Socialism is a material project, it requires the earth as its foundation. The immediate demands in Marx’ and Engels’ Communist Manifesto begins with, ‘1. Abolition of property in land…’ This look into the first year of the Soviet project, done in the aftermath of the World War and in the midst of blockade and civil war, was written by leading Bolshevik economist Pytor Bogdanov, who would be Chair of the Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR and an architect of the New Economic Policy. He later lived in the U.S. for several years during the early 1930s as head of Soviet-U.S. trade. Like so many of his generation, a victim of the Purges, he was shot in 1939.

‘Nationalization of Agriculture’ Pyotr Bogdanov from Soviet Russia (New York). Vol. 2 No. 12. March 20, 1920.

From “Economic Life,” November 7, 1919.

THE nationalization of agriculture is one of the most complicated problems of the Socialist Revolution, and perhaps in no other country is this problem as complex as in Soviet Russia.

At the time when the decree on Socialist land management was made public, the fundamental elements of nationalization had hardly begun to take shape: the territory affected by nationalization was by no means defined; there was not the personnel necessary for the creation and enforcement of any plan concerning production; the large masses of laborers hardly understood the idea of nationalization and in some instances were hostile to the measures by means of which the Soviet power was carrying out the program of nationalization.

In order to summarize the results of the work, which began on a nation-wide scale in March, 1919, and to estimate these results, one must first realize the conditions which formed the starting point for the work of the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture at the time when it began carrying out the nationalization of agriculture.

The extent of the capitalist heritage which our organized Soviet estates now have at their disposal amounts to 615,503 desyatins of arable land, situated in the Soviet provinces, and formerly in the hands of private owners; 85 per cent. of the arable land, which formerly belonged to the landed aristocracy was taken over for the purpose of both organized and non-organized distribution, chiefly the latter.

The equipment of the various estates was diminished and destroyed to no less an extent. Instead of the 386,672 privately owned horses registered in the Soviet provinces according to the census of 1916, the Soviet estates in the hands of the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture received 23,149 horses–a number hardly sufficient for one-third of the area under cultivation belonging to the Soviet estates.

Of the 290,969 cows, only 43,361 came into the possession of the Soviet estates.

The entire number of horses and cows will yield sufficient fertilizer for only 13,000 desyatins of fallow land, i.e., about 10 per cent. of the area intended to be converted into arable land.

The supply of agricultural machinery and implements was in the same condition.

The Soviet estates had almost no stock of provisions. The workers were either compelled to steal or to desert for places where bread was more abundant.

The winter-corn was sown in the fall of 1918 on very limited areas (not over 25 per cent. of the fallow land), very often without fertilizer, with a very small quantity of seeds to each desyatin. In 13 out of 36 Soviet provinces (governments) no winter-corn has been sown at all.

A considerable portion of the estates taken over by the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture could not be utilized due to the lack of various accessories, such as harness, horseshoes, rope, small instruments, etc.

The workers were very fluctuating, entirely unorganized, politically inert–all this due to the shortage of provisions and organization. The technical forces could not get used to the village; besides, we did not have sufficient numbers of agronomists (agricultural experts) familiar with the practical organization of large estates. The regulations governing the social management of land charged the representatives of the industrial proletariat with a leading part in the work of the Soviet estates. But, torn between meeting the various requirements of the Republic, of prime importance, the proletariat could not with sufficient speed furnish the number of organizers necessary for agricultural management.

The idea of centralized management on the Soviet estates has not been properly understood by the local authorities, and the work of organization from the very beginning had to progress amid bitter fighting between the provincial Soviet estates and the provincial offices of the Department of Agriculture. This struggle has not as yet ceased.

Thus, the work of nationalizing the country’s agriculture began in the spring, i.e. a half a year later than it should have, and without any definite territory (every inch of it had to be taken after a long and strenuous siege on the part of the surrounding population); with insufficient and semi-ruined equipment; without provisions; without an apparatus for organization and without the necessary experience for such work; with the agricultural workers engaged in the Soviet estates lacking any organization whatever.

Naturally, the results of this work are not impressive.

According to our preliminary calculations, we are to gather in the fall of this year a crop of produce totaling in the 2,524 Soviet estates as follows.

                         Poods     Area in Desyatins

Winter crop 1,798,711    34,000

Spring corn 4,765,790     97,720

Potatoes 16,754,900    23,754

Vegetables, approximately 4,500,000 poods (area under cultivation 4,659 desystins).

