The combination of isolation from markets and state authority and a sparsely populated, arid, grassland environment led Orthodox state peasants in the Molochna River Basin to adopt a subsistence economy that emphasized animal husbandry and gardening.
The opening of the port at Berdiansk and the creation of the Ministry of State Domains altered their existence fundamentally. Ironically, the new ministry, which was intended to improve the conditions of the peasantry by easing land shortages in interior guberniias and ending administrative inefficiencies, increased state interference in the affairs of Molochna state peasants, while threatening to reduce their land allotments.
At the same time, continued growth of both human and livestock populations placed strains on pasture lands that soon demanded a reckoning. Orthodox peasants once again proved their ability to adapt, turning to arable husbandry and exploiting newly accessible grain markets, while introducing land repartition to resolve the inequalities in land distribution that had become increasingly troublesome as their population grew.The decision to impose land repartitioning is a puzzling one. Until the 1830s economic development in Molochna state peasant villages, with its emphasis on pastoralism, had in many ways parallelled that in Mennonite villages. In the 1830s Orthodox peasants stood at a fork in their developmental road. One way led to industrialization, modernization, and perhaps prosperity. The other led to communal land repartition, backward agricultural practices, and economic stagnation. They chose the latter, inviting state intervention to institute radical land reforms. Although practical administrative factors played an important role in this parting of ways with the colonists, in the final analysis it was a decision that can only be credited to a native peasant perception that justice was rooted in access to land.