Sharapov S.V. Regional authorities and collective-farm peasantry during the Great Patriotic War: Mobilization, care, corruption (based on the data from the Novosibirsk Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №1. P. 67-84.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-1-67-84

Annotation

On the example of the Novosibirsk Region, the author considers the features of the interaction of local authorities and collective farms during the war. The contradiction, which regional and district authorities faced, was that the total mobilization of resources by the central authorities threatened the local social-economic situation. Therefore, the decisions and actions of the local authorities became contradictory as they had to compensate for the damage caused by their efforts to seize agricultural products from collective farms. Moreover, there were corrupt motives as very common for the relations between the authorities and collective farms. In most cases, collective-farm peasants responded to the obviously excessive state demands by inaction, which forced the local authorities to show additional efforts in order to make agricultural producers fulfill the state requirements. The complexity of the agrarian agenda diverted the attention of the party and governing bodies. However, the state activities were still insufficient to keep the collective farm production under constant control.

Keywords

Agrarian policy of the Soviet state, Great Patriotic War, collective farms, mobilization, trusteeship, corruption.

About the author

Sergey V. Sharapov, PhD (History), Researcher, Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolaeva St., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090.
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