4].
Private assistance reached even the most remote corners. In Pochinki, a large soup kitchen seating two hundred and fifty was in operation, with those who could not get in crowding at the door; it had apparently been opened on the initiative of E. N. Strugovshchikova[1]. In the selo of Novaya Sloboda, S. S. Veshnyakova ran a public soup kitchen, and her sanitary staff worked throughout the district[3][8]. The deanery priest of the selo of Vasilev Maydan, G. N. Gulyaev — a pastor, in Korolenko's words, "in the true sense of the word" — helped him draw up lists of those in need at village assemblies[1]. A. I. Guchkov, the son of a Moscow manufacturer, upon learning of the famine returned from abroad and became the superintendent of a food relief district[1].
The municipal administration of Nizhny Novgorod purchased up to 200,000 puds of grain and sold flour at cost price, or even below; in the spring of 1892 a municipal public canteen opened, where a two-course hot meal cost 5 kopecks. For public works, the Special Conference allocated to the city a 500,000-ruble interest-free loan for 15 years and an outright grant of 50,000 rubles, and on 20 March 1892 the City Duma entrusted the works commission to Ya. Ye. Bashkirov[2]. Dmitriev photographed these works at the Pokhvalinskiy Descent, near the Kremlin and at the salt warehouses[8][10].
At the forestry public works in Lukoyanov Uyezd, farmhands unaccustomed to the saw earned 10–15 kopecks a day, while experienced woodcutters earned 40–50, and the cost of feeding oneself was around twenty[1]. In December 1891, the zemstvo supervisor of the 5th precinct of Nizhny Novgorod Uyezd, Ye. P. Yegorov, proposed to the provincial food commission that they buy up horses whose price had fallen "to almost the cost of a bread roll," feed them through winter, and sell them back to the peasants in spring with payment due in autumn; on 11 December, A. P. Chekhov advised him to announce a public subscription: "all the strength now lies with the ordinary person who gives fifty kopecks or a ruble"[11].
Typhus and Scurvy
Typhus had persisted in Lukoyanov Uyezd since 1885, and during the famine years the infection rate rose sharply. The zemstvo physician Erbshtein, contradicting at a meeting the prevailing view about the district's dire situation, read out the official figures — which told the opposite story[1]:
| Year | Typhoid cases | Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| 1886 | 398 | 24 |
| 1887 | 462 | 28 |
| 1888 | 1083 | 55 |
| 1889 | 1115 | 69 |
| 1890 | 993 | 68 |
| 1891 | 3731 | 198 |
| 1892, four months | 3988 | 200 |
The Sick and the Doctors
Assistant medical inspector D. F. Reshetillo telegraphed about a severe typhus outbreak in the selo of Saitovka, but medical inspector Yershov, sent by the Governor, reported that "the sanitary condition of the district is satisfactory"; both the district physician Erbshteyn and Reshetillo himself signed off on this conclusion. The Governor's own visit revealed that typhus in Saitovka had reached enormous proportions, and Baranov later publicly apologized to Reshetillo for not having believed his first telegram[1]. In Pralevka, Korolenko found a woman ill with scurvy in the izba (traditional wooden house) of Mikhail Suchkov; on April 14 he arranged increased relief payments for Maxim Savoskin, and on the 15th the Pralevka village elder reported his death[1]. The family of peasant Gorinov and the peasant woman Sinitsyna with her five-day-old infant in Naruksovo, and the Arbuzov family in Merlinovka — all stricken with typhus — are captured on the plates of Dmitriev's album[8].
"In a Year of Famine"
Korolenko wrote the first lines of his diary at midnight on February 25, 1892, in the village of Belenkaya on the Arzamas road, in an izba crowded with carters hauling grain to Lukoyanov. He had planned to stay a month, but spent three months in the district and then returned before the new harvest[1]. The main thread of the book became "famine in the village and the district's struggle with the provincial authorities," while his account of the people of Dubrovka and Pralevka, who had become "non-inhabitants," he hoped would bring "the question of the necessity of land reform to a head"[1].
The essays were published in Russkiye Vedomosti in 1892–1893 and in Russkoye Bogatstvo in 1893, and at the end of that same year appeared as a separate book[1]. During the author's lifetime the book went through seven separate editions[4]. On May 27, 1892, Korolenko submitted a "Dissenting Opinion" to the provincial food commission: the foundation of food-relief work must rest on "the principle of broad agricultural credit and the principle of insurance." He was supported by Annensky, while Baranov championed the principles of "strong authority"[1].
