Soviet Peasants and the "Test of War": Food Politics and the Second World War in the Soviet Countryside, 1939-1945

This dissertation is the first archive-based study of the Soviet countryside during the Second World War in English (or French). It is about life, death, and survival on the collective farms between 1939 and 1945. Problematically neglected in Western historiography, the story of how the majority of the Soviet population, who indeed continued to live in the villages, survived during the war is also the story of how the world’s victory over fascism was achieved. Based on extensive research in central and regional archives in Russia and Ukraine, this study looks at political attitudes and the impact of the war on state-peasant relations in the USSR through the prism of food politics. It shows the different roles of food and gender in navigating extreme circumstances in the rapidly changing Soviet villages, while noting peasant agency and the endurance of peasant culture and community. Food and gender influenced how rural dwellers experienced and made sense of the war in the USSR, but also how boundaries and identities were redrawn, renegotiated, and reasserted in the villages. Above all, this study provides a sense of the diversity of experiences and the sheer horrors of life on the collective farms during the war. This dissertation is divided into five chapters following the chronology of the war. The Second World War in the Soviet countryside began in 1939. Chapter 1 discusses the importance of the 1939-1941 period for understanding the war of destruction that was to follow the German invasion of the USSR on 22 June 1941. The following chapters document the growing tensions and problems in the villages, which eventually led to postwar repression and famine. This study draws attention to the limits of state control and the extent of change and continuity in the Soviet countryside. During the war, rural dwellers employed a variety of old and new tactics to cope with hardships and defend their ways of life. The war witnessed more solidarity on the collective farms, but it also witnessed disputes and cruelties. In the final analysis, the Second World War radicalized a continuum of violence initiated by the forced collectivization of agriculture.

Department dc:contributor.department

History

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Samson-Paquet, Roxane

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Viola, Lynne

• Agriculture
• Food
• Peasants
• USSR
• Violence
• War

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/139025

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/139025