Peasants, political police, and the early soviet state : surveillance and accommodation under the ... new economic policy

This book combines social and institutional histories of Russia, focusing on the secret police and their evolving relationship with the peasantry. Based on an analysis of Cheka/OGPU reports, it argues that the police did not initially respond to peasant resistance to Bolshevik demands simply with the gun-rather, they listened to peasant voices. This book combines social and institutional histories of post-revolutionary Russia, focusing on the secret police and their evolving relationship with the peasantry in the period leading up to collectivization. Based on an analysis of Cheka/OGPU reports, the book argues that at first the police did not only respond to peasant resistance with force; rather, they also listened to peasant voices. The police believed that compromise was possible, and that the peasants could be convinced to work within the Bolshevik construct of state and society. As time went on, however, local police agents increasingly saw themselves engaged in a war with the peasantry over control of grain and domination of local organs of power. As the focus shifted from objective economic factors to the putative influence of the kulaks, the only solution became to break the peasantry Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-5 State, Peasants, and Police to 1921....Pages 7-24 Famine, Market Forces, and Ameliorative Actions, 1921–1923....Pages 25-45 Lenin’s Death, “Face to the Countryside,” and Growing Police Fears, 1924....Pages 47-69 Soviet Elections, Grain Crises, and Kulaks, 1925–1926....Pages 71-88 Liquidation of Kulak Influence, War Panic, and the Elimination of the Kulaks as a Class, 1927–1929....Pages 89-111 Conclusion....Pages 113-125 Back Matter....Pages 127-177