«Pozbavlentsi» in the social structure of the Soviet village of the 1920s

Abstract

«Pozbavlentsi» in the social structure of the Soviet village of the 1920s The phenome non of “pozbavlentsi» (deprived people) as an instrument of the repressive policy of the communist regime, which was artificially created by the Bolsheviks during the first months of coming to power, is analyzed in the article. The Bolsheviks consciously lead the discriminatory policy against certain social layers, contrary to communist propaganda about social equality in the Soviet state. The core principle of this policy was to "crowd out" potentially dangerous people (from the point of view of the ruling party) from the active social, political, cultural, educational and economic life of the state, first of all, by depriving them of their right to vote. The situation in rural areas, for example, in the Korosten district of Zhytomyr region, looked paradoxical. On the one hand, the communists sought to secure themselves by the support of the local peasantry, therefore, in every possible way they tried to engage it to the process of sovietisation of the region, first of all, through participation in elections to local authorities. On the other hand, they harshly pursued the manifestations of the political activity of the part of the rural community, which traditionally was its leader. In the 1920s, the Bolshevik authorities deepened the line of split of rural society by establishment of new markers of social stratification – "citizens of the Soviet state with all rights" and "pozbavlentsi" (“deprived people»). However, the society of that time with patriarchal level of political culture did not see them as a serious threat of the destruction of the traditional foundations of the rural community. After all, the overwhelming majority of peasants still did not consider voting as a political privilege. However, the status of "pozbavlentsi" (“deprived people») a priori turned its bearer into a person of "a second class" with so-called signs of "marginality", which were fully revealed in the late 1920s - early 1930s. Less than in ten years "pozbavlentsi" (“deprived people») were the ones to become one of the first victims of a full-scale state terror unfolded by the Stalinist regime.