Dmitriev's Album
On April 14, 1892, Dmitriev received permission to photograph the southern districts of the province and a letter of recommendation to all police officers to "render Mr. Dmitriev every possible assistance"; 72 photographs from the series, shown at the World's Fair in Chicago, were awarded a gold medal[8]. With an 18×24-centimeter camera he traveled through nearly every district[12]. The album was published in 1893 by his own phototype studio: one page of text and 51 plates, among them public dining halls, the distribution of bread and seed loans, public works projects, a portrait of the chairman of the Sergachsky District council A. I. Yepifanov, and land captains A. M. Yermolov and P. V. Dmitriev with the volost elders under their authority[3][8]. Korolenko recognized in one of the photographs the Pralevka village elder, standing with a medal "for order's sake" beside a crowd of people eating[1][8].
The album is held at the Russian National Library and at the State Historical Museum (a set of 50 sheets)[3][10]; the library also has five large prints of the same 1892 photographs[13]. Dmitriev presented a complete copy to L. N. Tolstoy with an inscription on the binding: "To the great beacon of living thought and artistic creation, Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy" — it is now held at the State Museum of L. N. Tolstoy. Individual sheets are held at the Nizhny Novgorod Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve[8].
Aftermath
With the new harvest, the last of Korolenko's canteens closed, but cholera was already advancing from the lower Volga: on 27 July he was rushing to Rabotki, near which his family lived and where a cholera ward had been set up[1]. In Nizhny, cholera nearly derailed the public works; the duma divided the city into 14 districts, each with its own trustee[2]. Subsequently, food relief was taken away from the zemstvo, and the new food-supply statute, in Korolenko's words, took "all the shortcomings of the Baranovsky system without its brilliant aspects"[1]. The villages where Korolenko fought the famine are the subject of an article by local historian M. I. Suetnov (1905–1991), "In the Footsteps of V. G. Korolenko in Lukoyanovskiy Uyezd" (1973)[4][9].
Uyezds
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Lukoyanovsky Uyezd | 1891–1892 | The uyezd food commission, headed by marshal of the nobility M. A. Filosofov, refused three hundred thousand poods of government loans, even though 3,731 people fell ill with typhus in 1891 and 3,988 in the first four months of 1892. |
| Sergachsky Uyezd | 1891–1892 | Relief here was distributed at one pood per person; the canteens were organized by the local administration itself, and the first chairman of the uyezd zemstvo board, A. I. Yepifanov, received a silver medal for his efforts against the famine. |
| Knyaginsky Uyezd | 1891–1892 | Peasants here were given food grain on loan — in Knyaginino and the village of Urga — and seed grain in Pyanskoye Perevoz, while a public canteen operated in the selo of Bolshoye Murashkino. |
| Makaryevsky Uyezd | 1891–1892 | In public works, the hungry sorted felled timber, loaded it onto barges, and floated rafts down the Kerzhenets, while in Lyskovo they unloaded barges carrying food grain. |
| Nizhegorodsky Uyezd | 1891–1892 | In the 5th precinct of the uyezd, the zemstvo official Ye. P. Yegorov proposed buying up peasants' horses at their reduced prices, feeding them through winter, and selling them back to the peasants in spring with payment deferred until autumn; Chekhov advised him to open a public subscription for this purpose. |
| Vasilsky Uyezd | 1891–1892 | The chairman of the uyezd board, A. A. Demidov, who had rejected all offers of assistance just a few months earlier, declared upon seeing the harvest of 1891 at the provincial zemstvo assembly: "The disaster is terrible; the broadest and most immediate measures are necessary." |
Selos and Towns
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Nizhny Novgorod | 1891–1892 | A provincial capital where the city administration purchased up to two hundred thousand puds of grain and distributed flour at cost price; in the spring of 1892 it opened a public canteen serving a two-course hot meal for five kopecks. |
| Lukoyanov | 1891–1892 | A district town where Korolenko arrived in February 1892; by mid-May, 43 public canteens were operating in the district, one of which Dmitriev photographed in the town itself. |
| Pochinki | 1891–1892 | A large selo that retained the title of a minor town: it housed the district zemstvo board and hosted a well-known grain market, and during the famine year charitable grain was distributed to the peasants there. |
| Sergach | 1891–1892 | A district town where Dmitriev photographed a public canteen and a canteen attached to the town school. |
| Knyaginino | 1891–1892 | A district town where peasants received food grain as a loan. |
| Pyansky Perevoz | 1891–1892 | A minor town of Knyagininsky District where peasants received seed grain as a loan. |
| Bolshoe Murashkino | 1891–1892 | A selo in Knyagininsky District where a public canteen operated; it was photographed by Dmitriev. |
