Agriculture in the Russian Empire throughout the 19th-20th centuries Russia represented a major world force, yet it lagged technologically behind other developed countries. Imperial Russia (officially founded in 1721 and abolished in 1917) was amongst the largest exporters of agricultural produce, especially wheat. The Free Economic Society of 1765 to 1919 made continuing efforts to improve farming techniques.

The Russian peasant (male) was colloquially called a krestyanin (Russian: крестьянин), the female form of this word is krestyanka (Russian: крестьянка), plural - krestyane (Russian: крестьяне). Some arrogate this meaning to the word muzhik, moujik (Russian: мужи́к, IPA: [mʊˈʐɨk]) (man), and this word was calqued into Western languages through translations of Russian literature of 19th century, that described Russian rural life of that times, and where really the word muzhik referred to the most common rural dweller - a peasant, but that was only a narrow contextual meaning of the word. Muzhik is a word that means "man" (mature male human), and in more civil language it can mean "plain man". In Russian, "муж" (muzh — husband; venerable man), "мужчина" (muzhchina — mature male human) and "мужик" (muzhik) are derived from the same root word. The female equivalent word is baba (Russian: баба).