| When the Bolsheviks came to power, Soviet Russia was facing very serious food supply problems. Faced with these difficulties, the Bolshevik government introduced a series of food policies between 1917 and 1923. These policies made Russian farmers produce a variety of emotions, and take all measures to confront it, which in turn forced the Bolshevik government to make certain changes to the food policy. As a result, relations and interactions appeared between the Government's food policy and the actual situation in rural areas.In this dissertation, the author is aimed to study the relations and interactions between the food policies of the Bolshevik government and the soviet rural society, under using many newly declassified archives and historical materials, combining research methods of social statistics, comparative analysis and typical case study. In the dissertation, the historical process of Bolshevik government's food policies is divided into three stages. The first stage is“Food dictatorship”(October 1917– January 1919); the second stage is“Razverstka”(January 1919- March 1921); the third stage is“Grain tax”(March 1921- 1923). At the first stage, the Bolshevik government issued a policy that robbed“surplus grain”from farmers by violent means. This policy did not improve the food supply situation, the farmers were also very dissatisfied with it, and peasant uprisings appeared everywhere. Facing such social situation, in January 1919, the Bolshevik government had to change food policy in order to obtain the support of the masses in the Civil War. Therefore, Razverstka emerged at this historic moment. The task of the State's food needs was divided into the provinces, counties, villages, and to every farmer. At the early stage of this policy, the positive social effects of it were more apparent. The Bolsheviks gained the support of the peasants, which laid the foundation for winning the Civil War. At the latter stage of this policy, the negative factors more and more created, which became one of the most important reasons for the peasants revolted against the Bolshevik government. In March 1921, the Bolshevik government had to change its food policy. As a result, the“Grain tax”policy was issued as an important constituent part of“New Economic Policy”. The policy of“Grain tax”reduced the burden on farmers, fitted the farmer's requirement and the reality of the villages. So they were supported by the farmers. Although the Bolshevik government encountered many setbacks, but eventually found a food policy that was consistent with the reality of the Soviet Russia.Therefore, there were relations and interactions between the Bolshevik government's food policy and the farmers'attitude from 1917 to 1923– the farmer's support or combat forced the Government to constantly adjust its food policy, the adjustment of food policy made the farmers have a new attitude toward the new policy. It is in communication and interaction that the relationship between government's policy and the farmers'attitude occurred a subtle, but significant change.Through this study, we have summarized a number of governing experience and lessons. Firstly, the ruling government should not focus on the appearance, but on the nature of the problem, and fully consider the objective realities of the society, the people's psychological bearing capacity, when it establishes a policy. Secondly, the ruling government should try to avoid using violent means, when it carries out a policy. Moreover, the ruling government should timely sum up the very policy that created a kind of good social effect in practice, and advance it up to ideal level. Lastly, after issuing a policy, the ruling government should find out general public's reaction in time, and adjust or even change the very policy that aroused big public discontent and did not accord with objective reality. |
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