| Lyskovo | 1891–1892 | A Volga-side selo in Makaryevsky District where barges carrying food grain were unloaded. |
| Novaya Sloboda | 1891–1892 | The center of the Kochubey estates, some forty versts southeast of Lukoyanov, settled by Prince Kochubey with serfs brought from Belorussia and Little Russia; during the famine year a hospital, a typhus ward, and a public canteen run by S. S. Veshnyakova all operated here. |
| Pralevka | 1891–1892 | The poorest village in the district, named after the Kochubey princes' estate manager Pral: "no better than the Pralevka folk" became a byword for destitution, and its village elder, arrested according to his fellow villagers "on behalf of the commune," spent seven days in custody. |
| Naruksovo | 1891–1892 | A selo in Lukoyanovsky District with 3,892 inhabitants and 552 households in the 1880s; Dmitriev photographed typhus patients here — the Gorinov family and a peasant woman, Sinitsyna, with her five-day-old infant — while Korolenko was drawing up lists for canteens in the village of Kirleyka, the name still used for part of the selo today. |
| Protasovo | 1891–1892 | A selo in Lukoyanovsky District, also known as Bogorodskoye, now in the Ichalkovsky District of Mordovia; Dmitriev photographed typhus-stricken families — the Tugaevs and the Misanovs — and the distribution of bread to children here. |
| Merlinovka | 1891–1892 | A village near Lukoyanov with the ruins of a factory that burned down on 12 November 1889 — the estate of nobleman Panyutin, director of the Nizhny Novgorod Noble Bank; Dmitriev photographed the typhus-stricken Arbuzov family here. |
| Vasilev Maydan | 1891–1892 | A selo of the "Kochubey folk," descendants of long-ago settlers from the Western Borderlands who had not paid redemption payments since the emancipation of the serfs; all that remains of its Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, built in 1851, are three tiers of the bell tower. |
| Chernovskoye | 1891–1892 | A selo in Sergachsky District: Dmitriev photographed the selo itself, and during the famine year two public canteens operated there — one run by the zemstvo supervisor A. M. Yermolov and one attached to the village school. |
| Kadomka | 1891–1892 | A Tatar village in Sergachsky District: Dmitriev photographed the village itself, a gathering with the mullah, the homes of Salovatov and Taripdjanov, and the peasant herd. |
People of the Famine Year
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Dmitriev Maksim Petrovich | 1858–1948 | Nizhny Novgorod photographer: traveling through nearly every district of the Governorate with a heavy 18×24 cm camera, he published in 1893, at his own phototypy studio, the album "The Failed Harvest of 1891–1892 in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate." |
| Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko | 1853–1921 | At the end of February 1892, he set out from Nizhny Novgorod for Lukoyanovskiy District with donations of about a thousand rubles, opened his first soup kitchen there on March 11, kept them running until the new harvest, and wrote about what he witnessed in the book "In a Year of Famine." |
| Baranov Nikolay Mikhailovich | Governor, 1882–1897 | Nizhny Novgorod Governor: by February 1892 he had accepted the zemstvo statisticians' findings on the famine, and on March 29 traveled in person to Lukoyanovskiy District, compelled the zemstvo chief to visit Pralevka for the first time, and led officials through the homes of typhus patients. |
| Annensky Nikolay Fyodorovich | Head of the provincial zemstvo's statistics bureau: by February 1892 the Governor had accepted his bureau's findings on the scale of the crisis, and on May 27 Annensky supported Korolenko's "Dissenting Opinion" before the provincial food-supply commission. | |
| Guchkov Aleksandr Ivanovich | Son of a Moscow factory owner and honorary justice of the peace in Moscow: upon learning of the famine, he returned from abroad, took part in an audit of the food-supply effort, and was appointed to oversee the food-supply district of Lukoyanovskiy District. | |
| Yegorov Evgraf Petrovich | Zemstvo chief of the 5th precinct of Nizhny Novgorod District: in December 1891 he proposed to the provincial food-supply commission that it purchase the peasants' horses at the depressed prices, feed them through the winter, and sell them back to the peasants in spring with payment deferred to autumn; Chekhov corresponded with him about famine relief. | |
| Yepifanov A. I. | First chairman of the Sergach District zemstvo board: recognized by the government with a silver medal for his efforts against the famine in the district; his portrait appeared in Dmitriev's album. | |
| Yermolov A. M. | Zemstvo chief of the 4th precinct of Sergachsky District: in his precinct, forty pounds per person were distributed, and neighboring Lukoyanov residents asked why they received less; Dmitriev photographed him together with the volost elders and the clerk. | |
| Veshnyakova S. S. | She organized a public soup kitchen in the selo of Novaya Sloboda, Lukoyanovskiy District; Dmitriev's album also includes a plate showing her sanitary staff. | |
