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 (), the female form of this word is krestyanka (), plural - krestyane (). Some arrogate this meaning to the word muzhik, moujik () (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 plain traditional word that means just "man" (mature male human), and in more civil language it can mean "plain man". In general in Russian the "муж" (muzh — husband; venerable man), "мужчина" (muzhchina — mature male human) and "мужик" (muzhik) are the same root words. The female equivalent word is baba (). Geography and crops The black-earth belt (or chernozem) stretched in a broad band north-east from the Romanian border to include Ukraine, Central Agricultural Region, Middle Volga, south-west Urals and south-western Siberia. This expanse, together with the alluvial zone of the Kuban in the North Caucasus, constituted the fertile `grain-surplus' steppe areas of cereal production. In the non-black earth grain-deficit areas, with their poor soils, the peasants turned to cottage industry (and increasingly factory industry), as well as livestock breeding and the cultivation of vegetables and industrial crops, to make up their livelihoods. They relied on `imports' from the grain-surplus regions to make up the deficiency of cereals. Rye and oats were the traditional grains. Before the Emancipation of the serfs in 1861 wheat was mainly grown on the demesnes of the landlords of the grain-surplus areas, and mainly for export abroad. But during the 20th century wheat progressively replaced rye as the principal grain crop. Row and industrial crops were more remunerative than grain, or at worst provided their cultivators with extra income or consumables (hence they were called `cash crops'). Their cultivation spread steadily during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they were increasingly grown as part of improved crop