Power, prodrazvyorstka and the Siberian peasants on the eve of the uprising of 1921

The aim of this article is to analyze the changes in the relationship between the state and the peasantry in the context of the implementation of the policy of military communism. The study is based on the documents of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, the Documentation Center of Modern History of the Omsk region, the works of the leaders of the Soviet government, materials of congresses of the RCP(b), the reports of the party and Soviet authorities and the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Speculation, and Sabotage (Cheka). The article analyzes the social and economic activities of the Bolsheviks in the village and the attitude of the peasantry towards them, and characterizes the specifics of the West Siberian peasantry. The author pays attention to the prosperity, relative homogeneity of the social structure, individualism, enterprise and other objects of exploitation in the countryside - peasant migrants and autochthonous population. Some sources indicate the application of state-legitimized violence, the use of the army and armed detachments of workers, extrajudicial actions for the purpose of withdrawal of food to solve the food crisis in the country, and to establish total control over the rural economy. The article is based on the sources showing a catastrophic decline in the living standards of peasants, the blurring of property distinctions in the countryside, the emotional depression and embitterment of the peasants of Western Siberia as a consequence of prodrazvyorstka (food apportionment). While conducting the research, the author has come to the following conclusions. After the establishment of the power of the Bolsheviks and the introduction of prodrazvyorstka the status of the peasantry changed. The West Siberian peasantry throughout the centuries was an ally of the state in the development of new lands, establishing contacts with other ethnic groups and expanding the borders of Russia. The Bolsheviks declared the prosperous and enterprising Siberian peasantry a social enemy of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Prodrazverstka broke the tax system that had functioned in pre-revolutionary Russia, destroyed the traditional social and economic institutions, led to the establishment of state control over the production, disposal and consumption of agricultural products. The ideals of the revolution and the preservation of the dictatorship of the proletariat were the highest goals for the Soviet government. The interests of the Siberian peasantry were sacrificed to the revolution. The Siberian peasants did not refuse to fulfill their obligations to the state, as long as they did not concern their vital interests, principles and forms of the economy organization. In general, the peasants of Siberia did not accept the revolutionary changes of the Bolshevik power. The policy of the state formed a stable opinion among the West Siberian peasantry about Soviet power as an unjust power, the attitude towards the Bolsheviks was characterized by distrust and enmity.

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