Saifullina L. F. In the chaos of the Civil War: Peasant households in the Southern Urals (based on the data of the 1917 and 1920 censuses, Malaya Bashkiria) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2026. V.11. №3. P. 72-87.

EDN: QJEPIB

Annotation

The article considers changes in the economic structure of the peasantry during the Civil War, based on the collections of household cards of the 1917 and 1920 AllRussian Agricultural Censuses from the National Archive of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The author focuses on five settlements on the left bank of the Belaya River in the Sterlitamak district with the Russian agricultural peasantry, located at different distances from the theater of operations. In 1917–1920, in all selected settlements the number of farms increased, and there was a relative increase in the population. A decline in the number of working-age men (18–60 years old) was observed only in villages along the routes taken by opposing forces or where armed formations were stationed. Given the fact that by 1920, 19.3% of men were mobilized or volunteered for the front, the average reduction in the working-age male population was 26.2%. The sharp reduction in sown areas was caused by several factors (legislative ban on land leasing, natural and climatic conditions, etc.), with the greatest impact of the policy of War Communism, especially forced food procurement and the state grain monopoly. Based on the analysis of the agricultural censuses data, the study reveals a trend toward the “middling” of the peasantry during the Civil War. The decline in livestock farming among the peasantry manifested in a significant loss of cattle and small livestock (sheep and goats) and, to a lesser extent, horses that owners strove to preserve for the future as the primary source of draft power for their farms. No correlation was found between the reduction in sown areas or livestock numbers and the distance from the front line.

Keywords

All-Russian Agricultural Census, Sterlitamak uyezd, livestock farming, agriculture, cantons, peasantry, Little Bashkiria, household cards, RSFSR.  

About the author

Leyla F. Saifullina, PhD (History), Researcher, Department of History and Cultural History of Bashkortostan, Order of the Badge of Honour Institute of History, Language and Literature, Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Oktyabrya Prosp., 71, Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, 450054, Russia.
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