People’s commissars of agriculture of the RSFSR in the era of the new eco- nomic policy (1921-1928)

Abstract

   The article analyses deep agrarian transformations in Russia in the early 1920s. With the participation of the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture and its people’s commissars - V. G. Yakovenko and A. P. Smirnova. An explanation is given for revising the Bolshevik model of Russian development in 1921, expressed in the transition to the NEP as a policy of partial “retreat to state capitalism.” Economic priorities and the main elements of the new agricultural policy are noted: allowing trade and financial freedom for peasants, restoring money circulation, diversity of forms of land use in the countryside, renting land, and using hired labour while maintaining a state monopoly on land. In the context of the ongoing transformations, the participation of the People’s Commissars of Agriculture and their role and influence in restoring Russian agriculture in the search for effective ways to develop the industry is considered. The most important facts of the personal biography of the People’s Commissars are reproduced. Against the backdrop of the consistent implementation of NEP in agriculture, there are also relapses from the Civil War era in the form of the final destruction of large landowner farms. Despite this, on the eve of the completion of the restoration process and the victory of the collectivisation course, the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture supported state support for individual solid farms and their cooperation. It advocated the exclusion of administrative measures concerning the peasantry.