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State expropriation of food products in the countryside in the epoch of “war communism”

Liberal Arts in Russia. 2018. Vol. 7. No. 1. Pp. 72-80.
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Khaziev R. A.
Bashkir State University
32 Zaki Validi Street, 450076 Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia
Email: khazievra@mail.ru
Khazieva M. A.
Bashkir Institute of Physical Culture
67 Kommunisticheskaya Street, 450077 Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia

Abstract

The authors of the article study a series of traumatic events from 1914 to 1921 that Russia lived through: the Bolshevik revolution, the Civil War, expropriations and requisitions in the countryside, and famine. Analyzing these events, the authors show, how they contributed to the complete breakdown of the status quo associated with the tsarist regime and led to the emergence and, eventually, to the widespread perpetration of violence widely used by the Bolsheviks in the era of “war communism”. The authors studied daily activities of different local officials, who expressed hidden dissatisfaction with the food levy (prodrazverstka) and aggressive behavior of armed food collectors (prodotryady) sent to countryside for a violent expropriation of grain. Local officials used different means to make impact on Moscow officials to encourage the country leaders to correct the policy of total voluntarist requisition of the peasants’ food. This policy led to heavy food losses and clearly undermined political stability at the periphery. It is shown, how the use of state pressure against peasants turned into a devastating blow to the productivity in rural regions, and which to a certain extent led to “the Great Famine” of 1921-1922. A multi-factor assessment was given to the activities of armed food collectors, who irrevocably confiscated not only “surplus” of “kulak” grain, but also the stock of seeds intended for spring and winter sowing; they took the rations of peasant families, depriving them of vital food. The confiscations resulted in a sharp drop of peasant enthusiasm, which turned into a decline in agricultural production, which also was an important motive for the outbreak of famine. Taking into account the regional trends in the period of “war communism”, the authors study such a complex phenomenon as the desire of the Soviet government to discipline the regional officials for the implementation of the grain requisition, which constantly led to backroom conflicts between Moscow and local soviet officials. The revealed contradictions between Moscow and the regions are interpreted in the broad context of the political formula, which boils down to the urge of local officials to retain their status as a new administrative class in their regions.

Keywords

  • • Great Russian revolution
  • • Civil War
  • • war communism
  • • requisitions
  • • economic history

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