Crisis and Pragmatism: The Evolution of the Soviet Procurement Apparatus in Civil War-era Penza, 1919–1920

Abstract

The twin challenges of grain procurement and military threat from the White armies in 1919 and 1920 and how they were handled by provincial soviet officials are essential to understanding the survival and nature of Soviet Russia. The purpose of this article is to use a local study to examine in detail how the 1919-20 Soviet procurement campaigns were conducted in the localities. The focus here is Penza, a central ‘producing' province, located on the eastern edge of the central Black Earth region yet at a distance from the Volga and outlying provinces where ferocity, loyalty to the revolution, and personal power prevailed in procurement and government control was weak. The Bolsheviks routinely concentrated armed force and capable personnel in one crisis area after another for short-term military or procurement purposes. Yet, this study finds that for Penza resources such as armed food brigades and rank-and-file communists became scarce as these were mobilized for work in newly occupied regions where procurement burdens became more significant. Procurement officials in Penza faced the necessity of near constant pragmatic adjustments in their engagement with their subordinates as well as peasant producers as circumstances and access to resources changed frequently. By tracing the local apparatus's history, a clearer picture emerges of the obstacles and adjustments involved in administering the Soviet grain monopoly behind the lines of the Civil War. In this way, we add to our knowledge of the challenges that shaped the Bolsheviks' efforts to resolve the grain crisis and survive the Civil War.