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The Peasantry - Coggle Diagram
The Peasantry
Food and famine
Famine of 1891:
- Adverse weather + panic selling of surplus grain resulted in half the provinces of Russia suffering from food shortages
- Famine was made worse by outbreaks of cholera + typhus - led to ~350,000 deaths - blamed on central gov.
Food supplies in WW1:
- Good harvests during first three years - most grain was used to feed troops + problems with getting foodstuffs into urbanised areas
- Bread queues of 8 hours became the norm - food shortages in WW1
- An inadequate transport infrastructure eg a railway system largely being used by the military, also made accessing food difficult
Food crisis of 1918:
- Peasants continued to hoard + valuable agricultural land was lost (Ukraine - Russia's 'bread basket') due to Treaty of Brest Litovsk - responded to by introducing grain requisitioning, practice of taking food + redistributing it among those who were in greatest need
- Kulaks blamed for shortages + persecuted - peasants reacted angrily by resorting to violent protest + refusing to sign up to collectives + resisting the demand to create surplus supplies of grain - By 1920, the Cheka + Red Army had been instructed to seize all food supplies for redistribution - more violent reaction occurred
Famine of 1921:
- Bolshevik policies towards post-war food crisis 1918 contributed to famine
- Droughts followed by severe winters also had an effect
- Almost complete shutdown of the Russian railway system due to Civil war + so was extremely difficult to transport produce - also difficult for urban dwellers to travel to where there might have food supplies
- End result was a death toll of over 5 million
- Lenin partly blamed as was slow to respond and refused aid from American Relief Administration
Famine of 1932-4:
- Effects of 1st phase of collectivisation + poor harvests due to terrible weather conditions led to the most disastrous famine of the whole period
- Number of people who died due to starvation + disease was similar to famine of 1921 but many more suffered due the repression by the Stalinsut regime
- Death penalty imposed for stealing grain (even though it lagally belonged to them)
- Peasants who ate their own seed corn were shot
- Discussion of the grain crisis was banned as Stalin publicly denied a food problem existed
- Severe restrictions on those who wanted to move around to look for food
- Animals slaughtered by peasants rather than handing them over to the authorities
The Second World War + food supplies:
- Policy of collectivisation was relaxed + removal of restrictions on the size of private plots of land, food + production rose
- Short lived as another famine took place in 1947 - poor harvests and food shortages continued under Krushchev + food still had to be imported
Treatment
Limitations
Tsars:
- Had to pay redemption payments for 49 years which left many in debt
- Free physical movement was restricted by internal land passports under Alexander ll + lll
- The Mir dominated peasant life but in 1889 Alexander lll introduced the Land Captains to oversee the mir
Communists:
- Displaced kulaks suffered worse conditions as they were forced form their property + dumped in barracks or given tents in a field
- Gov. began food confiscation, price fixing, trade controls + peasant conscription to the Red army
- Land passports reimposed to prevent people from fleeing to the cities
Tsars:
- Alexander lll - peasant migration became more common and continued under Nicholas ll - still an issue of overcrowding in houses Serfs became emancipated in 1861 + were free of their landowners
- Alexander lll abolished salt tax, lower redemption payments + introduced the Peasant Land Banks to help peasants purchase land
- Stolypin ended redemption payments in 1905 allowing peasants to be free of debt - internal passports were also abolished + peasants were seen as full citizens
- The Imperial Land Decree 1906 - individual peasants could leave the mir + could pass property onto his heirs
- ~ 2 million privately owned land + became kulaks, a richer class of peasants (BUT were later discriminated against)
- Agricultural schools led to a significant reduction in illiteracy
- Peasants could take 'Holy Days' + seasonal celebrations
Communists:
- Under the NEP there were no more requisitioning of agricultural products + peasants could sell whatever they produced
- Land Code 1922 - legalised Peasants title to the land that they owned
- Land Decree 1917 removed private property of land + the state owned the land - the peasants could have 96% of land whilst the state owned 4%
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Working conditions
Tsars:
- Growing use of farm machinery as a result of state support, factory production of farm machinery grew from 13m roubles in value in 1900 to 60m in 1913
Communists:
- Practices were still backwards as they still had to use wooden ploughs
- MTS stations were created to distribute technology - only gave peasants equipment if they met their quotas
- MTS stations were finally abandoned + technology was made available for the whole collective
- 50,000 peasants migrated to Kazakhstan + Western Siberia for the Virgin Land scheme