In a number of provinces the crops are insufficient. Of the winter corn we received only a little over what was required for seed; (for the consumption of the workers of the Soviet estates). The Soviet estates are almost everywhere sufficiently supplied with seeds for the spring-crops. The number of horses used on the Soviet estates has been increased through the additional purchase of 12,000 to 15,000.

The number of cattle has also been somewhat increased.

The Soviet estates are almost completely supplied with agricultural implements and accessories, both by having procured new outfits from the People’s Commissariat for Provisioning and by means of energetic repair work on the old ones. The foundation has been laid (in one-half of the provinces sufficiently stable foundations) for the formation of an organizational machinery for the administration of the Soviet estates.

Within the limits of the Soviet estates the labor union of agricultural proletariat has developed into a large organization.

In a number of provinces the leading part in the work of the Soviet estates has been practically assumed by the industrial proletariat, which has furnished a number of organizers, whose reputation has been sufficiently established.

Estimating the results of the work accomplished, we must admit that we have not as yet any fully nationalized rural economy. But during the eight months of work in this direction, all the elements for its organization have been accumulated.

We have strengthened our position in regard to supplies, having been enabled not only to equip more efficiently the Soviet estates (2524) already included in our system of organization, but also to nationalize, during the season of 1920, 1012 additional Soviet estates, with an area of 972.674 desyatins. The combined area of the nationalized enterprises will probably amount in 1920 to about 2,000,000 desyatins within the boundaries of the present Soviet territory.

A preliminary familiarity with individual estates and with agricultural regions makes it possible to begin the preparation of a national plan for production on the Soviet estates and for a systematic attempt to meet the manifold demands made on the nationalized estates by the agricultural industries: sugar, distilling, chemical, etc., as well as by the country’s need for stock breeding, seeds, planting and other raw materials.

The greatest difficulties arise in the creation of the machinery of organization. The shortage of agricultural experts is being replenished with great difficulty, for the position of the technical personnel of the Soviet estates, due to their week political organization, is extremely unstable. The mobilization of the proletarian forces for the work in the Soviet estates gives us ground to believe that in this respect the spring of 1920 will find us sufficiently prepared.

The ranks of proletarian workers in the Soviet estates are drawing together. True, the level of their enlightenment is by no means high, but “in union there is strength” and this force if properly utilized will rapidly yield positive results.

In order to complete the picture of the agricultural work for the past year we are citing the following figures: the total expenditures incurred on the Soviet estates and on account of their administration up to January 1st, 1920, is estimated to amount to 924,347,500 roubles. The income, if the products of the Soviet estates are considered at firm prices, amounts to 843,372,343 roubles.

Thus, the first, the most difficult year has ended without a deficit if one excludes a part of the liabilities which are to be met during a number of years (the horses and implements).

Of course, it is not the particular experience which the workers possess that has caused the favorable balance of the Soviet estates, this being mainly due to the fact that the productive work in the realm of agriculture under modern conditions is a business not liable to loss.

And this is natural: industry in all its forms depends upon the supply of fuel, raw material and food. Nationalized rural economy has an inexhaustible supply of solar energy–a fuel supply independent of transportation or the blockade.

The fundamental element of production–land–does not demand any “colonial” means of restoration of its productivity. And as to provisions. This we get from the earth under the sun!

After 8 months of work on the nationalization of our rural economy, as a result of two years of titanic struggle on the part of the proletariat for the right to organize the Socialist industries with its own hands, is it not high time to admit that the most expedient, most far-sighted, and correct method to stabilize the Soviet power would be to use the greatest number of organized proletarian forces for the work of nationalizing our agriculture?

Soviet Russia began in the summer of 1919, published by the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia and replaced The Weekly Bulletin of the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia. In lieu of an Embassy the Russian Soviet Government Bureau was the official voice of the Soviets in the US. Soviet Russia was published as the official organ of the RSGB until February 1922 when Soviet Russia became to the official organ of The Friends of Soviet Russia, becoming Soviet Russia Pictorial in 1923. There is no better US-published source for information on the Soviet state at this time, and includes official statements, articles by prominent Bolsheviks, data on the Soviet economy, weekly reports on the wars for survival the Soviets were engaged in, as well as efforts to in the US to lift the blockade and begin trade with the emerging Soviet Union.

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