Vladimir V. Miroshkin

Mordovian State Pedagogical University (Saransk, Russia),

e-mail: miroshkinv@yandex.ru

 

On the Question of the Attitude of the Mordovian Peasantry to the Agrarian Measures of the Soviet Government (1917–1920s)

 

Abstract

Introduction. The agrarian issue has always occupied a special place in the history of Russia. His decision, proposed by the Soviet government, became fateful for the Russian state and society, the majority of which was the communal peasantry. The purpose of the article is to analyze the Mordovian peasantry’s perception of the agrarian transformations of the Soviet state in the 1917–1920s through the prism of a communal archetype.

Materials and Methods. The source base of the work was made up of materials extracted from the State Archive of the Penza Region and the Central State Archive of the Republic of Mordovia, and published documents. The methodological basis is the principles of dialectical cognition of society, historicism, science, and objectivity. General scientific (analysis, synthesis, comparison), comparative-historical, problem-chronological methods, hermeneutical approach were applied, the principle of combining macro- and micro-level approaches was observed.

Results. State measures in the agrarian sphere during October 1917 and the first post-October decade served as a key marker for determining the degree of loyalty of the Mordovian peasantry to the Soviet government. The communal archetype was the dominant worldview of the majority of Mordvins, who perceived land as the joint property of those who farm it with their labor. Collective forms of management evoked benevolent neutrality, as long as they did not compete with communal land use and were voluntary in nature. The agrarian measures of the government, which did not meet the communal canons, aroused antipathy.

Discussion and Conclusion. The secular ideal of a just social order, which assumed the use of land based on the principles of equitable land use and associated equality with equal opportunities and working conditions, did not correlate with the government’s view of the need for equalization in material goods and income according to the class principle, regardless of the work performed. This difference of approaches, which did not appear clearly in October 1917, became decisive in the decision of the state in the Mordovian region on the “grain issue” during the years of war communism and grain procurements in the second half of the 1920s. The realization of the impossibility of re-educating the peasantry on socialist principles within the framework of the institution of the community led to the liquidation of the latter.

Keywords: peasantry, Mordvins, land use, Collective Economy Form, peasant community, Soviet government, community archetype, modernization.

For citation: Miroshkin V. V. On the Question of the Attitude of the Mordovian Peasantry to the Agrarian Measures of the Soviet Government (1917–1920s). Gumanitarian: aktual’nye problemy gumanitarnoi nauki i obrazovaniia = Russian Journal of the Humanities. 2025; 25(1): 9–20. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.24412/2078-9823.069.025.202501.009-020.

 

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