Socio-economic differentiation of the Stavropol village at the peak of the NEP

Abstract

Introduction. Despite all research In Russian historiography, the historical period of the NEP still retains a number of independent symptomatic plots that remain insufficiently studied by Russian historians even today. Among such historical plots of the NEP times is the detailed division of the Russian peasantry into intrasocial economic and production groups, in addition to the generally accepted and widespread brief interpretation in journalism and scientific literature, when only the poor, middle peasants and Kulaks are singled out among the Russian peasantry of the 1920s. Materials and Methods. On the basis of archival materials and historiographical facts the article proves that in the Stavropol village eight socioindustrial groups of peasant farms were formed as a result of the implementation of the NEP: the ones without sowing, the poor, the low-power, unstable middle peasants, middle peasants, prosperous middle peasants, the prosperous, bourgeois (Kulak, industrial). They are identified using the method of social differentiation. However, the discovered archival statistical data do not fully disclose the essential characteristics of the abovementioned socio-industrial groups of peasant farms, so the authors used the method of historical reconstruction, formal legal and historical-anthropological methods to create a detailed historical picture of the Stavropol village during the NEP, where the social face of the provincial peasantry comes to the fore.Analysis. The analysis of historical sources (primarily archival materials) and a number of key historiographical facts from the established modern Russian historiography allowed us to finally present completed historical plots about each of the studied groups of peasant farms, identifying their quantitative parameters, clarifying criteria for social differentiation and describing semantic characteristics. Results. Based on the results of the study, a conclusion is drawn about the complex socio-economic differentiation of the Stavropol peasantry, which reflected the agrarian multidimensionality and internal inconsistency of the NEP, which largely predetermined its curtailment in the late 1920s.

Keywords

• bolsheviks
• tithes,
• unified agricultural tax
• legislation
• land plots
• peasant mutual aid societies
• peasant farms
• new economic policy (nep)
• stavropol district