| Gulyaev G. N. | Deanery priest of the selo of Vasilev Maydan: Korolenko called him a shepherd "in the true sense of the word" and together with him drew up lists of those in need at village assemblies. | |
| Moderatov, priest of the selo of Protasovo | Dmitriev photographed the priest Moderatov distributing bread to children in the selo of Protasovo; from the late 1880s, Evgeniy Moderatov — son of the educator M. P. Moderatov — had served there. | |
| Lukin N. D. | Mayor of Lukoyanov, in whose hotel Korolenko lodged: the district board of guardians twice deferred the estimate for his soup kitchen by two weeks, yet it opened on March 1, 1892 all the same. |
Canteens, hospitals, public works
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital in Novaya Sloboda | 1891–1892 | A hospital on the estate of Prince Kochubey; Dmitriev's album includes two plates from this location — the hospital exterior and the typhus ward interior. |
| People's Canteen in Pochinki | 1892 | A large canteen seating two hundred and fifty people, opened, in Korolenko's words, "if I am not mistaken," on the initiative of Ye. N. Strugovshchikova; a crowd of those who had not been admitted stood at its doors, and in the center of Dmitriev's plate stands the zemstvo chief of Gorbatovsky district, Obtyazhkov. |
| People's Canteen in Chernovskoye | 1892 | A canteen organized by the zemstvo chief of the 4th precinct, A. M. Yermolov; in Dmitriev's photographs, village children are dining at its tables in the open air. |
| People's Canteen in Pralevka | 1892 | A canteen in the poorest village of the district; according to Korolenko, one of Dmitriev's photographs shows the Pralevka village elder, medal and all, standing "for order" beside the crowd at their meal. |
| Korolenko's Canteen in Yelfimov Maydan | 1892 | The first of Korolenko's canteens: opened at noon on 11 March 1892 in the house of a scribe's widow; the following day, already without him, a second canteen opened in Pichingushi. |
| Public Works in Nizhny Novgorod | 1892 | Works for the starving, funded by an interest-free government loan of 500,000 rubles — at Pokhvalinskiy Descent, near the salt warehouses, and close to the Kremlin; on 20 March 1892 the Duma entrusted their supervision to Ya. Ye. Bashkirov, and a canteen for the workers operated on site. |
Plates from the album "The Crop Failure Year of 1891–92"
Yepifanov A.I., chairman of the Sergachsky Uyezd Zemstvo BoardM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Distribution of charitable grain to peasants in the non-district town of Pochinki, Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public canteen in the selo of Chernovskoye, Sergachsky Uyezd, established by zemstvo chief A. M. YermolovM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Peasant livestock herd in the village of Kadomka, Sergachsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Canteen in the school of the town of SergachM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Yermolov A.M., zemstvo chief of the 4th precinct of Sergachsky Uyezd, with the volost elders and clerk under his authorityM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The selo of Protasovo, Lukoyanovskiy Uyezd. Izba (traditional wooden house) of the peasant LysanovM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The selo of Chernovskoye, Sergachsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public works in Makaryevsky Uyezd. Rafting of timber along the M. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The selo of Permeyevo, Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Distribution of grain on loan to peasants in the village of Urga, Knyagininsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The village of Vyselki, Knyagininsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The village of Kadomka, Sergachsky Uyezd. A mullah's addressM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The village of Kadomka, Sergachsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Canteen for workers on public works in M. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The selo of Naruksovo, Lukoyanovskiy Uyezd. The family of peasant Gorinov, ill with typhusM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public works near the Kremlin in M. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public works for the construction of a roadway at the salt warehouses in M. