Khutor

Khutir or khutor (Ukrainian: ху́тiр, khutir; Russian: ху́тор, khutor) is usually taken to refer to a single-homestead rural settlement (farmstead) of Eastern Europe. The word originated in Ukraine, but later came to be applied to farmsteads in Russia and Kazakhstan.

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Khutor Tolstushkino

Khutors were originally founded as a result of exploration of new lands. In the Cossack-settled regions of Ukrainian dominated areas that encompassed, beside the today's Ukraine, Kuban, and the lower Don river basin the word khutir was used to describe new settlements (notwithstanding the actual number of homesteads therein) which had detached themselves from bigger villages or stanitsas. These new settlements in Russia were known as vyselki (literally, "those who moved away from their village").

When Ukraine was forcefully annexed to Russian Empire after the Treaty at Pereyaslav, all of the Ukrainian concepts were rephrased into Russian. Thus khutir became khutor. In Russia, where serfdom and obshchina (peasants' community) were maintained well into the nineteenth century, the khutors were unheard-of until the rise of capitalism. The emancipation of the serfs and the decay of the obshchina were accompanied by introduction of khutors as isolated farmsteads with household structures and a plot of land for individual use.

During his attempt to resolve the agrarian crisis in Russia, Peter Stolypin envisaged rich peasants "privatising" their share of the community (obshchina) lands, leaving the obshchinas, and settling in khutors on their now individually owned land. A less radical concept was that of an otrub (отруб): a section of formerly obshchina land, whose owner has left the obshchina but still continued to live in the village and to "commute" to his land. By 1910 the share of khutors and otrubs among all rural households in the European part of Russia was estimated at 10.5%. These were practically eliminated during the collectivisation in the USSR.

Individual estates and dachas in Estonia and Ingria have been traditionally known as myza (мыза), from the Finnic word for "estate". In the late nineteenth century, similar estates in the Baltic provinces came to be Russified as khutors.

In literature

Nikolai Gogol's first major work is called Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, where 'farm' is a translation of 'khutor' (Russian: Вечера на хуторе близ Диканьки, Vechera na khutore bliz Dikan'ki).

References

• Khutir at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine