Social mobility of Siberian peasantry in 1920s: historiography of the problem

Agricultural transformations in 1917-1921 and New Economic Policy had great impact on social mobility of Siberian peasantry. Definition of basic tendencies of social change in village was one of priority directions in soviet historiography. While analyzing, Siberian historians followed authorized plan of social differentiation of soviet pre-kolkhoz village. On the assumption of the existing resource base majority of historians considered sowing groups as the basis of village social-class divide. There were some differences in determination of boarders between the sowing groups in the process of their conversion to social ones. As a rule, the households with sowing more than 10 arpents were referred to kulaks, and less than 2 arpents - to paupers. Changes in correlation of social groups were used for defining the basic tendencies of social mobility. The most active discussion about results of social change in Siberian village took place in the late 1910s - 1920s. The majority of researchers attributed reorganization of households in Siberia in 1917-1920 as a start of the oseredniachivanie process. A sharp drop of Siberian peasants' financial sufficiency in 1921-1922 also was misrepresented as the oseredniachivanie tendency by the researchers. However, some historians considered that the social structure of Siberian village had not been changed in 1917-1920 and reduce of kulak households in 1921-1922 had resulted from “economic sabotage” on the part of kulaks. They intentionally cut the size of crop acreage and retained their production potential. Social processes of 1920s did not provoke any discussions. The statement about overrepresentation of oseredniachivanie in the context of some growth of polar groups was generally accepted. The historians were united while pointing out higher percent of kulaks in Siberia than in the country as a whole and in majority of its regions. The idea about weakening of kulaks in the late 1920s was common. A new phase of national historiography started in the late 1980s. The change of thematic priorities caused discontinuation of researches in social differentiation problems of Siberian village. The exceptions were the author's works where he represented the theory of social mobility of Siberian peasantry.