On the reasons for joining collective farms in 1918-1928: between enthusiasm and economic interests (by the materials of the Tambov province

Abstract

Introduction. The study is devoted to the actual problem of perception by the rural population of systemic socio-economic changes in the context of agrarian transformations. An analysis of the motives of peasants when joining and organizing collective farms reveals the balance of their economic and emotional motives, and makes it possible to more deeply analyze various strategies of behavior. The novelty lies in the fact that the problem under study is poorly understood, and a number of documents are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.Materials and methods. The main sources were materials from both local and regional archives. The methodological basis of the research is a complex of general scientific, special historical methods, as well as the theory of modernization.Results. Communes, artels and partnerships for the joint cultivation of the land began to form in the first months after the completion of the revolutionary events of 1917. They differed in the way they organize production and in the distribution of income. Communes were also distinguished by the fact that in them, in addition to the means of production, life was also subject to socialization. Such Soviet collectivism, in many respects, contradicted the traditional attitudes of the village and did not correspond to the socio-economic processes that took place in the Tambov village at the turn of 1917-1918. The "communal revolution" that flared up was accompanied by the "closure" and "separation" of the peasantry from the outside world.The Bolsheviks, on the other hand, sought to weaken the traditional institutions of the countryside and to involve farmers in the process of collective construction. The peasant world met the new forms of agricultural production for them with distrust. It took several years for the local population to see a number of benefits from joining collective farms. The social composition of the communes, artels and partnerships for the joint cultivation of the land was represented by various groups of representatives of the city and the countryside, but the predominant stratum was the peasants.Conclusion. The first organizers of collective farms were mainly communists and pro-Bolshevik strata of the countryside, including the poorest strata of the countryside. If at the first stages the economic motives for participation in the organization and life of collective farms were combined with "revolutionary enthusiasm", then by the final stage of the New Economic Policy, material interests prevailed over other reasons. During the NEP period, “false collective farms” became one of the most common forms of adapting the material incentives of the traditional village to the realities of Soviet agrarian policy. In addition, the "false collective farms" were a concentrated expression of the individualistic aspirations of the peasantry, the unification of economic interests behind the screen of which, often, collectivist forms of labor organization were hidden. Right up to the beginning of the implementation of the policy of "complete collectivization", the vast majority of peasant households remained faithful to the communal form of agricultural production.