SOVIET POWER AND SOCIAL AND NATURAL PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURE OF THE RSFSR IN 1910-1920S: EXPERIENCE OF LEGAL REGULATION

Based on the complete study of the published normative and administrative acts of the first years of Soviet authority (1917-1921) the peculiarities of the state power’s perception of demographic and environmental problems in the Russian village at a turning point of transition from a traditional to an industrial type of society were studied. The analysis of more than a hundred revealed papers on the subject has allowed to evaluate objectively the Soviet government’s level of consciousness and interest in the decision of demographic and ecological problems. Eventually, conclusions that there was no disastrous perception of environmental problems by the authorities, environmental issues of natural resources use in agriculture were resolved by the authorities with other agricultural issues. Demographic problems were not separate and were a part of social and economic policy. Immediate objectives were the maximum increase of the cultivated area in order to solve the food problem, restraining the population within the borders of Central Russia for cultivation and restoration of agriculture, felling of forests for export. Issues of reasonable environmental management, as well as in the “royal” time were procrastinated for later. In spite of that, in the 1910-1920s can be already found a tendency to separation of some environmental problems in the state internal politics.

Russia’s later agrarian society, demographic crisis, environmental crisis, the decrees of the Soviet government, Soviet society