Vladimir Andreevich Il’inykh,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk, Russia, е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Individual Peasants in Siberia in 1933–1934: Factors and Methods of Social Adaptation
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2024-4-17
Five information notes of the secretaries of the district committees of VKP(b) to the West Siberian Krai Committee and a report note of the Krai Committee and the Krai Executive Committee to the Central Committee of VKP(b), found in the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region, are introduced into the scientific circulation. The published documents were compiled within the framework of the survey of the socio-economic situation of the individual peasantry of the West Siberian region conducted in the first half of 1934. They record the main factors and methods that enabled the individual peasants, having survived the storm and onslaught of the first years of collectivization, to adapt to the prevailing political and economic conditions. A significant part of individual peasants reoriented to non-agricultural earnings, most of which they received from working on a horse outside their farms. A significant source of non-agricultural earnings was wages, including those received outside. They also practiced handicrafts on the basis of their own farms and forest crafts. A part of individual peasants engaged in illegal trade operations. The removal of restrictions on the freedom of trade led to the growth of income from agriculture. In remote districts, individual peasants increased their grain and technical crops, which were partially sold on the market. In areas located near large industrial centers, they engaged in commercial production of vegetable crops. The earnings of individual peasants who retained their farms were much higher than the wages paid in agricultural associations. Therefore, there were no incentives for them to join a collective farm.
Publishing: 28/08/2024
The article has been received by the editor on 20/02/2024
How to cite: Il’inykh V.А. Individual Peasants in Siberia in 1933–1934: Factors and Methods of Social Adaptation // Historical Courier, 2024, No. 4 (36), pp. 221–241. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2024/ISTKURIER-2024-4-17.pdf]
The study was carried out at the expense of a grant from the Russian Science Foundation No. 24-28-00100 “Social Adaptation of the Siberian Peasantry in the Late 1920s – the First Half of the 1960s: Mechanisms, Forms, Results”.
Links: Issue 4 2024
Keywords: social adaptation; agrarian policy of the Soviet state; individual peasants; collectivization; agriculture; Siberia