Kuznetsov I.A. Prerequisites for the collectivization of agriculture in the USSR // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2020. V.5. №3. P. 47-69.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-3-47-69
Annotation
The article considers historiographic issues in the study of reasons and factors that determined the agricultural collectivization in the USSR in the 1930s. The article is a kind of a review which aims at systematizing the data accumulated in the Russian scientific historical literature and the author’s studies of historical sources. The author identifies a number of prerequisites for collectivization: the ones external to the peasantry (village, agriculture) explain motives of the political choice made by the Soviet government at the turn of the 1920s—1930s in favor of collectivization. These external prerequisites are divided into doctrinal and pragmatic. The doctrine that determined collectivization was socialism, and the author identifies the place of the radical communist idea of the Bolsheviks among other Russian socialist projects for uniting peasants into production collectives since the last quarter of the 19th century. Pragmatic prerequisites for collectivization were determined by the government’s goal to obtain agricultural resources for industrialization and militarization of the national economy in the quantities that would exceed possibilities of the equivalent market exchange. Collectivization did have prerequisites within the village community, which allow to understand why this political course was implemented—the author focuses on the peculiarities of the mentality and political culture of the Russian peasantry.
Keywords
agrarian history, collectivization, socialism, peasantry, industrialization in the USSR
About the author
Igor A. Kuznetsov, PhD (History), Senior Researcher, Research Laboratory of Economic and Social History, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Vernadskogo Prosp., 82, Moscow, 119571, Russia.
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Kedrov N.G. Viktor Danilov’s four conceptions of collectivization // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2019. V.4. №3. P. 6-42.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2019-4-3-6-42
Annotation
The article considers the views of the famous Russian agrarian historian V.P. Danilov on collectivization. The author identifies four stages in his studies. First, Danilov’s becoming a historian of the Soviet village under the Khrushev’s “thaw”, when he joined the reconsideration of the Soviet history and took an active part in the critical analysis of Stalin’s historiography. Danilov focused on the search of macro-structures in the genesis of socialist relations in the Soviet agriculture. However, his attempts to develop a new conception of collectivization were not successful due to the political changes in the country in the mid-1960s. In the second half of the 1960s—1980s, the new official conception of collectivization introduced by S.P. Trapeznikov became the main subject of criticism from Danilov: he emphasized the prevalence of patriarchal relations in the Soviet village before collectivization. “Perestroika” gave new hopes to the historians of the Danilov’s generation. However, he did not share the views of radical critics of the collective-farm system and developed a conception of the alternatives to the Stalin’s “revolutions from above” as the lost opportunities to create a true socialism. The final stage in Danilov’s scientific work consisted of preparing fundamental documentary series on history of the Soviet village, and of thinking on the ideas of totalitarian historiography. The author stresses Danilov’s outstanding role in developing two of three research programs for the study of the agrarian history of the Soviet period.
Keywords
agrarian history, historical science, Soviet village, collectivization, V.P. Danilov
About the author
Nikolay G. Kedrov, PhD (History), Independent Researcher
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Goncharova I.V., Chuvardin G.S. Communes of the Central Black Earth Region from “war communism” to collectivization: Design and implementation // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2018. V.3. №4. P. 105-122.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2018-3-4-105-122
Annotation
The article considers evolution of the Bolsheviks’ policy starting from the introduction of communes in the village as a socialist way of rural life in the post-revolutionary period. The archival materials of the Central Black Earth Region prove the idea of the authorities to create collective farms of commune type, which was determined by the revolutionary euphoria, and show the results of implementing this project in the agricultural center of the country during the NEP. The village communes (collective peasant associations) of the Orel Region depended on the state subsidies and state land fund. The social portrait of these communes’ members and their estimates of the communes prove that some former noblemen tried to adapt to the new Soviet reality under the Charter of the commune to preserve their ‘gentry nests’ from land redistribution. The most important factor determining the life of village communes in the 1920s — early 1930s was their changing role in the state ideology and policy. During this period, the position of the Bolsheviks changed according to the strategic aims of the state agricultural policy. Under the NEP, when market relations and private initiative were allowed, the communes were considered exemplary farms of the future showing peasants a new way of everyday life and joint farming. Their economic unprofitability was ignored due to the task of cultural education of local peasants, which became an additional incentive for peasant entrepreneurs to enter communes and to use state subsidies to improve their financial situation. Communards’ children had a good chance for education which was an important social lift of that time. The state collectivization policy radically changed the official attitude to village communes — they were thoroughly checked and strongly criticized. Thus, the multi-form agricultural sector was destroyed and the agricultural artel was declared the dominant form of collective farming. The primary task of new collective farms was to leave peasants without means of production and investments. Moreover, under the socialist experiment peasants simply disappeared as its observers and turned into collective farmers, i.e. participants of the experiment.
Keywords
Peasants, Central Black Earth Region, village communes, collective farms, authorities, Bolsheviks, collectivization.
About the authors
Irina V. Goncharova, DSc (History), Professor, Department of Russian History, Orel State University named after I.S. Turgenev. 302026, Orel, Komsomolskaya St., 95.
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German S. Chuvardin, DSc (History), Professor, Department of Russian History, Orel State University named after I.S. Turgenev. 302026, Orel, Komsomolskaya St., 95.
