Village Social Organisation and Peasant Action: Right-Bank Ukraine During the Revolution 1917-1923
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VILLAGE SOCIAL ORGANISATION AND PEASANT ACTION: RIGHT-BANK UKRAINE DURING THE REVOLUTION I9I7-I923 GRAHAM TAN PhD SCHOOL OF SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF LONDON » UNIVERSITY ) " F J . LONOOf,' ' / ProQuest Number: U642459 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest U642459 Published by ProQuest LLC(2015). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT 2 VILLAGE SOCIAL ORGANISATION AND PEASANT ACTION: RIGHT’-BANK UKRAINE DURING THE REVOLUTION 1917-1923 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 region’s 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. PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 The thesis is based on material gathered in archives and libraries in Moscow, St Petersburg and Kyiv during 1995-6. Conditions at this time were not exactly ideal for historians as a result of the continuing funding crises affecting archives in the Former Soviet Union as a whole. There were instances when there were delays in receiving material, archive staff went on strike for non-payment of wages, archives worked drastically reduced hours or they closed down for long spells without any warning or explanation. The Tsentral’nyi Derzhavnyi Arkhiv Vyshchykh Orhaniv Vlady i Upravlinnia in Kyiv was also still in the process of reclassifying formerly secret fonds. Many of these related to the vital revolutionary period but had not been listed in any opys or guide. The process of outlining their contents given the lack of resources remained painstakingly slow. While the above experiences may be considered nothing out of the ordinary for those undertaking archival research in the Former Soviet Union and do not compare with the difficulties faced by researchers in earlier decades, there was still a number of fonds to which I could not gain access. These factors shaped the material presented in the study. In Ukraine today the use of language, whether Ukrainian or Russian remains a sensitive subject. In line with prevailing linguistic trends I have transliterated place names from Ukrainian (i.e. Kyiv rather than Kiev). Where terms or individuals may be better known or understood to historians transliterated from the Russian, I have tried to give both the Ukrainian and Russian equivalent when first mentioned. When quoting from Ukrainian or Russian sources I have transliterated certain words or phrases to reflect the language used in the original text. To denote archival material collected from Ukrainian archives I have used the Ukrainian system of classification (i.e. fond, opys, sprava and arkush). I have used the Russian system for material from Russian archives (i.e. fond, opis, delo, stranitsa). I have also provided a glossary of terms used for Ukrainian, Russian or Polish terms at the back of the thesis for easy reference. In terms of style I have mainly followed the guidelines laid out in the MHRA Style Book: Notes for authors, Editors and Writers o f Theses (5th ed). However, the names of the publishers of works consulted in the thesis have been listed in the bibliography rather than in the footnotes. Dates before January 1918 have been given in old style (i.e. 13 days behind the rest of Europe). Dates thereafter have been given in new style. I have also used square brackets [ ] to denote insertions into quotations and parentheses ( ) at all other times. PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 The thesis was originally funded with assistance from the Economic and Social Research Council. When I began my research I received positive advice and encouragement from Professor Paul Dukes, Dr David Longley, and Professor David Saunders. I would like to thank the staff of SSEES Library, the British Library, Aberdeen University Library, TsGIA, G ARE, TsDIA, TsDAVO, DAKO and libraries in St Petersburg, Moscow and Kyiv who fetched all the dusty books and documents I wanted to read. In terms of supervision, I am grateful to Dr John Channon for his efforts in the first year of my studies. Professor Robert Service for stepping in so ably at such short notice and Professor Roger Bartlett for checking over the final drafts. Any flaws within the thesis, however, are entirely my responsibility. I will be forever in debt to my comrades-in-arms who picked me up when I fell, sometimes quite literally. In this regard I must mention Mark Baker, Nancy Slawski, Olga Ivashchenko, Mark Beck, Robert Blyth, Sergei Podbolotov, Gath Brennan, Sarah Davies and Roman Zyla whose intervention and support at various points almost certainly stopped me from giving up. I must also thank my family and friends for listening patiently to my rantings and ravings for the past four years. Caro Soury probably had to put up with more ranting than most but it is probably thanks to her sweet influence that this thesis was not completed six months ago. It was time well spent anyway. Finally, I would like to dedicate the thesis, for what its worth, to my grandfather, Duncan Ross. I hope he would have been proud that I made it this far. CONTENTS Introduction: A Brief Overview of Recent Historical Debates on Ukraine, the Revolution and the Peasants. 6-32 Chapter Two: Right-Bank Ukraine before 1917: History, Economy and Society 33-58 Chapter Three: The Agrarian Revolution in Right-Bank Ukraine, March 1917- January 1918. 59-90 Chapter Four: The Social and Economic Programmes of Political Powers in Ukraine during the Civil War, 1918-1919. 91-125 Chapter Five: The Organisation of the Village and Conduct of Social Affairs during the Civil War, 1918-1919. 126-161 Chapter Six: The Initial Attempts of Community and State to Resolve the Land Question during the Political and Military Turmoil of the Civil War 162-194 Chapter Seven: Peasant Attitudes Towards the Establishment of a Soviet Regime 195-235 in the Right Bank, 1920-1923. Chapter Eight: Land Distribution and the Issue of Agricultural Resources in the Right Bank after 1920. 236-271 Conclusion: Community, Continuity and Compromise in Right-Bank Ukraine 272-288 Appendix 289-294 Glossary 295-301 Bibliography 302-334 CHAPTER ONE 6 A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF RECENT HISTORICAL DEBATES ON UKRAINE, THE REVOLUTION AND THE PEASANTS The Russian revolution remains a defining moment in modem history. It began in March 1917 with the fall of the three-hundred-year-old Romanov dynasty and culminated in the consolidation of a Soviet regime over the majority of the territory that had constituted Imperial Russia before the onset of war in 1914. The revolution had a fundamental effect not only on the masses who peopled the vast territory of the Russian Empire but also on the subsequent history of Europe. Over the last eighty years historians have generated a huge volume of research and opinion which has considered the causes of the revolution, the actions of political parties and their supporters, the military conflicts of 1918-1921 and the establishment of the Soviet regime. The revolution and the development of the regime it gave birth to continue to absorb the efforts of contemporary historians. The break up of the Soviet Union and subsequent creation of new independent states, the accompanying changes in political attitudes and opening up of archival institutions have led to a reassessment of the history and significance of the events following 1917. Despite the weight of historiographical discussion and the recent availability of new archival sources, several aspects of the revolution remain somewhat neglected by historians. The role of the peasantry in the revolution, as the majority social group in the Russian Empire, is one of the aspects of historical discussion which has been slow to attract concerted attention.