Sir Herbert John Maynard,KCIE,CSI (12 July 1865 – 6 December 1943) was aBritish administrator in India, who was also prominent in theFabian Society and wrote aboutRussia.
Maynard was educated at theMerchant Taylors' School andSt John's College, Oxford, where he won theStanhope essay prize in 1883 and gained a First Class in 1886. From 1883, he served with theIndian Civil Service, becoming a deputy commissioner in 1889, then councillor to theRaja of Mandi from 1890. When in the early nineties the Government of India offered a special inducement to their officers to learn theRussian language and qualify as interpreters, Maynard took advantage of it, and in 1894 he spent some of his furlough in Russia; he went to Moscow, lived with a Russian family, and for a period of six to eight months took lessons in the language, becoming very proficient. In the spring of 1895 he visitedRussian Turkestan, going as far asTashkent and returning to Moscow in time for the coronation ofNicholas II. After his return to India he kept up his knowledge of the language and read widely in Russian literature; his letters reflect a vivid interest in the life of the people and their politics, especially the peasants.[1] From 1896, he was the judicial secretary to the government of thePunjab from 1896 to 1899, then he served as commissioner of excise from 1903, commissioner ofMultan from 1906, ofRawalpindi from 1911, and as financial commissioner of the Punjab from 1913.[2] He retired in 1927, having held a number of high posts with distinction.
He revisited Russia in 1933, accompanied by his wife; they journeyed to Leningrad, Moscow, the Volga, Stalingrad, Rostov, the Georgian Highway, Tiflis, Batum, the Black Sea, Crimea, Kharkov, and Kiev, then home via Warsaw and Berlin. They returned in 1935, traveling to the Caucasus and Ukraine; during this visit he concentrated on the study ofcollectivization of farm land and its organization. On his return he wrote an account,Collective Farming in the U.S.S.R., which was published in July 1936, as Monograph No. 11 of theSchool of Slavonic Studies. His last visit to the U.S.S.R. was in 1937 when he went toOdessa from Istanbul; he was interested in the influence ofByzantine art on Russian art, but theMoscow trials were on and foreigners were treated with suspicion, so he was unable to meet any of the people he wanted to see. He got very little material out of the journey, and left disappointed.[1]
His main work was his study of the Russian peasant, for which he had amassed an enormous amount of material which he wanted to publish as one volume. However, he was advised that the first part, carrying the story up to theFebruary Revolution of 1917, should be published separately as it was more consecutive and easy to read. So it was issued byVictor Gollancz in 1940 under the titleRussia in Flux; as the entire edition was destroyed in theblitz it was reissued in 1941. Then in October 1942 the remainder of the work was published asThe Russian Peasant and other Studies. The book was successful and further printings were issued in December 1942 and July 1943.[1]
Maynard was a supporter of theBritish Labour Party. He stood unsuccessfully inKing's Lynn at the1929 United Kingdom general election, at the1931 Stroud by-election, and inFulham East at the1931 United Kingdom general election. He also served on the executive of theFabian Society.[2][3]
In 1920, Maynard was made aKnight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire.[3]
