Activities of the Moscow province food committee in the implementation of the food policy of the provisional government in 1917

Abstract

Introduction. The article deals with the problem of providing food to the Moscow province in 1917. An analysis of the activities of the Moscow Provincial Food Committee allows us to trace the features of the food business in Russia, to find ways out of the current situation with the supply of bread and essentials to the province. Food policy at all times is the basis of the national security of the country, as it includes economic, social, national factors that provide the basis for the stability of the state. The food crisis that began in 1916 became the catalyst for the revolutionary processes of 1917 in Russia. Turning to the activities of the tsarist government, the Provisional Government in the field of regulating the agrarian issue, providing food for the army and the civilian population, one can trace the policy mechanisms of the proposed reforms, their positive and negative sides.Materials and methods. There were no special studies devoted to the activities of the Moscow Provincial Food Committee directly, as a rule, the topics of food supplies for Moscow were touched upon, but the issue of supplying the population of the province was not investigated. For the analysis of materials, we used system-structural and system methods.Results. Based on archival materials, the article focuses on the rule-making activities of the committee in the field of regulating the work of local committees, instructors, and agents. Practical work is shown on organizing the provision of food to the population of the province, setting fixed prices, accounting for the harvest of 1917, etc.Conclusion. As a result, the Moscow Provincial Food Committee performed all the functions assigned to it by the provisional regulation, implemented the law on the grain monopoly, but the inconsistency of the decisions made by the Provisional Government, the inefficiency of the system of the procurement apparatus, did not allow the planned measures to be taken in solving the food issue.