Moscow, Nauka Publ. 1984. 352 p.

A new book by Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Senior researcher at the Institute of General History of the USSR Academy of Sciences E. V. Gutnova is devoted to the history of the Western European peasantry in the period of mature feudalism. The purpose of the author is to trace in detail how, on the scale of Western Europe, during the centuries-old evolution of the peasantry as a class, its class struggle developed, what were its organizational forms, objective and subjective tasks. A special place in the study is occupied by the problem of the development and peculiarities of public consciousness, the ideology of the medieval peasantry.

The publication of a book on such an important topic takes on special significance if we take into account that in non-Marxist Western European and American Medieval studies, anti-feudal peasant movements in the Middle Ages are usually not considered class struggles, but rather conservative, fruitless, and devoid of ideological orientation. This approach is refuted by all the material in the book, which is based on numerous sources, documentary and literary evidence, and a wide range of research by Soviet and foreign scientists.

The author resolves the question of the main source of class contradictions and their forms in a reasoned manner, and the general and specific propositions of K. Marx, F. Engels, and V. I. Lenin related to the problems of research are convincingly confirmed. The paper shows that the deep basis of peasant uprisings was the socio-economic and socio-political prerequisites that reflected the natural evolution of the feudal formation. The subjective aspirations of the peasants, as shown in the work, found expression in the programs and actions of the rebels: participants in large peasant uprisings sought to create more favorable conditions for independent farming while maintaining the feudal system. The demands for social upheaval found in movements associated with heresies were utopian in nature.

One of the most important conclusions of the author is the statement that despite the defeat of even the largest uprisings of the XIV-XV centuries. they were not completely fruitless (p. 247). Sometimes they ended in partial success (as it was in Catalonia in 1486), led to the elimination of the corvee system (in England as a result of the rebellion of Wat Tyler). In addition, the constant threat of peasant uprisings reined in the feudal lords and encouraged them to exercise some restraint in their attempts to increase exploitation. This is the result of the Jacquerie in France, Wat Tyler's revolts in England, Dolcino in Italy. Therefore, the author comes to a fair conclusion about the progressive nature of the peasant class struggle, both by some of its results and by the fact that it contributed to the growth of the organization and consciousness of the peasant masses (p.223).

As the main criterion (out of many possible ones) for typologizing the class struggle of the peasantry, the author chose its organizational forms and territorial scales, and on this basis singled out individual and collective, local and regional or national, legal and rebellious movements (p.22). The characterization of the Jacquerie, the Wat Tyler and Dolcino uprisings as major peasant uprisings seems to be more accurate than the "peasant wars" (later-

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it is more justified for the late Middle Ages).

The author does not ignore the question of the participation of the peasantry in political and religious movements of the period under review, such as the Crusades, civil wars, liberation movements, which was an indicator of the socio - economic activity of this class. An extremely interesting and important aspect of the study is the consideration of the links between the peasantry and heresies. Here the author conducts a successful critique of Western works on this subject, emphasizing the unfairness of evaluating heresies only as regressive and even reactionary phenomena.

A special part of the work is devoted to the problems of peasant social consciousness, showing its material and social foundations, characteristic features, and social psychology of the peasantry. The medieval peasant's assessment of his place in society is interesting, showing his attitude to work, homeland, categories of poverty and wealth, and how the type of peasant ideal hero was formed (pp. 290-303). In general, E. V. Gutnova's book makes a rather convincing conclusion about the emergence of an ideological element in the peasant public consciousness in the Middle Ages, the emergence of equalizing ideals in the XIV century, and elements of national consciousness in the XIV-XV centuries. Peasant social consciousness to a certain extent influenced the official feudal-ecclesiastical worldview and was one of the manifestations of the spiritual culture of the Middle Ages.

The first part of the book - "England" - is a kind of small monograph, which is organically included in the scope of the entire study. In terms of its factual material and theoretical significance, it deserves special consideration. This section plays a particularly important role in the overall structure of E. V. Gutnova's work. Its purpose is to give a concrete consideration of the main issues raised based on the example and material of one country, based on the analysis of all the sources available to the author. The manifestations of peasant social protest in the XI-XII centuries are studied in detail and shown. (escapes, clashes over communal land, protests against paying church tithes). Class conflicts in the English countryside of the 13th - first half of the 14th century - resistance to the implementation of corvee, struggle for the right to use communal land-are analyzed. Very interesting are the tables of peasant-seignorial conflicts (pp. 55-56), compiled on the basis of data from the protocols of the royal courts and royal orders. The author justifiably emphasizes that, as a rule, the struggle was conducted on the issue of the status of the peasant. The struggle for rent, for communal land, which became the content of collective actions of peasants who appealed to the royal courts, represented a higher form of peasant social protest than escapes and individual resistance to feudal oppression (p. 75).

