The surplus-appropriation

January 11, 1919  the Decree SNK "On the surplus" was issued

Note: obviously, being a decree that was applied throughout the territory, it had a huge impact on the German villages, with the tragic derivation, the famine.

The "surplus-appropriation" is the compulsory imposition of the obligation to surrender the "surplus" of production to food producers and was one of the parties that conditioned the essence of the economic policy of "military communism". Mostly, of course, it fell on the village, the main food producer. In practice, this led to the forced seizure of the necessary amount of grain from the peasants, and the methods for carrying out the surplus-appropriation procedure were not good: the authorities followed the usual policy of equalization, and, instead of imposing a burden on the well-off peasants, robbed the middle peasants, who make up the bulk of the food producers. This could not but cause general discontent, riots broke out in many areas, ambushes were organized for the food army.


By the spring of 1918, the food situation in the country had become much more complicated. The authorities faced the need to introduce a "food dictatorship". In villages, for this purpose, on June 11, 1918, committees of the poor (kombed) were established, using food detachments to seize surplus products. It was assumed that part of the seized products would come to the members of these committees. Along with the seizure of grain, they proceeded to confiscate the land of well-to-do peasants (in the short term they seized almost 50 million acres of land). The creation of collective and state farms began. The organization of the kombedov testified to the complete ignorance of peasant psychology by the Bolsheviks, in which the communal principle played the main role.

As a result of all this, the pre-harvest campaign in the summer of 1918 failed: instead of 144 million poods of grain, only 13 were collected. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the authorities from continuing the policy of surplus-seeding for several more years.

Soldiers to be sent to the villages

Since January 1, 1919, a random search for surpluses has been replaced by a centralized and planned system of surplus-appropriation. January 11, 1919 was promulgated decree "On the deployment of bread and forage." According to this decree, the state in advance reported the exact figure in its needs for products. That is, each region, county, volost had to hand over to the state a predetermined amount of grain and other products, depending on the expected yield (determined quite approximately, according to pre-war years). The fulfillment of the plan was compulsory. Each peasant community was responsible for its supplies. Only after the complete fulfillment by the community of all the state's requirements for the delivery of agricultural products to the peasants were issued receipts for the purchase of manufactured goods, but in an amount much smaller, (10-15 percent), and the assortment was limited only to goods of the first necessity: fabrics, matches, kerosene, salt, sugar, and occasionally tools (in principle, the peasants agreed to exchange food for manufactured goods, but the state did not have them in sufficient quantity). The peasants reacted to the surplus-stocking and the shortage of goods by reducing the acreage (up to 60 percent depending on the region) and returning to subsistence farming. In consequence, for example, in 1919, out of the planned 260 million poods of grain, only 100 were harvested, and then, with great difficulty. And in 1920 the plan was fulfilled only by 3 - 4%. Peasants agreed to exchange food products for manufactured goods, but the state did not have enough of them). 

Having restored the peasants against themselves, the surplus-appropriation did not satisfy the townspeople too: it was impossible to live on the daily prescribed ration, the intellectuals and the "former" were supplied with food last, and often received nothing at all. Besides the injustice of the food supply system, it was also very confusing: in Petrograd, there were at least 33 types of cards for food with a shelf life of not more than a month.

The peasants surrendering the grain at the food surplus at the station of the railway station

NEP improved the economy of the country. The threat of hunger has disappeared, small and medium-sized trade, the sphere of service, and agriculture have begun to develop (NEP first of all was a concession to the peasantry). However, by the end of the 1920s. this NEP no longer acted. The goods were not enough. Unemployment was growing. It was not possible to attract foreign investments for the development of the economy. To the Bolsheviks in the West felt great distrust, and most importantly, in 1929, the world economic crisis erupted and the West was not up to investment. In 1928, authorities began to seize bread by force, accusing the peasants of sabotage. The state thrust the course of the chervonetz three times to rob entrepreneurs. With the beginning of industrialization and collectivization, NEP was curtailed.

Source: https://antisovetsky.blogspot.com.ar/2017/01/blog-post_11.html

Translated from russian via Google