Cossacks’ farms in the conditions of the new economic policy of the 1920s: contradictions of development (on the materials of the don and kuban regions)

Introduction. The new economic policy is controversial, which manifested itself with a particular force in relation to the grain-producing regions - the Don and the Kuban, the most prosperous groups of farmers - the Cossacks. The degree of recovery of Cossack farms and the level of their differentiation remains controversial. The purpose of the article is to determine the state and contradictions of the development of Don and Kuban Cossack farms in the conditions of the new economic policy of the 1920s. Methods and materials. The work is based on the method of synchronous binary comparative analysis. The source basis is data of economic and demographic statistics of the 1920s, reporting documents of the party and Soviet authorities. Analysis and Results. The article reveals the status and contradictory development trends of Cossack farms in the Don and Kuban in the 1920s. The paper proves that the economic and demographic potential of the Cossack farms in the Don and Kuban regions did not fully recover in the conditions of the NEP. As a result, the NEP measures reduced the number of seedless farms, while the reduction of large kulak farms was due to the expansion of medium-sized groups - marginal and medium-sized ones. There was “equalizing” of the Cossacks, and to a greater extent than “non- resident” peasants. The high level of providing Cossack farms with land plots caused discontent among peasants, and property contradictions remained among Cossacks. The author proves the contradictions of the NEP in the agrarian sphere: between the needs of industrial modernization and the limits of tax possibilities of agriculture; between the authorities’ intention to increase marketability of individual farms and the imperative to curb social inequality; between civil reconciliation and the equalizing land reform. The NEP period can be divided into four stages: between spring 1921 and summer 1924 - gradual revival of market relations stimulating restoration of individual Cossack farms; between autumn 1924 and spring 1926 - “facing the village” course resulting in tax cuts, resolving long-term leases, supporting cooperation and other forms of market self-organization of Cossack farms; summer 1926-1927 - gradual turn to the collapse of the NEP; the turn of 1927-1928 - systematic downturn of the NEP and transition to the full-scale application of administrative-command methods regulating the economy.