Prodrazverstka,alsotransliteratedprodrazvyorstka(Russian:продразвёрстка,IPA:[prədrɐˈzvʲɵrstkə],short forпродовольственнаяразвёрстка,lit. 'food apportionment'), alternatively referred to in English asgrain requisitioning,[1][2][3][4][5]was a policy and campaign ofconfiscationof grain and otheragriculturalproducts from peasants at nominalfixed pricesaccording to specified quotas (the nounrazverstka,Russian:развёрстка,and the verbrazverstat,refer to the partition of the requested total amount as obligations from the suppliers). This strategy often led to the deaths of many country-dwelling people, such as its involvement with theHolodomor[citation needed]andKazakh famines of 1919–1922and1930–1933.[citation needed]
The term is commonly associated withwar communismduring theRussian Civil Warwhen it was introduced by theBolshevikgovernment. However, Bolsheviks borrowed the idea from the grainrazverstkaintroduced in theRussian Empirein 1916 duringWorld War I.
World War I grain razverstka
edit1916 saw a food crisis in the Russian Empire. While the harvest was good inLower Volga Regionand WesternSiberia,its transportation by railroads collapsed. Additionally, the food market was in disarray as fixed prices for government purchases were unattractive. A decree of November 29, 1916 signed byAleksandr Rittichof the Ministry of Agriculture introduced razverstka as the collection of grain for defense purposes. TheRussian Provisional Governmentestablished after theFebruary Revolutionof 1917 could not propose any incentives for peasants, and theirstate monopolyon grain sales failed to achieve its goal.[6][7]
Soviet prodrazverstka
editIn 1918 the center ofSoviet Russiafound itself cut off from the most important agricultural regions of the country - at this stage of theRussian Civil WartheWhite movementcontrolled many of the traditional food-producing areas. Reserves of grain ran low, causing hunger among the urban population, from which the Bolshevik government received its strongest support.[citation needed]In order to satisfy minimal food needs, theSovietgovernment introduced strict control over the food surpluses of prosperous rural households.[citation needed]Since many peasants were extremely unhappy with this policy and tried to resist it, they were branded as "saboteurs"of the breadmonopolyof the state and advocates of free "predatory", "speculative" trade.[citation needed]Vladimir Leninbelieved that prodrazvyorstka was the only possible way - in the circumstances - to procure sufficient amounts of grain and other agricultural products for the population of the cities during the civil war.[8][need quotation to verify][9]
Before prodrazverstka, Lenin's May 9, 1918 decree ( "О продовольственной диктатуре" ) introduced the concept of "produce dictatorship". This and other subsequent decrees ordered the forced collection of foodstuffs, without any limitations, and used theRed Armyto accomplish this.
Adecreeof theSovnarkomintroduced prodrazvyorstka throughout Soviet Russia on January 11, 1919. The authorities extended the system toUkraineandBelarusin 1919, and toTurkestanandSiberiain 1920. In accordance with the decree of thePeople's Commissariatfor Provisions on the procedures of prodrazvyorstka (January 13, 1919), the number of different kinds of products designated for collection by the state was calculated on the basis of the data on eachguberniia's areas under crops, crop capacity and the reserves of past years. Within each guberniia, the collection plan was broken down betweenuezds,volosts,villages, and then separate peasant households. The collection procedures were performed by the agencies of the People's Commissariat for Provisions andprodotriads(singular: продовольственный отряд, food brigades) with the help ofkombeds(комитет бедноты,committees of the poor) and of localSoviets.
Initially, prodrazverstka covered the collection of grain andfodder.During the procurement campaign of 1919–20, prodrazverstka also includedpotatoesandmeat.By the end of 1920, it included almost every kind of agricultural product. According to Sovietstatistics,the authorities collected 107.9 millionpoods(1.77 millionmetric tons) of grain and fodder in 1918–19, 212.5 million poods (3.48 million metric tons) in 1919–20, and 367 million poods (6.01 million metric tons) in 1920–21.[citation needed]
Prodrazverstka allowed the Soviet government to solve the important problem of supplying theRed Armyand the urban population, and of providingraw materialsfor various industries. Prodrazverstka left its mark on commodity-money relations, since the authorities had prohibited selling of bread andgrain.It also influenced relations between the city and the village and became one of the most important elements of the system ofwar communism.
As the Russian Civil War approached its end in the 1920s, prodrazverstka lost its actuality, but it had done much damage to the agricultural sector and had caused growing discontent among peasants.[citation needed]As the government switched to theNEP(New Economic Policy), a decree of the10th Congressof theRussian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)in March 1921 replaced prodrazverstka withprodnalog(food tax).
See also
edit- Lenin's Hanging Order
- Soviet grain procurement crisis of 1928
- Ural-Siberian methodof grain procurement
Literature
edit- Silvana Malle (2002),Prodrazverstka,The Economic Organization of War Communism1918–1921.Cambridge University Press. 568 p. (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies, Vol. 47).ISBN978-0521527033
References
edit- ^Peeling, Siobhan (2014)."War Communism | International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1)".encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net.Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.Retrieved26 March2023.
Practices of forcible grain requisitioning and monopolisation of supply distribution were intended to ensure minimum levels of food reached the Red Army and the starving cities.
- ^Llewelyn, Jennifer; et al. (4 December 2012)."The New Economic Policy (NEP)".Russian Revolution.Retrieved26 March2023.
The NEP ended the policy of grain requisitioning and introduced elements of capitalism and free trade into the Soviet economy. "" The formal decree that introduced the NEP was called "On the replacement of prodrazvyorstka [grain requisitioning] with prodnalog [a fixed tax]". Under war communism and prodrazvyorstka, the amount of grain requisitioned was decided on-the-spot by unit commanders.
- ^"Prodrazverstka | Encyclopedia".encyclopedia.Retrieved27 March2023.
- ^"Instructions for Requisitioning Grain".Seventeen Moments in Soviet History.24 August 2015.Retrieved27 March2023.
- ^Alpha his (26 July 2019)."Bolshevik decree on food procurement (1918)".Russian Revolution.Retrieved27 March2023.
- ^Dronin, Nikolai; Bellinger, Edward (2005),Climate Dependence and Food Problems in Russia, 1900–1990: The Interaction of Climate and Agricultural Policy and Their Effect on Food Problems,Central European University Press, pp. 65, 66,ISBN963-7326-10-3.
- ^"г. session of State Duma",Free Duma(in Russian), RU: Kodeks, 14 February 1917[permanent dead link],where Rittich reports on the introduction and results of the grain razvyorstka.
- ^Lenin, VI (1965),Collected Works,vol. 32, Moscow: Progress Publishers, p. 187.
- ^
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich(1977).Collected Works.Vol. 32. Moscow: Progress Publishers. p. 289.Retrieved10 August2020.
[...] we could hold out — in a besieged fortress — only through the surplus-grain appropriation system [...]
- This article includes content derived from theGreat Soviet Encyclopedia,1969–1978, which is partially in thepublic domain.