From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Russian word mir , besides its direct meanings of peace and world, had some other meanings related to social organization in Imperial Russia.
The first meaning was to denote the secular part of the society organization, as opposed to church organization. Some literary critics say that the name of the novel of Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, contains a word play implying this addditional meaning, elusive from non-Russian speakers.
The second meaning was a term to denote local self-government of peasant communities (obshchinas) in a form of the full assembly of the community, as well as a community iself.