The author further examines the" illegal " rebellious actions of the peasants. Most of these local revolts took place at the end of the thirteenth and first half of the fourteenth centuries, and the first signs of an alliance between the peasants and the cities that were deprived of their rights were already emerging (p.82). The section on the evolution of the social consciousness of peasants from the social and psychological level in the 12th century to the gradual crystallization of new ideas and ideas that testified to the formation of the peasant class consciousness is interesting (pp. 85-86). The special role of the development of legal representations of peasants is noted. E. V. Gutnova pays great attention to the analysis of political poetry of the XIV-XV centuries, revealing on its material a picture of the evolution of the peasant class consciousness ("Song of the ploughman", "Song of our Time", "The Land of Cockayne" - pp. 89-91).

The book analyzes the character of the peasants ' class struggle in the period leading up to the uprising of 1381. It shows mass collective actions of peasants in the second half of the XIV century, petitioning the king, and fighting against labor legislation. The author believes that the "workers' statutes " are imbued with a purely feudal spirit of extra-economic coercion (p.101), that these laws were feudal - reactionary in their aims and methods, and that the actions against them were a struggle for the size of wages, objectively-for the right to free employment (p. 102). The role of peasants ' conflicts with officials and with the church is noted, which brings the peasants to a broader political arena.

Attention is drawn to the pages devoted to the consideration of such a type of social protest as peasant protest.

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E. V. Gutnova, in particular, believes that the frequent proclamations of peasants who did not appear at the summons to court and declaring them illegal had a close connection with this phenomenon (pp. 112-113). The author has collected a lot of material on this issue. Speaking about the specifics of peasant brigand detachments, the author notes their special hostility towards the "rich", "worthy", clergy, representatives of the royal administration. A masterful analysis of political songs (for example, "Song of the Outlaw", as well as ballads about Robin Hood.

In the section on the development of peasant ideas in the second half of the 14th century, much attention is rightly paid to the poem by W. Langland (pp. 123-136). The sermons of John Ball , the ideological leader of the peasant masses, reveal a holistic picture of the views that opposed the official church-feudal worldview (p. 146). E. V. Gutnova rightly believes that it would be a mistake to contrast the views of this ideologue of the rural poor and urban plebeianism too directly with the needs and moods of the rest of the peasantry. In her opinion, John Ball objectively expressed the needs of the middle and well-to-do peasantry, which suffered from the seigniorial reaction. John Ball's worldview should be considered as a kind of culmination to which the peasant social consciousness and the class consciousness of the lower classes in general could rise in the Middle Ages (pp. 147-148).

E. V. Gutnova convincingly proves the fallacy of the point of view of modern English historians, who believe that Wat Tyler's revolt was not so much a peasant uprising as a general one (p. 149). Considering the concrete material, the author shows two intertwined lines in the insurrection: the line of struggle against seignorial oppression, against corvee, and the line of struggle against all links of the state apparatus (pp. 157-160). The implementation of the Smithfield program would mean very significant changes in the social order. From the point of view of the demands made, however, the insurrection appears as predominantly peasant (p.166). The author's thoughts on the prerequisites for the uprising are interesting (pp. 171-172). Considering the peculiarities of peasant social protest in the 15th century, E. V. Gutnova comes to the conclusion that "a certain softening of peasant-seignorial contradictions in the 15th century translated the discontent of the peasant masses into a political channel, developing the political line of the uprising of 1381" (p.184). As a result, almost all the mass peasant movements in England during this period were mixed, and not purely peasant in nature. A prime example of this is Jack Cade's rebellion. E. V. Gutnova believes, and this is obviously justified, that the Lollard heresy was in many ways different from the peasant-Plebeian heresy of John Ball (pp. 191 - 192, etc.). The analysis of the Oldcastle rebellion of 1414, the social composition of its participants, and the analysis of the events of 1431 are interesting (p. 109). E. V. Gutnova believes that the first, most turbulent period of the development of the Lollard heresy had a decidedly rebellious character, but she emphasizes that it would be too straightforward to see Lollardism as a manifestation of peasant social consciousness. consciousness as such, and even more so-the actual peasant ideology, which was in fact only one of the elements of the Lollard concept (p. 201).

The section on England, interesting and original in itself, provides an excellent foundation for the second part, which examines the forms, types of organization, methods and ideology of the peasant struggle in France, Italy and Germany. This makes it possible to compare and identify common patterns in the development of the class struggle and self-consciousness of the peasantry in different countries of Western Europe.

Some points in the book by E. V. Gutnova raise doubts. This is primarily the problem of typologizing the peasant struggle, given on p. 244-246. The author speaks about the diversity of the social composition and the almost complete absence of purely peasant slogans in some of the uprisings (p. 245). Obviously, the reasons that gave rise to these types of uprisings should have been specially and more expressively formulated (pp. 245-246). I would like to see more detailed sections of the seventh chapter on the participation of peasants in various socio-political movements and on the role of the peasantry in heretical movements. Unfortunately, the book does not contain a bibliography of the question. The list of sources could be expanded somewhat to include at least

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Some German and Italian publications (for example, the Markov Charters, etc.) would be better if the same map (p.228) combined indicators of peasant uprisings and the spread of heresies. In general, we have before us an interesting and in-depth study that not only puts forward, but also solves many controversial problems in the history of the medieval peasantry.

Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. I. Rutenburg, [V. V. Shtokmar]

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