Inventing a Soviet Countryside: State Power and the Transformation of Rural Russia, 1917â "1929 (Russian and East European Studies)

James W. Heinzen

ISBN 10: 0822942151 / ISBN 13: 9780822942153

Editore: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Codice articolo G0822942151I4N00

Riassunto:

Following the largest peasant revolution in history, Russia's urban-based Bolshevik regime was faced with a monumental task: to peacefully “modernize” and eventually “socialize” the peasants in the countryside surrounding Russia's cities. To accomplish this, the Bolshevik leadership created the People's Commissariat of Agriculture (Narkomzem), which would eventually employ 70,000 workers. This commissariat was particularly important, both because of massive famine and because peasants composed the majority of Russia's population; it was also regarded as one of the most moderate state agencies because of its nonviolent approach to rural transformation.

Working from recently opened historical archives, James Heinzen presents a balanced, thorough examination of the political, social, and cultural dilemmas present in the Bolsheviks' strategy for modernizing of the peasantry. He especially focuses on  the state employees charged with no less than a complete transformation of an entire class of people. Heinzen ultimately shows how disputes among those involved in this plan-from the government, to Communist leaders, to the peasants themselves-led to the shuttering of the Commissariat of Agriculture and to Stalin's cataclysmic 1929 collectivization of agriculture.

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: Inventing a Soviet Countryside: State Power ...
Casa editrice: University of Pittsburgh Press
Data di pubblicazione: 2004
Legatura: Hardcover
Condizione: Very Good
Condizione sovraccoperta: No Jacket