УДК 94(470.345/344):304

EDN RXIBYH

 

Public Administration in the Area of the Rural Social Policy in 1970s — early 1980s (Case Study of the Mari, Mordovian and Chuvash ASSR)

Bikeykin E. N., Kursheva G. A., Pershin S. V., Uchvatov P. S.

 

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to the analysis of the main directions of the state social policy in the countryside in the 1970s — early 1980s. On the example of the Mari, Mordovian and Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, the influence of the current course on the concentration of agricultural production, expressed in the policy of amalgamating farms, transforming collective farms into state farms, as well as the campaign to eliminate “unpromising” villages, on the socio-economic and demographic appearance of the village is studied.

Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the article was the principles of historicism and objectivity. Systematic, historical-comparative, statistical and a number of other research methods were used in the work, with the help of which documents from regional archives, verbatim reports of sessions of the Supreme Soviets of the ASSR, and statistical materials were analyzed.

Results and discussion. The most acute problems faced by rural residents of the autonomous republics and attempts to overcome them by regional governments are characterized. The authors of the article point out that the actions taken by the authorities could have been effective at the level of individual, more successful farms, but were not able to solve the systemic problems associated with the loss of prestige and the attractiveness of rural labor for the population moving to cities. Migration was caused not only by an insufficiently thought-out policy for the elimination of “unpromising” settlements, but also by a low level of wages in agriculture, and the unresolved nature of many social issues.

Conclusion. Most of the measures for the social support of the village in the period under review turned out to be insufficient or ineffective. Targeted measures were able to support individual more successful farms, but for the successful development of the agrarian sector as a whole, well-thought-out, systemic reforms were required. On the contrary, the policy pursued by the state was often ill-conceived, did not take into account local conditions, and therefore only exacerbated social problems in the countryside. The materials of the article can be used in the development of questions of the history of the state administration of the national economy and the socio-economic development of the regions of Soviet Russia in the period of late socialism.

Keywords: Mari ASSR, Mordovian ASSR, Chuvash ASSR, agriculture, government bodies of the ASSR, liquidation of unpromising villages, social policy, depeasantization

For citation: Bikeykin EN, Kursheva GA, Pershin SV, Uchvatov PS. Public Administration in the Area of the Rural Social Policy in 1970s — early 1980s (Case Study of the Mari, Mordovian and Chuvash ASSR). Bulletin of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia. 2023;15(3):122—139. EDN RXIBYH

 

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The article was submitted 31.05.2023; approved after reviewing 27.06.2023; accepted for publication 30.06.2023.

 

Information about authors:       

Evgeny N. Bikeykin, Deputy Director — Academic Secretary of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia (3 L. Tolstogo Str., Saransk 430005, Russia), Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7301-0264, bikeykin1977@mail.ru

Galina A. Kursheva, Director of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia (3 L. Tolstogo Str., Saransk 430005, Russia), Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6151-0977, inst.gum.nauk@e-mordovia.ru

Sergey V. Pershin, Leading Researcher of Department of History Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia (3 L. Tolstogo Str., Saransk 430005, Russia), Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9405-7005, pers99@inbox.ru

Pavel S. Uchvatov, Principal Researcher — Head of Department of Regional Studies and Ethnology of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia (3 L. Tolstogo Str., Saransk 430005, Russia), Candidat of Historical Sciences, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9993-7415, uchvatov.pavel@yandex.ru

 

Contribution of the authors:

Bikeykin E. N. — concept development, scientific editing of the article;

Kursheva G. A. — concept development, scientific editing of the article;

Pershin S. V. — writing the original version of the article, collecting materials and analyzing the literature;

Uchvatov P. S. — writing the original version of the article, collecting materials and analyzing the literature.

 

Conflict of interests: the authors declare no conflict of interests.

 

The authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.