Village Soviet and Peasant Community in the 1920s in Russia

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K03568
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic history
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Okuda Hiroshi 東京大学, 大学院経済学研究科(経済学部), 名誉教授 (80092170)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 村ソヴェト / 共同体 / 選挙 / 農業集団化 / 共産党員 / ネップ / クラーク / 風刺画

Outline of Final Research Achievements

During the first half of the 1920s village Soviets were under the strong control by Communists. But due to the policy of “Revitalization of Soviets” from 1924-1925 the peasantry began to activate its own political potential in the direction of decentralization. Its aim was to strengthen local self-government, based on the peasant community. But this situation bewildered rural Communists who monopolized administrative positions in the countryside. In March 1926 Stalin strongly demanded at one meeting of Party Central Committee that the petit bourgeois should be deprived of the voting rights to the Soviets. Thus during the election campaign of 1927 not only the wealthy but middle peasants were deprived of the voting rights. Market-oriented peasants were significantly suppressed, and “anti-kulak mood” rose among the rural Communists. It formed one of the background of the forthcoming attack against the peasantry under the Grain Crisis in 1928.

Free Research Field

西洋経済史