Development of the Nationalization of Land in the Russian Revolution

Abstract

The nationalizatization of land was first proposed by Lenin at the period of the First Russian Revolution (1905-1907) as the "maximum" of bourgeois-democratic changes of the country, in perspective of the revolution to grow immediately to the socialistic stage under the hegemony of the proletaliat. Bolsheviki aimed at revolutionary destruction of the feudal land ownership, but among Bolsheviki leaders there existed two main solutions : the nationalization and the division of land. The "division of land" thesis as against the "nationalization" thesis was regarded as wrong (but not qad) in Russia of that time, for the very nature of the "nadel" (land belonging to the peasantry) was also medieval. The slogan of the nationalization of land was once again proposed in the Lenin's April Thesis in 1917. But the social conditions had largely changed: there appeared the various subjects of the socialist revolution in front, which had been brought forward by the estalishbment of monopoly capitalism accelerated by the patronage of the tsarist regime. Hence the nationalization of land, a long cherished desire of the Russian peasantry, could only be realized by the proletaliat in passing of the accomplishment of socialistic purposes. In this sense the nationalization of land was now regarded as the "first step" to socialism. The nationalization of land which was actually prescribed in the "decree on the land" issued on the next day of the Revolution, together with the provisions of equal utilization of land in responce to the wishes of peasants, finally abolished all kinds of survivals of the medieval land ownership. This measure was in its essence bourgeois one, but under the dictatorship of the proletaliat it could be used in the interest of socialism. However, the nationalization of land, different from that of industries, did not in itself give birth to socialistic relations, so until the management on land was also socialized through collectivism, excessive interference of the proletarian state into the utilization of land was apt to injure the initiatives of peasants. Therefore the land policies of the proletarian state during so-called "transition period" inevitablly had two conflicting elements : the admission and the check of the spontaneous development of the petit bourgeois or capitalistic relations on the nationalized land.