Appropriation, utilisation et partage des terres à l'époque de la NEP

Abstract

Sigrid Grosskopf, Appropriation, employment and apportionment of land during the NEP period. The increase of the agricultural production, on which was based the industrialization of the country, and the socialist transformation of the agriculture were the two sides of one of the main problems that the Soviet Union had to face during the period of the NEP. This article endeavours to outline the state of one of the factors of the agricultural production — the land — taking into consideration this double aspect. In view of the lack of livestock and of agricultural implements, peasants could start but slowly on the cultivation of the soil conquered by them through the October Revolution. Even at the close of the NEP period, the difference between available surfaces and cultivated ones was considerable: according to the information released by the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, 25 to 30% areas cultivated in 1913 were still fallow in 1928-29 in the former "wheat granary" of the country. The irrational repartition of lots was here one of the principal causes of the uncomplete employment of land. This article also describes the spontaneous endeavours of the poorer peasants to solve this problem.