DOI: 10.22281/2413-9912-2022-06-03-63-69

Kulachkov V.V.

LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND PEASANTS IN THE PERIOD NEW ECONOMIC POLICY

The article is devoted to the consideration of the relationship between peasants and local authorities in the period of the new economic policy. In modern Russian historiography, there are ambiguous and contradictory assessments of the position of local authorities during the period of the new economic policy. Along with highlighting the positive features in its development, the authors also note significant shortcomings that were generally characteristic of government institutions not only in the 1920s, but also earlier. During the period under study, village councils at first had little influence on the life of the village and there were even cases when the post of secretary of the village council was held by a former parish clerk, which indicated a shortage of professional personnel. Such vices as drunkenness, bribery and bureaucracy also negatively affected the activities of village councils. There was a situation when not a person painted a position, but a person’s position. It is clear that in the 1920s attempts were made to combat these negative phenomena, but for various reasons they were ineffective. At the same time, the relationship between peasants and local authorities in the period under study generally continued the pre-revolutionary traditions of worshiping duty. At the same time, the traditional dualism of the peasant attitude towards power structures was preserved, which was expressed in reverence for the representatives of the highest echelon of power and a critical attitude towards local bosses. Village councils representing local authorities controlled the situation poorly, as there were few competent managers, bureaucracy flourished, and there was rivalry with community structures in the form of a rural gathering.

Keywords: soviet country, new economic policy, local government, peasantry, village, bribery, bureaucracy, corruption.

Bryansk State Engineering-Technological University (Russia)

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