The Problem of Acceptance of Farming by Local Authorities in 1989–1991 (Based on the Materials of the Central Chernozem Region)

Abstract

The article examines how the process of adoption of the idea of farming by representatives of local authorities in the regions of the Central Chernozem Region took place during the birth of the farmer movement, in 1989–1991. An analysis of the transcript of the Second (extraordinary) Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR, and of protocols of the plenums of regional and district committees of the CPSU from January-February 1991 (RGASPI), reveal the first reaction of the leaders of party organizations and heads of collective agricultural enterprises to the emergence of farming. The most acute aspects of the problem of the formation and development of the farmer movement are revealed, namely: the fear of a possible “repetition of capitalism”, diversity in agriculture, the fear that excessive support of farmers from the state will result in damage to collective agricultural enterprises, protection of collective forms of management in the face of collective farms and state farms, private ownership of land, attitude to farming, prevention of forcing the pace of farming. The article concludes about the psychological unwillingness in 1989–1991 of the party leaders of the regional and district levels, heads of collective farms and state farms to calmly accept the idea of farming and put up with its existence. The position of distrust of the new form of management, in turn, was reinforced by the institutional and economic difficulties that objectively arose during the formation of farming (natural for the initial stage of any transformation).