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From informational summary report [svodka] no. 22 of the OGPU Information and Political Control Department for 20 July through 3 August 1927

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By OGPU - Unified State Political Administration (state security), GPUs of autonomous republics and the Special Department of the Volga Region Military District

The War Against the Peasantry, 1927–1930: The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside

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From the informational summary report [svodka] no. 22 of the OGPU Information and Political Control Department for 20 July through 3 August 1927, 4 August 1927, 4 August 1927. TsA FSB RF, f. 2, op. 5, d. 394, ll. 88–89ob. Copy.

4 August 1927

… Peasantry

The Sell-Off of Livestock Resulting from Rumors of War

Riazan Gubernia. 27 July. A rumor that spread in the village of Arkhangelsky, Miloslavskoe Volost, Skopin Uezd, to the effect that horses and cattle would be mobilized caused panic among the peasants, and over several days two horses, twenty head of cattle, and several sheep were sold in the village.

Kursk Gubernia. 18 July. In the village of Aleksandrovsky, Prokhorovka Volost, Belgorod Uezd, peasants at the bazaar are paying no more than 120 rubles for good horses that previously cost 150–200 rubles,

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while they are offering 125–160 rubles for old horses and horses unfit for military uses. At the same time peasants are trying to sell good carts, out of fear that they may be confiscated in the event of a mobilization; carts that previously cost 130–150 rubles are being sold for 100–110 rubles.

Black Sea Okrug. 18 July. Panic can be seen among Cossacks in the village of Pavlovskoe, Krymsk Raion, in connection with the rumors of war. Instances in which horses and cattle are sold off have been noted, and silver money is being hidden.

Defeatist Agitation

Kursk Gubernia. 27 July. In the village of Ivanino, Glushkovo Volost, Rylsk Uezd, following a meeting at which a report was delivered on the danger of war, a middle peasant in a group of fellow villagers said: “What are we going to go fight for, we don't have enough land, and our land was taken away by the state farm, which is leasing it back to us. For 16 hours of work a day we're paid only 80 kopeks, can anybody live this way. We're not going to go fight, they can shoot us.”

Voronezh Gubernia. 28 July. In Bobrov Uezd, at a meeting in the town of Buturlinovka, Berezovka Raion, a kulak who spoke in response to the report on the international situation said: “The VKP(b) [All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik)] turns to us only in a difficult moment for it, but when everything is fine it forgets about us, so let the party go and defend itself on its own. We are all against war and we're not going to go kill workers and peasants from other countries. We don't want to build airplanes so that these same airplanes are used to kill us [… ]. We don't need war, we don't want it, and we won't go to fight. All the artillery pieces, machine guns, and airplanes must be turned into plows and harrows.” This statement was endorsed by some of those present, and during the reading of a decree that called for coming to the defense of Soviet power, shouts rang out: “Down with this decree, we don't want to stand on guard, and if we don't go to war, they won't kill people who don't fight.” Only 15 out of the 250 people who attended the meeting voted for the proposed decree.

Moscow Gubernia. 25 July. At a shareholders' meeting of the Rozhdestveno Cooperative in Mamoshino Volost, Voskresensk Uezd, a well-to-do peasant (a member of the church council and a member of the volost executive committee) commented on the report on the danger of war and said: “We're not going to fight. The people who've gotten an improvement out of Soviet power should fight, not us peasants.”

Kaluga Gubernia. 25 July. In the village of Olikovo, Uteshevo Volost,

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Meshchovsk Uezd, at a meeting of KKOV members,

KKOV was the Committee for Peasants' Mutual Social Assistance. The establishment of KKOV was initiated by a decree of the RSFSR Sovnarkom dated 14 May 1921, “On Improving the Organization of Social Insurance for Workers, Peasants, and the Families of Red Army Soldiers,” which directed that, in addition to intensifying the assistance to the peasantry, workers, and Red Army soldiers' families by the state that was already under way, mutual assistance among peasants themselves be organized in every village and volost through KKOVs that were being set up under village and volost soviets ( SU [Sobranie uzakonenii] RSFSR , 1921, no. 48, art. 236). A decree of the All-Russian VTsIK and the RSFSR Sovnarkom dated 25 September 1924 approved the statute on KKOV, under which village KKOVs were to be established by a decree of a general meeting (or assembly) or citizens of a village. Their purpose was to organize and provide social insurance in the countryside, render all types of assistance to the small-scale peasant population, promote the formation of cooperatives and the consolidation of peasant households into the simplest collective associations, and to establish monetary and in-kind mutual assistance funds. In addition to village and volost KKOVs, the statute provided for the establishment through elections of uezd, okrug, gubernia, oblast, krai, and central committees. The functions and procedure of the committees' activities were to be determined by the People's Commissariat of Social Insurance ( SU RSFSR , 1924, no. 81, art. 813). The KKOVs were disbanded during collectivization.

a middle peasant commented on the report on the international situation by saying: “We have no reason to shout, ‘Lead us against the bourgeoisie, all of us peasants will lay down our lives to defend Soviet power!’ You communists will never see that happen, since peasants have no reason to defend the government. It hasn't given us anything, and has given all the rights and privileges to you communists, so go and defend yourselves on your own.”