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Kerblay B. A.V. Chayanov. Evolution of the Russian agrarian thought from 1908 to 1930: At the crossroads (Article of B. Kerblay) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2018. V.3. №4. P. 17-68.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2018-3-4-17-68
Annotation
The Russian Peasant Studies presents a collection of archival documents related to the publication of Alexander Chayanov’s works in 1967 in France and England, which was prepared by the Professor of Sorbonne University Basile Kerblay. This collection includes the correspondence of Olga Gurevich, the widow of Chayanov, with Basile Kerblay in 1966-1970, and her translation from French of Kerblay’s article on the work of Chayanov. Kerblay’s article was published as a preface to the collected works of Chayanov and became classic. This is the first serious study of the biography and work of Chayanov and of the theory of the Russian organization-production school of the 1920s in Western sociology. This article is published in Russian for the first time. The letters of Kerblay and Olga Gurevich reveal some additional circumstances of the publication of Alexander Chayanov’s works in 1967 and some features of the ideological atmosphere of the USSR at that time. The collection of archival documents in the Russian Peasant Studies includes comments and a brief biography of Olga Gurevich. These documents are a part of the funds of the Russian State Archive of Economics. This publication is dedicated to the anniversary of Chayanov. The publication with comments was prepared by I.A. Kuznetsov and T.A. Savinova.
Keywords
A.V. Chayanov, rural Russia, peasant studies, interdisciplinary research, agrarian policy, Russian revolution, collectivization.
About the authors
Basile Kerblay
Editors: Igor A. Kuznetsov, PhD (History), Senior Researcher, the School of Public Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. 119571, Moscow, Vernadskogo Prosp., 82.
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Tatyana A. Savinova, PhD (Economics), Head of Organizational-Methodical and Personnel Work Chair, Russian State Archive of Economy; 119992, Moscow, B. Pirogovskaya St., 17.
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Translator: Olga E. Gurevich
Kedrov N.G. Ivan Semenovich Kuznetsov in the context of three mythologies of collectivization // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2018. V.3. №3. P. 48-69.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2018-3-3-48-69
Annotation
The article considers scientific works of the Russian historian I.S. Kuznetsov in the context of three historical approaches to assessing collectivization: 1) the Soviet official approach of the 1960-1980s; 2) the ideology of the so called “village writers”; 3) the post-Soviet interpretation of collectivization. Kuznetsov is rightly called a pioneer of the study of the Soviet peasantry’s social psychology. The author argues that Kuznetsov as a scientist was greatly influenced by the works of B.F. Porshnev, N.Ya. Guschin, V.P. Danilov. His PhD thesis basically corresponded to the official Soviet model of interpreting collectivization but later his views on it seriously changed. In the book Social Psychology of the Siberian Peasantry in the 1920s, he proposed his own theory of the prerequisites of the “great change”, in particular focusing on numerous economic, political, and social-cultural conflicts among the peasantry on the eve of collectivization. Such an approach was very different from the mainstream interpretations of collectivization in the post-Soviet science. Thus, when developing his ideas in the 1990s, Kuznetsov actually presented a set of counter-arguments to the dominant theory of collectivization. At that time his ideas were ignored by the scientific community but today they attract its attention.
Keywords
Agrarian historiography, collectivization, historical psychology, historical science, rural culture, I.S. Kuznetsov.
About the author
Kedrov Nikolay G., PhD (History), Researcher, Vologda State University; 160000, Russia, Vologda, Lenina St., 15.
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Kedrov N.G. Yury Moshkov in the historiography of collectivization // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2017. V.2. №3. P. 76-96.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2017-2-3-76-96
Annotation
Article is devoted to the analysis of works of known Russian agrarian historian Ju. A. Moshkov. The author considers its works in a context of evolution of a Russian historiography of collectivization. The author notices that Moshkov has appeared for the first time on a proscenium of a historical science during epoch of «thaw». It was the major period in formation of a problematics of history of the Soviet society. Then, Soviet historians offered the research program of studying of agrarian transformations to the USSR as objective process of formation of a socialist way of production. Moshkov’s book «The Grain problem in years of continuous collectivization of agriculture in USSR» has played the most essential role in realization of science tasks of this program. The author analyzes the ideas of Moshkov’s book in a comparative context. He compares them both with concepts a Stalin’s historiography, as with the audit of the last offered by agrarian historians of an epoch of «thaw». In particular, it is underlined, that Moshkov’s work promoted revision in a Russian science: the reasons grain crisis in 1927/28 year, a question on the top chronological border of the New Economic Policy, estimations of results of collectivization. Thanks to it, Moshkov became one of the central figures in the Soviet agrarian historiography. Also, the author considers tracks of the following perception of the Moshkov’s works in the historiography. Moshkov participated in historiographic revolution of 1990th years. However, the results of this scientific revolution retouched the previous ideas of the scientist. Owing to it, influence of its works on development of modern researches of collectivization to the full is not estimated now yet.
Keywords
Soviet historical science, agrarian historiography, Ju. A. Moshkov, collectivization, kolkhoz system
About the author
Nikolay G. Kedrov, PhD (History), Research Fellow, Vologda State University; 15 Lenina St., Vologda, 160000, Russia
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