This article asks whether the Old Regime in Russia was capable of bridging the cultural and legal gaps between the estates. It argues that the agricultural cooperative movement — which was meant to create an integrated society — was an example of the deep crisis affecting Russian society on the eve of the Revolution, since even the most «progressive» thinkers and activists in rural affairs (the generation of agronomists typified by Aleksandr Chaianov) shared with their employers in local and central government grave doubts about the capacity of peasants to integrate into Russian society as legitimate actors.