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public canteen in the selo of Bolshoye Murashkino, Knyagininsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Dmitriev P.V., zemstvo chief of the 2nd precinct of Sergachsky Uyezd, with the volost elders under his authorityM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Canteen in the school of the selo of Chernovskoye, Sergachsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public canteen in the village of Poshatovo, Sergachsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The family of peasant Arbuzov, ill with typhus, in the village of Merlinovka, Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Interior of the izba of the Tatar Salovatov in the village of Kadomka, Sergachsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Izba of the Tatar Salovatov in the village of Kadomka, Sergachsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The selo of Protasovo, Lukoyanovskiy Uyezd. The family of peasant Misanov, ill with typhusM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Distribution of food grain on loan to peasants in the town of KnyagininoM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public works in Makaryevsky Uyezd. Loading of felled timber onto bargesM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Typhus hospital in the selo of Novaya Sloboda, Lukoyanovskiy Uyezd. Interior viewM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Sanitary personnel in Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Izba of the Tatar Taripzhanov in the village of Kadomka, Sergachsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public canteen in the town of LukoyanovM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Izba of the peasant Tugayev in the selo of Protasovo, Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Peasant woman Sinitsyna and her five-day-old child, ill with typhus, in the selo of Naruksovo, Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public canteen in the non-district town of Pochinki, Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public works on the Pokhvalinskiy Descent in M. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Distribution of seed grain on loan to peasants in the non-district town of Pyanskoye Perevoz, Knyagininsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public canteen in the town of SergachM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public works in Makaryevsky Uyezd. Sorting of felled timberM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The selo of Lyskovo, Makaryevsky Uyezd. Unloading a barge with food grainM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public canteen in the selo of Chernovskoye, Sergachsky UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Gulyayev G.N., priest of the selo of Vasilyevo-Maydan, Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public canteen in the village of Pralevka, Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Distribution of bread to children by the priest Moderatov in the selo of Protasovo, Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
The family of peasant Tugayev in the selo of Protasovo, Lukoyanovskiy Uyezd, ill with typhusM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Hospital in the selo of Novaya Sloboda (estate of Prince Kochubey), Lukoyanovskiy UyezdM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Public works in Nizhny Novgorod. Prayer service at the opening of the worksM. P. Dmitriev · 1892 · public domain
Sources
- az.lib.ru — Korolenko V. G. V golodny god [In a Year of Famine] // Collected Works in Ten Volumes. Vol. 9: Journalism. — Moscow: GIKhL, 1955; text preparation and notes by S. V. Korolenko (archive)
- gordumannov.ru — City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod. History of the Duma, Chapter 2: "The Duma Finds Its Footing (1870–1892)" (archive)
- rusneb.ru — The Poor Harvest Year of 1891–92 in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate: an album of phototypes / photographs from life by M. Dmitriev. — Nizhny Novgorod: published by M. Dmitriev's phototype studio, 1893.
- ngounb.ru — The Time of Korolenko (The Writer's Nizhny Novgorod Years, 1885–1896): catalogue of an exhibition from the collections of the V. I. Lenin Nizhny Novgorod State Regional Universal Scientific Library (archive)
- istmat.org — The Harvest of 1891 in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate / Statistical Division of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Zemstvo Board. — Nizhny Novgorod, 1891 (archive)
- cheloveknauka.com — Kniga M. D. Istoriya goloda 1891–1892 gg. v Rossii [History of the Famine of 1891–1892 in Russia]: abstract of a dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences. — Voronezh, 1997 (archive)
- nn-obl.ru — History of the City of Sergach (archive)
- opendata.mkrf.ru — State Catalogue of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation: an album by M. P. Dmitriev with a dedicatory inscription to L. N. Tolstoy (State Museum of L. N. Tolstoy, reg. no. 6343989… (archive)
- ngounb.ru — Literary Map of Nizhny Novgorod Region: Lukoyanovskiy District (archive)
- catalog.shm.ru — State Historical Museum. Album "The Poor Harvest Year of 1891–92 in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate." 1893 — a set of 50 items (archive)
- chehov-lit.ru — Chekhov A. P. Letter to E. P. Yegorov, 11 December 1891, Moscow // Complete Collected Works and Letters in 30 vols. Letters. Vol. 4. — Moscow: Nauka, 1975. — Pp. 316–320, with commentary
- fotomuseum.nnov.ru — Russian Museum of Photography. Biography of M. P. Dmitriev (1858–1948) (archive)
- rusneb.ru — Distribution of charitable grain to peasants in the non-county town of Pochinki, Lukoyanov Uyezd: photograph by M. P. Dmitriev, albumen print, 1892. Russian National…