The transformation of the economic life of middle peasants during the period of the nep (On materials of the Penza province)

The Bolsheviks’ agrarian policy of the first decade of the Soviet power is analyzed in the article: the attitude change towards middle peasants and representing them as the main agriculture forces. The author has found out the heterogeneity of middle peasants’ households, their division into three categories: “well-off”, “medium” and “not well-off” having tendency moving to poor households. The economic situation of middle peasants’ households has been considered: house, household outbuildings, the number of working and stand idle stock, the use of machinery. The author has come to the conclusion that the equalitarian reallocation of land contributed to the process of making village middle. During the period of the New Economic Policy the process of the economy renewal was slow and social cohesion was manifested in the poverty of the majority of households in terms of general impoverishment of village. Agricultural tools were primitive. A middle peasant’s household was economically weak.