Salsk Okrug. 18 July. In the village [khutor]

The khutor was a form of peasant land tenure in which a peasant family lived in a consolidated farm separate from the village community.

of Grazhdansky, Zavetnoe Raion, a well-to-do peasant—a former bandit who served with the Whites

This is a reference to the White army, the bolsheviks' main opponent in the Russian Civil War, largely made up of officers from the tsarist military.

—spoke at a general meeting on the question of the international situation and made the following statement: “Down with war, we won't go to fight, since we don't have equipment like England has, and there's no reason to fight her, she will choke us with gases. They can kill us at home, but since we won't take up arms, they won't touch us civilians.” He was endorsed by another well-to-do peasant who had connections with the band: “Let other great powers come, it won't be any worse anyway.” These statements did not get sympathy from the assembled group.

Achinsk Okrug. 25 July. Berezovka Raion. In a conversation about the coming war, a middle peasant in the village of Borovaia said: “There must be a war without fail. First we should kill our own rats who are on our backs and each make 130 rubles [a month] and take our last piglet as tax.”

Agitation for the Establishment of “Peasant Unions”

Between 20 July and 3 August, 10 instances of agitation for the establishment of “peasant unions” were reported. Six of them were in the Central Region (one each in Moscow and Kursk gubernias, two each in Kaluga and Tver gubernias); one in the Western Region (Briansk Gubernia); and three in Siberia (one in Biisk Okrug, two in Rubtsovsk Okrug). Four of the ten statements occurred at meetings. With regard to the demands, two were political, four were based on the model of workers' trade unions and four were of other kinds.

Kaluga Gubernia. 25 July. In the village of Kiselyovo, Balobanovo Volost, Maloyaroslavets Raion, a former merchant and four kulaks are agitating among peasants to establish a “peasant union,” to call a “Constituent Assembly”

This is a reference to the short-lived Constituent Assembly that met for one day in January 1918 and was dispersed by the bolsheviks. The elections to the Constituent Assembly were held after the downfall of the tsarist government and represented Russia's first truly democratic elections.

and to refuse to pay insurance payments and the agricultural tax.

Biisk Okrug. 23 July. Novikovo Raion. On the basis of discontent with the tax, peasants in the village of Viatki are speaking out for the creation of a “peasant organization,” declaring: “Our brother peasants are being

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squeezed everywhere. Now, for example, peasants are being squeezed dry with taxes more than anyone. Even though we're told that this is mostly being used to support our own government, white-collar workers, and our own needs, it seems to me that peasants did not decide this and did not resolve to do this, and everything is being imposed on them from above. If peasants were allowed to set themselves up, without stratification and dictatorship, then agriculture would grow and develop better. Factory workers have their own unions, they use them to defend their interests, yet peasants are just given orders. If we are told that the peasant organization is the cooperative, peasants' committee and so forth, that is not yet what peasants need. Peasants need something bigger than all these organizations.”

Kulak and Antisoviet Groups

Kursk Gubernia. 18 July. In the khutor of Zviagintsevo, Medvenka Volost, Kursk Uezd, a kulak group headed by a teacher is openly opposing local government bodies, discrediting the latter and calling on the public to defy decrees of the local government. The group holds its own meetings and exerts influence on the peasants in nearby villages.

Leningrad Gubernia. 15 July. In the village of Bolshoe Verevo, Troitsk Volost and Uezd, kulaks from surrounding villages often assemble and discuss methods of combating Soviet power. A group of kulaks is setting the objective of overthrowing Soviet power; conducting terror against communists, responsible officials, and members of the government; organizing pogroms; and vandalizing state structures and property.

Shakhty-Donets Okrug. 15 July. A teacher in Tishchenka Raion has attracted a group of young Cossacks to him, is agitating among them for Cossack autonomy and is doing all he can to compromise Soviet power.

Proclamations and Appeals

Voronezh Gubernia. 17 July. Valuiki Uezd. In the village of Zalomnoe, a proclamation was hung in a prominent place where general peasants' meetings are convened. It read as follows: “Comrades, you will soon have a St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

The expression “St. Bartholomew's Day massacre” appeared frequently in the countryside during collectivization and appears to have represented the idea of a pogrom or massacre, with little real analogy to the 1572 massacre of the French Huguenots in Paris.

Comrades, agriculture cannot develop under Soviet power. Comrades, citizens and citizenesses, absolutely everybody must struggle against Soviet power.”

Assistant director of OGPU Information Department Butsevich Assistant director of Second Section Gerasimova

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Document Details

Document TitleFrom informational summary report [svodka] no. 22 of the OGPU Information and Political Control Department for 20 July through 3 August 1927

AuthorOGPU - Unified State Political Administration; (state security), GPUs of autonomous republics and the Special; Department of the Volga Region Military District

RecipientN/A

RepositoryTsAFSBRF

ID #f.2, op.5, d.394, ll.88-89ob

DescriptionN/A

Date1927 Aug 4

AOC VolumeThe War Against the Peasantry, 1927–1930: The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside

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