On Peculiarities of Studying the Collective Farms Activities in the Days of the NEP on the Example of the Tambov Gubernia: The 1920s

Scientific article

УДК 93/94+332.36+651.5+930.25+930.253+002.2+002.66+002.6.048.26+304.3+304.442+304.444+314.7.045+314.6+314.8+314.9+32.019.5+329.15+329.271+329.8+659.4+332.05+331.55+332.33+332.334.2+332.334.4+911.37+346.2+346.3+346.57+631/635+338.43

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2023-4-1173-1184

Nikolashin, V. P., Strekalova, N. V.

G. R. Derzhavin Tambov State University, Tambov, Russian Federation

On Peculiarities of Studying the Collective Farms Activities in the Days of the NEP on the Example of the Tambov Gubernia: The 1920s

Abstract

The problem of development of communes, artels, and partnerships for joint cultivation of land (TOZ) in the NEP period is relevant and significant both for peasant studies and for formation of effective trajectories for the development of contemporary national agrarian economy. At present, despite a significant number of publications on the subject, there are some gaps in the historiography that require a deeper study. Thus, the topic of the TOZs development is studied mostly in the context of general collective construction. A deeper study has great potential for understanding their role and identifying features of their interaction with individual peasant farms, communes, and artels, as well as for assessing their influence on cultural and economic development of the village. Another research direction is study of “model communes and artels” and immigrant communes. They were among the most productive and economically sustainable for a long time, thus demonstrating advantages of forming collective farms to the traditional village. The article is to identify new promising research areas. It uses general scientific methods, content analysis, method of system analysis, statistical method, historical-reconstructive, historical-comparative approaches, as well as theory of modernization. The article contends that statistical data of the period doesn’t permit to form a complete picture of the state of collective sector. The central authorities did not have accurate data on the number of operating collective farms. And only large collective farms (kolkhozes) kept books. Therefore, for their systematic analysis, it is necessary to involve a wide array of sources from central and local archives. In the Kirsanov uezd of the Tambov gubernia, there were two immigrant communes: one was “Put” (“The Way”), another was named after V.I. Lenin (originally “Ira”). There is potential for in-depth study of their activities at the micro level. The conclusions of the article permit to develop conceptual notions on the collective farms activities in the Tambov gubernia in the days of the new economic policy and to answer questions existing in modern scientific discourse.

Keywords

Historical sources, collective farms, new economic policy, Tambov gubernia, peasantry, artels, communes, partnerships for joint cultivation of the land.

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About the authors

Nikolashin Vadim Pavlovich, PhD in History, associate professor, G.R. Derzhavin Tambov State University, faculty of history, world politics, and sociology, department of history and philosophy, assistant professor, Tambov, Russian Federation, +7-900-496-73-61, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ORCID 0000-0002-3595-8556

Strekalova Natalia Valerievna, PhD in History, G.R. Derzhavin Tambov State University, faculty of history, world politics, and sociology, department of history and philosophy, head of the department, Tambov, Russian Federation, +7-953-121-90-19, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 28.04.2023, published (for citation):

NIKOLASHIN, V. P., STREKALOVA, N. V. Ob osobennostyakh izucheniya deyatel'nosti kollektivnykh khozyaistv v gody nehpa na primere Tambovskoi gubernii. 1920-e gg. [On Peculiarities of Studying the Collective Farms Activities in the Days of the NEP on the Example of the Tambov Gubernia: The 1920s. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2023, no. 4, pp. 1173-1184. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2023-4-1173-1184