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The Don and Kuban Regions During Famine: The Authorities, the Cossacks, and the Church in 1921–1922 and 1932–1933

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2020

Evgeny Krinko Open the ORCID record for Evgeny Krinko [Opens in a new window] ,
Alexander Skorik  and
Alla Shadrina
Evgeny Krinko*
Affiliation:
Department of Humanities of the Federal Research Centre the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Alexander Skorik
Affiliation:
Department of Jurisprudence, Philosophy and History and the Research Institute of the History of the Cossacks and the Development of Cossack Regions of the South Russian State Polytechnic University named after Platova, Novocherkassk, Russia
Alla Shadrina
Affiliation:
Cossacks Laboratory of the Federal Research Centre the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: krinko@ssc-ras.ru
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Abstract

This article studies the famine of 1921–1922 and 1932–1933 in the Southern Russian regions. Famine as a socio-historical phenomenon is considered in the context of the relationship of state power, the Cossacks, and the Church. The authors reveal the general and special features of the famine emergence and analyze the differences in the state policies of 1921–1922 and 1932–1933. Considerable attention is paid to the survival strategies of the Don, Kuban and Terek populations. Slaughtering and eating draft animals, transfer from the state places of work to the private campaigns and cooperatives, moving to shores and banks, and eating river and sea food became widespread methods of overcoming famine. Asocial survival strategies included cannibalism, abuse of powers, bribery, and more. In 1921–1922, the Russian Orthodox Church fought actively against the famine. In 1932–1933, the Church was weakened and could not provide significant assistance to the starving population. The article was written based on declassified documents from the state and departmental archives, including criminal investigations and analytical materials of the Obedinjonnoe gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie [Joint State Political Directorate] (OGPU) recording the attitudes of minds. Also used are personal stories—namely, interviews with eyewitnesses of the famine of 1932–1933, recorded by the Kuban folklorists in the territory of the Krasnodar and Stavropol Krai.

Keywords

FamineDonKubanCossackssurvival strategiesRussian Orthodox Church
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 48 , Special Issue 3: Special Issue on the Soviet Famines of 1930–1933 , May 2020 , pp. 569 - 584
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

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