Economic reasons for the Antonov rebellion and land conflicts

The crisis in agriculture in the first years of Soviet power was the result of a number of systemic mistakes, both in the political sphere and in the economy. Food requisitioning, repression, mobilization, a brutal struggle against desertion, the forcible planting of collective farms, abuses by local authorities and a number of accompanying factors led to an increase in social tension. But the key reason for the emergence of “Antonovschina”, nevertheless, was the economic situation of the village and the limited resources to which both the village and the state claimed. We examine the problem of the influence of land conflicts on the growth of anti-Soviet sentiments in the black earth village. The influence of the land issue on the development of a powerful peasant movement is investigated. Within the framework of land conflicts in the village, contradictions in the goals of the authorities and the peasantry, the polarity of their ideas and values (including in mental attitudes) played an equally important role. It was these reasons that formed the economic and political conflict in the black earth village in the period under study, rooted in the events of 1917–1918.