Solution of the «agrarian issue» as a factor of the formation of peasant republics at the fi rst stage of the agrarian revolution (1902 – 1907)

Abstract

Introduction. Agrarianism, as ideology and political doctrine, was formulated and expanded in
Europe in the end of the 19th – the fi rst third of the 20th century. Europe has formulated a new ideology and
political doctrine, an alternative to liberalism and socialism – agrarianism. Theorists of agrarianism have thrown
peasantry into the foundation of the stability of the state and the basis of national identity, and farming is a priority
type of activity both from the economic and from the moral point of view.
For a great intelligence to the phenomenon of agrarianism, unique to the 1917 rural republics, which have
become the most common form of suspension-political and economic self-organization of the rural protest and
insurgent movement in Ukraine. At that hour, since the Western and Central Europe lost the basic postulates of
agrarianism in the treatises of these ideologists and in the program documents of the agrarian political parties, in
the Ukrainian peasantry we have been actively promoting the creation of a new mode in postulates.
Purpose is to analyze the circumstances and peculiarities of the formation of peasant republics in the Ukraine
in 1905 – 1906, on the basis of the methodology of «case study» of the Sorochynska, Vysunska, Rokytnianska,
Sumska peasant republics to fi nd out the peculiarities of solving the «agrarian issue» in the context of practical
implementation of the basic ideological principles of agrarianism.
Results. The author argues that the emergence of peasant republics, the formation and functioning of
alternative authorities, the organization of peasant self-defense, the solution of agrarian and other issues relevant
to the peasantry were the practical embodiment of the basic ideological principles of agrarianism.
Conclusion. The history of the emergence and existence of the Sorochynska, Vysunska, Rokytnianska, Sumska
peasant republics showed that almost immediately after the proclamation they tried to create, or at least imitate,
their own authorities, legislation, state symbols and other attributes of statehood. At the fi rst stage (1902 – 1907) of
the Agrarian Revolution, such measures did not gain much development due to the short existence of the republics
and the lack of relevant experience. Thus, in the Vysunska Republic, power passed to a public committee; in
Rokytnianska – to the village committees; in Sorochynska – to the Revolutionary Committee; in Sumska peasant
republiс – to the local branches of the All-Russian Peasants’ Union. It is known that the Sorochynska Republic, in
addition to its own authorities, had a fl ag in the form of a red banner with the inscription «Land and Freedom».
Analysis of cases (cases) of peasant republics in 1905 – 1906 allows us to identify the following components
of the solution of the «agrarian issue», which were initiated by the peasantry: 2) seizure and redistribution of
landlord land, endowment of landless and landless peasants (Sorochynska and Komratska Republics); 3) pogroms
of landowners’ estates, deforestation, etc. (Vysunska and Rokytnianska Republics); 4) abolition of redemption
payments and debts (Sorochynska Republic); 5) establishing cooperation between the republics and the AllRussian Peasants’ Union (Sorochynska Republic); 6) the formation of armed units of self-defense (Vysunska,
Sorochynska republics). In contrast to the peasant republics of 1917 – 1922, we did not fi nd any cases of special
bodies or positions responsible for resolving the «agrarian issue» in the government of the republics at the fi rst
stage of the «Agrarian Revolution» in Ukraine.