Accordingly, changes in the life cycle of the individual household members led to changes in the household development cycle, and differences in the demographic regime or in economic possibilities contributed to differences in the household organization. The new occupational opportunities in industry seem to have intensified the diversity in household composition among Russian peasants in the post-emancipation period. In regions and villages heavily involved in industrial activity, the occurrence of relatively small and not very complex households seem to have been quite common in the peasant population. Those peasants who depended entirely or largely on agricultural income, on the other hand, seem to have been more likely to live in large, multiple family households. The peasant household was characterized by both tradition and flexibility in its adaption to the rapid changes going on in Russian society in the post-emancipation period.
Peasant societies depend to a considerable extent on the physical environment in which they live.
Geographical differentiation marked the central regions of the Russian Empire in the post-emancipation period. On the one hand the black earth belt was the richest agricultural area in Europe. On the other hand the central industrial region of the forest zone was dominated by poor soils and decreasing agricultural revenues, simultaneously as the region was characterized by increasing industrialization. The soil in Moskovskaia guberniia was poor, the weather was shifting, agricultural techniques outdated, the state was demanding ever more taxes and redemption payments, and the mortality rate was high. However, the peasants found ways to manage this situation.