collectivization

The article is devoted to the analysis of S. I. Savelyev’s works in the context of evolution of Russian historiography of the collectivization. The author notices that Savelyev began his career as the consecutive supporter of ideas of historiographic revolution during 1980-1990s. However, subsequently he offered revision of these approaches and estimates. The author considers the evolution of the views of the historian as an example of changes of events in 1990-2000s in an agrarian historiography.

At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, the modernization program in the USSR took an accelerated character. In the “nomadic” regions of the country, it took the form of sedentarizing nomads along with collectivization. The completion of these processes, according to the authorities, was to solve not only the problems of modernization of the country, but also the problems associated with the presence of a “nomadic civilization” in the USSR, which was not controlled by the state and was unyielding to Sovietization.

The article highlights the relationships between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church (hereinafter referred to as the «Russian Orthodox Church») in the late 1920s and early 1930s, during the period of collectivization of the villages, which was accompanied by the destruction of traditional life, a dramatic violation of the usual way of life. The focus is on the policy of attacking the Russian Orthodox Church, expressed in the closure of churches and monasteries, militant atheism and repressive measures against priests.