The Russian Revolution/Chapter 9
IX.
THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION.
Of the two great branches of Russia's toiling millions, industrial workers and peasants, the latter have, so far at least, reaped the most material advantages from the revolution. This is true inasmuch as while the industrial workers are still struggling in the face of severe trials to bring about the re-organization of industry which for them will mean emancipation, the peasants have actually come into possession of that dear mother earth which they have longed for, dreamed of, and sung about for generations past. This condition has led many observers to conclude that really, after all, the Russian revolution is at heart a peasants' movement.
The peasants got possession of the land almost immediately after the October, 1917, revolution. It was turned over to them by the Communist Government, which then, as now, was composed principally of representatives of the city workers. On October 26th, right in the white heat of the upheaval, the revolutionary Land Decree was promulgated. Its most important section runs as follows: "Private property in land is forever abolished; land may not be bought, sold, rented, mortgaged, or disposed of in any other way. The land as a whole—state, crown, church, private, public, and peasant-owned—is confiscated without remuneration and herewith becomes the property of the entire people and is turned over to the use of the actual workers of it." By this law, one of the most far-reaching in history, at least 500,000,000 acres of land was taken out of the hands of parasitic idlers and given to useful workers.
The first application of this drastic measure was left practically to the peasants themselves—the Government reasoning that they, if given a free hand, would probably make a better and fairer job of it than the multitude of city officials who otherwise would have had to undertake the work. Besides, the vast expanse of country, the general turmoil, and the urgency of the moment had to be considered. So the peasants were left pretty much to their own devices. The division of the land was carried out by the village committees. It was one of the roughest and most violent phases of the revolution. Many a noble landowner came to grief in the storm. The village committees had many difficulties to contend with, such as the opposition of the old-time owners, the greed of certain elements in their own ranks, the varying amounts and quality of the land to be divided, etc. But finally the job was done after a fashion, and a reasonably fair and equal distribution of the land arrived at.
As the situation now stands the peasants do not actually own the land: it all belongs to the State. Their rights are those of cultivators only. Periodically they re-divide the arable land among themselves, giving each family a share in accordance with the number of its members. The laws of inheritance are annulled, and land may not be handed down from father to son. Men and women alike have equal rights to the soil. In some districts and under certain circumstances, a few of the more crafty peasants succeed in evading these principles and setting up practical ownership of their land, but in the main the situation is as above described.
The Communists look upon the present agricultural arrangement as a temporary make-shift, having nothing in common with their ultimate goal. They are willing to concede that it is a vast improvement over the old system, by which a few parasites monopolized the land. But they also know that no civilization worth while could be constructed upon such a basis. Were the peasants to continue their present small-scale, individualistic, competitive methods of production they could not develop into anything better than a vast class of petty bourgeois afflicted with all the contemptible ignorance and short-sigtedness inseparable from this type. The Communists are well aware that only through a large-scale system of production can the workers, city and country, acquire, the breadth of vision and understanding that is absolutely necessary to real social progress. Hence, they propose to industrialize agriculture: to apply to it the same principles that they are now applying to the great national industries of transportation, mining, etc. They will abolish small-scale individualistic farming, and replace it by large-scale, co-operative agricultural production. This is a big job and will take many years to complete. But already the agricultural communes, the beginnings of the new system, dot the wide expanse of Russia. Their number is rapidly increasing. Within a few years, if peace prevails and the Soviet society has a reasonable chance to develop, it is hoped that they will be numerous enough to dominate the farming situation and to bring the agricultural proletariat into line with modern thought and development.
To superintend the farming industry in general a special branch of the Government, the Department of Agriculture, has been created. This is a structure of the usual Soviet pyramid type, the higher bodies always being formed of delegates from those on the next lower stages. At the base stand the volost (county) land committees. These supervise agriculture in a local way, stabilize wages, etc. They are composed of one delegate from each 500 people—the surrounding volost committees also send delegates so that the whole scheme may dovetail together. Above the volost committees and superior to them are the district land committees. These bodies attend to more general agricultural questions in their respective jurisdictions, allot pasture land, etc. They are built of delegates from the volost land committees and the district Soviets of workers, peasants, and soldiers. Over the district land committees stand the state land committees, similarly constructed; and above these the Chief Land Committee. The latter is a national body, consisting of representatives of the state land committees, the All-Russian Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Soviet, several national governmental departments, various scientific societies, etc. At its head is the Peoples' Commissar for Agriculture. All land used for farming, the forests, the lakes, etc., are placed under the Chief Land Committee as the general land fund of the whole people. All agricultural questions of prime importance come before this committee for settlement.
Many writers have sought to convey the impression that the peasants are actively hostile toward the Soviet Government. But if this were true they, being in such overwhelming majority, would have long since found means to overthrow it. It is a fact that as independent producers they are not attracted by the principles of Communism, but they have learned that the Soviet Government is their friend. It gave them the land, and they know that so long as it stays in power their control of the land is safe. In the early part of the civil wars they were inclined to slack it. But Kolchak, Denekin, Wrangel, and the other counter-revolutionary generals soon taught them a lesson: as fast as they captured fresh territory they took the confiscated land away from the peasants and returned it to the former owners. This rallied the peasants en masse to the Soviet Government and was the decisive factor in smashing all the great counter-revolutionary invasions. The peasants may not be particularly enthusiastic over the Soviet Government—in fact they positively dislike all governments—but they can be always depended upon to come to its support in time of crisis, and especially in the case of counter-revolutionary attempts.