Decree on the Land of 1917. Land Transformation of 1917

The decree on the land of 1917 was adopted the day after the accomplishment of the Great October Socialist Revolution (on November 8 of the above-mentioned year). According to its introductory part, the property of landlords on land was abolished without any ransom.

The prerequisites for the adoption of this document arose long ago regarding the date of its issuance. The point is that the program of the Bolsheviks was opposed to the programs of other parties existing at the time, which wanted to make partial concessions without changing the entire capitalist system as a whole, including without changing land rights.

April theses as a basis for future decrees

The decree on the land of 1917 grew out of Lenin 's April theses, which he announced on April 4. In his speech, Vladimir Ilyich then declared that it was necessary to confiscate all the landed estates and transfer them to the disposal of the created Soviets of peasant and laborers' deputies, to which representatives of the poorest farms should enter. From every large landed estates, which could include from 100 to 300 peasant households, it was supposed to create a model farm under the control of laborers' deputies. It must be said that Lenin did not find support for such ideas among the first listeners of the theses, and some (Bogdanov AA - the scientist, the future leader of the world's first blood transfusion institute) found them crazy. Nevertheless, they were approved by the Sixth Congress of the Bolshevik Party, which was held on August 8-16, 1917.

Ideas of the leader of the revolution - in the masses!

In his April theses VI. Lenin pointed out that the Bolsheviks are in the Soviet of Workers' Deputies in a weak minority, so party ideas must be actively disseminated among the masses, which was done, and quite successfully. There are cases in September-October 1917, when peasants made riots in a particular locality, accompanied by pogroms, arson of estates and the demand for landlords to "cut them land" under the threat of life. Therefore, the Decree on Land (1917) simply fixed in part the ongoing historical processes of that time.

The land issue has been brewing for a long time

The peasant land problem became urgent, of course, not in 1917, but much earlier, and was due to the fact that the rural population, with the active export of the same grains, led a semi-destitute existence in many areas of tsarist Russia, selling the best from the produced and feeding on the worst, And dying. The Zemstvo statistics (according to Rybinsk and Yaroslavl provinces), according to which in 1902, 35% of peasant farms in this region had no horses, and 7.3% - own land.

The colossal difference in taxation before the revolution

Peasants who enthusiastically adopted the Decree on the land of 1917, before its withdrawal for many years, took allotments and horses for rent, paying both owners of means of production (up to half of the crop) and the state (taxes). The latter were more than significant, since for the tithe of land it was required to contribute 1 ruble to the treasury. 97 kopeks, and the yield of the same tithe (under favorable weather conditions) was only about 4 rubles. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that a tax of two kopecks (!) For the same tithe was levied on the nobleman's households, while the size of the estates was 200-300 peasant allotments.

The decree on the land of 1917 gave the peasants an opportunity to seize not only landlord, but also specific, church and monastery lands with all the property on them. On those plots of land, those who left the village to the city could return with earnings. For example, in Yaroslavl province in 1902, about 202,000 passports were issued. This meant that such a large number of men (mostly) left their farms. The lands of ordinary Cossacks and peasants were not subject to withdrawal.

Peasant letters are an important factor

It is believed that the decree on the land of 1917 was drafted on the basis of about 240 "peasant orders" by the newspaper Izvestia of the All-Russian Council of Peasants' Deputies. It was assumed that this document was to be a guide in respect of transactions with the land before the decision of the Constituent Assembly.

Prohibition of private ownership of land

What were the land reforms of 1917? The decree on the land reflected the peasants' view that the most fair order would be that land could not be privately owned. It becomes public property and passes to the people working on it. At the same time, it was stipulated that persons who suffered from a "property coup" are entitled to temporary public support for adaptation to new living conditions.

In its second paragraph, the Decree on Land (1917) pointed out that subsoil and large water bodies become public, while small rivers and lakes are transferred to communities that have local government bodies. Further, the document stated that "highly cultivated plantations," that is, gardens, greenhouses, are transferred to the state or to communities (depending on the size), and the home gardens and vegetable gardens remain their owners, but the size of the plots and the level of taxes are established by law.

Issues not related to land

The decree on the land of 1917 touched not only land issues. It mentions that horse plants, breeding poultry and cattle breeding also become national property and go to state property, to the benefit of the community or can be bought out (the issue remained on the decision of the Constituent Assembly).

Household equipment from the confiscated lands passed to new owners without redemption, but in theory it was not allowed to leave small farmers without it.

When the Decree on Land was adopted, it was assumed that everyone could use the plots, who could process them on their own, by the family or in partnerships without employing hired labor. In case of incapacity of the person the rural society before restoration of working capacity helped to process its earth, but no more than two years. And when the farmer became old and could not work personally on the ground, he lost the right to use it in exchange for a pension from the state.

To each according to the needs

It is worth noting and such conditions as the distribution of land according to needs, depending on climatic conditions, the formation of a public fund administered by communities in the field and central institutions (by region). The land fund could be redistributed if the population size or productivity of the allotment changed. If the user left the land, then she went back to the fund and it could get other people, first of all the relatives of the outgoing member of the community. At the same time, fundamental improvements (melioration, fertilizers, etc.) were to be paid for.

If the land fund was not enough to feed the peasants living on it, then at the expense of the state should be organized resettlement of people with the provision of their inventory. The peasants had to move to new plots in the following order: those who wish, then the "vicious" members of the communities, then - deserters, the rest - by lot or by agreement with each other.

Based on the foregoing, it can be said that the Decree on Land was adopted by the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, proceeding from the economic and political situation at that time. He, most likely, simply fixed the processes that were already taking place in society and were inevitable.