THE EFFICIENCY OF REQUISITION AND TAXATION POLICIES IN 1917–1927 IN LETTERS “TO THE AUTHORITIES”
Keywords:
Letters to the authorities, public mood, trust, Civil war, NEP, surplus appraisal, requisition, in-kind taxAbstract
The article discusses the communicative function of letters to authorities in the context of the population’s assessment of the efficiency of the requisition and taxation policies in the first decade of the Communist regime in power. Many letters during the Civil War represented complaints of confiscation and requisition. The peasants believed that the surplus-appraisal and the collection of an extraordinary revolutionary tax were carried out in violation of instructions and norms established by the Soviet state itself. Correspondents of the authorities noted that the surplus appropriation was carried out through the unlimited use of violence and coercion, leading to the destruction of trust between the government and the people, between the city and the village. The attitude of the population towards taxes in the 1920s was largely determined by the experience of the Civil War, when millions of citizens suffered from violent requisition. In the NEP years, when the regime has pursued better balanced economic and social policies, a large-scale rationalization of popular opinion regarding the principles of relationship between the government and society took place. This rationalization, as the letters to the authorities show, was especially evident in the peasant milieu. This occurred due to different circumstances, including the ability to farm on a market basis embedded in the principles of NEP. The middle-peasant majority of the village considered the policy of encouraging peasants' economic initiative to be effective, since such a policy could lead to an increase in the well-being of the whole society. Most people considered the policy of tax pressure on the peasantry which undermined the economic viability of farms in the NEP era, to be erroneous. The ability and willingness to trust the state determined a lot in the mentality and social behavior of people of the post-revolutionary era. Coercive, driven by class ideology rather than economic practicability, and, therefore, inefficient policies (including taxation policies), according to many authors of the letters, have been destructive to the atmosphere of trust and social balance in the country.References
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