The bread-and-butter crisis: causes and consequences

The bread-and-butter crisis occurred during the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the Soviet Union in 1927. In general, in 1920 there were two more economic crises in the country , which showed serious problems not only in the agrarian, but also in the industrial sector of the economy. Unfortunately, to overcome them, the authorities resorted not to market methods, but to the administrative-mandative system, solving problems in a compulsory manner, which further worsened the economic situation of the peasants and workers.

Prerequisites

The causes of the grain procurement crisis should be sought in the economic policy pursued by the Bolshevik Party in the 1920s. Despite the program of liberalization of the economy, proposed by V. Lenin in his time, the new leadership of the country headed by I. Stalin preferred to act by administrative methods, giving preference to the development of industrial enterprises, not of the agrarian sector.

The fact is that already in the mid-1920s the country began to actively purchase and produce industrial products at the expense of the village. Export of grain became the main task of the government, since the funds received from its sale were necessary for industrialization. The bread-and-butter crisis was caused by unequal prices for industrial and agricultural products. The state bought bread from the peasants at a low price, while artificially inflated the prices of manufactured goods.

This policy led to the fact that peasants reduced grain sales. The crop failure in some regions of the country led to a worsening of the situation in the country, accelerating the curtailment of the NEP.

Procurement issue

The prices for grain that the state offered to the peasants were clearly underestimated compared to market prices, which was contrary to the principles of the NEP, which assumed a free economic exchange between town and country. However, because of the policy of the state, which was primarily concerned with the development of industry, the peasants reduced the sale of grain, even reduced the acreage, which led the party leadership to accuse the village. Meanwhile, underestimated grain prices did not stimulate the peasants to develop agrarian production.

So, in the winter of 1927-1928 they supplied the state with 300 million poods of grain, and this was more than one million less than last year. It should be noted that the harvest was very good at that time. The peasants suffered not only because of understated prices, but also from the shortage of industrial goods, which they so needed for agricultural production. The situation was aggravated also due to the fact that riots often appeared on the points of delivery of grain to the state, in addition, rumors about the possible beginning of the war actively spread in the village, which increased the indifference of rural producers to their work.

The nature of the problem

The bread-and-butter crisis caused the state to reduce the incomes necessary to purchase industrial goods abroad.

Also, the disruption of purchases of grain in the village led to the fact that the industrial development plan was in jeopardy. Then the party set a course for the forced withdrawal of grain from those peasants who refused to sell grain to the state at special, purchasing prices that were below market prices.

Party measures

The grain crisis triggered a response in the country's leadership, which decided to take surplus products, for which special inspections were established in various parts of the country (Stalin led the group that went to Siberia). In addition, large-scale clean-ups on the ground began. In the village soviets and party cells, those who, in the opinion of the top leadership, did not cope with the deliveries of grain to the state were dismissed. Also formed special detachments of the poor, who took the bread from the kulaks, for which they received 25 percent of the grain as a reward.

results

The grain procurement crisis of 1927 led to the final curtailment of the NEP. The authorities rejected the plan for the creation of cooperatives, as Lenin insisted on in his time, and decided to radically transform the agrarian sector, creating new forms of interaction between the village and the state in the form of collective farms and machine-transport stations (MTS).

Problems with the supply of bread to the cities led to the fact that the party introduced food and industrial cards that were canceled after the end of the Civil War. Since the industrial sector functioned normally due to the active support of the state, all foes were accused of kulaks - wealthy peasants. Stalin advanced the thesis of an aggravation of the class struggle, which gave rise to the collapse of the NEP and moved to collectivization in the countryside and industrialization in the cities. As a result, the peasants were united into large farms, the products of which were supplied to the state, which enabled the creation of the largest industrial base in the state in a fairly short time.