Tan, Graham; (1999) Village social organisation and peasant action: Right-bank Ukraine during the revolution 1917-1923. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Text U642459.pdf Download (10MB)

Abstract

The thesis studies the role of peasant village institutions in the revolution in Right-Bank Ukraine during 1917-1923. The two schools of study which have so far dominated discussion of the subject, the Soviet and the Ukrainian National, have failed to produce a balanced history of events or follow the recent progress made in studies of the Russian peasantry. The work studies events from a village-level perspective and is based on records from peasant meetings and local government institutions, gathered from recently declassified fonds in Ukrainian and Russian archives. The thesis begins by considering the roots of the regions economic and political diversity and their effect on peasant society before 1917. After February 1917, the peasant village community was instrumental in efforts to seize control of private land and establish limited local self-rule. However, peasant gains were soon threatened by the civil war which began in Ukraine in early 1918. There is a discussion of the agrarian policies of political forces in 1918-1920 and their implications for peasant society. Peasants resisted the attempts of political groups to impose a settlement of the agrarian question from above and peasant organisations remained influential in economic and social matters. The final section considers peasant attitudes towards the establishment of a Soviet regime in the region after 1920 and peasant attempts to maintain control over village land and local political autonomy. The thesis considers the points where revolutionary events in the Right Bank diverged from those in Central Russia and where they merged. Throughout the period the community represented the embodiment of a particular peasant culture which was not easily pacified by government. Peasants resisted alien political and economic ideas through traditional and forceful means. The thesis concludes there was a was a close correlation between the village community and peasant political and social action.

Download activity - last month

Export as CSVJSONXML

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as CSVJSONXML

Archive Staff Only

View Item