Land Distribution in German and Mennonite Colonies During the NEP Period. Expectations and Reality

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the relationship between the Soviet authorities and the German, as well as Mennonite communities, regarding land issues during the NEP period. It is based on the analysis of the official reports, memoirs and documents. The author studies the complex relationships between the central government, the regional level of authorities (provincial and district) and Mennonites. The land distribution in Mennonite colonies, as well as the cause and-effects of the process are analyzed. In the whirlwind of the internal and foreign political processes, the newly created Soviet state found itself on the edge of socio- economic conflicts. In order to solve urgent economic issues and curb mob violence, a number of economic reforms were adopted, which are known in history as the New Economic Policy. Most of the projects of the Soviet government were based on communist ideology at the initial stage. Those advanced farms’ lands, which used to belong to the Mennonites and Germans, were redistributed. Unemployed / recent employed people who had received some land, were not skilled and did not have a knack for agriculture. Therefore, they gradually abandoned their lands. That strategy undermined the land system and, as a result, became another pushing motivation for emigration and agricultural problems in the countryside. As a result of the Bolshevik government’s land program, the Mennonite community became embroiled in complex multilevel problems: a) intra- community land tensions caused by demographic processes and the resettlement of fellow refugees from starving regions of Soviet Russia to the colonies; b) conflicts with the population of neighboring villages and poor peasant committees, which often forced the issue of redistribution of Mennonite lands in their favor; c) failure of provincial and district executive committees to enforce resolutions of the supreme power to settle the land issue of the Mennonite community; d) ineffectiveness of the national minority committee; e) the perception by some Mennonites of new communist ideas – social equality. These reasons became important pushing factors for а large-scale wave of emigration of this ethno- confessional group to North America.