ОДЕСЬКА ГУБЕРНСЬКА НАРАДА З БОРОТЬБИ З БАНДИТИЗМОМ: ПЕРЕДУМОВИ СТВОРЕННЯ ТА ОСНОВНІ НАПРЯМКИ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ
ODESA PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ON THE FIGHT AGAINST BANDITRY: PRECONDITIONS OF CREATION AND MAIN ACTIVITIES

Summary/Abstract: The agrarian policy of the RCP (b) at the beginning of 1921 in Ukraine, in general, and in the Odesa province in particular, sufferedalmost complete collapse. The peasantry demonstrated its reluctanceto move to collective forms of cultivating land, resisting the forcedremoval of its corn, while resorting to armed resistance. For its part,the communist government interpreted this position of the peasantryas «banditism» or «political banditism» and used a wide networkof organizational, propaganda, military and punitive measuresto «eliminate banditism». The main thesis of the article is that theresistence of the peasantry against the agrarian policy of the RCP (b)was so powerful, as to condition the creation the Odessa Provincial 140Council on the fight against banditry (OGNBB) in March 1921, whichwas called to coordinate the activities of the military and civilianauthorities in suppressing the peasant insurgency movement.As of the beginning of January 1921, in Odesa province,the prodrazvyorstka (food apportionment) plan was executed at37%. Such a result was achieved through the involvement of militaryforces, the use of punitive measures such as taking hostages, thework of visiting sessions of the provincial revolutionary tribunal,the activities of county emergency commissions and other numerouspunitive bodies: «triplets», «fives», etc. Without using all this arsenal,the prodrazvyortska plan would have been executed at much smallerscke. In the beginning of 1921, the relations between the workers ofOdessa and the communist government became increasingly tense andhostile due to the sharp deterioration of the food supply delivered toworkers and the cessation of the work of many enterprises. Under suchcircumstances, the authorities were not able to re-engage workers inthe activities of “food squads”.On this backdrop, in the beginning of 1921, the central governmentof Ukraine adopted a number of normative acts, which were intendedto resolve issues of forms and means of combating “banditry”. Suchmeans consisted of regular military units, punitive units of the OdessaProvincial Extraordinary Commission (OGRN), police detachmentsand committees of poor peasants, who together had to ensure «theelimination of banditism before the start of the sowing campaign».During the period between March and August of 1921, theOdesa Provincial Council on Combatting Banditism focused on thedevelopment and implementation of measures that were intendedto curb peasant armed actions and ensure the implementation of aredistribution. Such measures included the creation of permanentgarrisons in the most dangerous areas, the organization of troopdetachments, increased work of intelligence and agents, etc. Takinghostages, keeping track of the families of insurgents, imposing thecollective responsibility of villagers also remained in the arsenal ofpunitive measures.The activities of the OGNBB, which was called to coordinate theactivities of military and civil authorities in order to suppress the peasant insergent movement, testified to how powerful the resistanceof the peasantry to the agrarian policy of the RCP(b) was. In sum,the prosecution of peasantry and dire punitive measures, perpetuatedagainst the agrarian population, testify to the fact, that peasants havebecome a significant danger to the communist authorities. As they didnot corroborrate the agrarian policies of the Bolshevik state, peasantsstarted to organize mass resistance movement, undermining foodsupplies for the city and the workers, a social class at the core of thesupporters of the regime.

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