Five years without Soviet power: the metamorphoses of the pension system in the Russian east (June 1918 - October 1922)

Pension legislation and the payment of pensions to military and civil employees by anti-Bolshevik governments were not studied before in Russia’s historical research, except for a few publications. Finding new sources has enabled the author to expand the knowledge about legal initiatives and practices of paying pensions by anti-Bolshevik governments in the east of Russia. Moreover, their pension policies are seen in a wider context of the pension policies performed by anti-Bolshevik governments in the South, North and North-West of Russia. The most detailed legal regulation of the pension system was done by the Provisional Siberian government and Admiral Kolchak’s Russian government, which helped to resume paying contributions to the pension fund and at the same time fix rather small, but guaranteed pensions from the treasury. The main problem was how to adapt pensions to the rapidly falling rouble. Another problem was taking into account of the political and ideological situation of the Russian Civil War, which excluded social payments to political opponents and required to provide benefits for the defenders of the current government. Despite some considerable differences, the pension polices of anti-Bolshevik governments in the East of Russia are similar in their rejection from class principles, the recognition of the government’s social commitments of the same scope as before the revolution, and the tendency to adapt these obligations to the conditions of the Russian Civil War. The comparative analysis shows that in other anti-Bolsevik-controlled regions the authorities faced and addressed almost the same challenges.