Food Policy of the Soviet Government in Kazakhstan in the Conditions of “War Communism”

n 1921-1922 five provinces of Kazakhstan: Ural, Orenburg, Kustanayskaya, Aktobe, Bukeevskaya experienced severe hunger. According to official data, in May 1922, the famine covered an area of 1,048,100 square meters. m with a population of 2,071,222 people (АP RК, 211:39).. The article examines the prerequisites for hunger. The main reason for the outbreak of famine, for a long time, was called the consequences of the civil war and weather conditions: drought and jute that swept the western part of Kazakhstan. The preconditions for the unprecedented famine were a complex of reasons, the main of which was the policy of the Bolsheviks, who established a food dictatorship, transformed into a policy of “war communism”. The main link in this policy was the surplus appropriation system, as a result of which everything “cleaned up” was taken from the population by forceful methods - confiscation and requisition. Another major cause of famine in 1921-1922. was the destruction of the traditional economic system of the Kazakhs, the Bolsheviks ignoring the general laws of interaction of natural-climatic and socio-economic factors. The article examines the activities of armed food detachments engaged in collecting taxes, endowed with immense powers, which they exceeded with impunity: they arrested and even shot people who stood up to protect their families without trial or investigation. Undoubtedly, weather conditions also played a role. Drought and jute accompanied the life of the nomadic population periodically - once every 10 years, according to the observations of old-timers. However, such severe consequences as in 1921-1922. the indigenous population did not experience

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