Conception of the “Peasant Revolution in 1917” by Andrii Shestakov (about forgotten scientific achievements and the disputability of modern achievements)
Authors: Fareniy Igor 
Published: July 2023

The famous historian of agrarian history Andrii Shestakov in the 1920s in his scholarly studies as to 1917 in Russia used the term "peasant revolution". In such a situation, the modern scientific school of V. Danilov came up with the concept of the peasant revolution of the early twentieth century which he presents as the latest achievement of historical science. Due to this situation, the question arises about the primacy in the formation of the concept of peasant revolution. The aim of the article is presented to expose Andrii Shestakov's interpretation of the term "peasant revolution" and to show its relation to the modern concept of V. Danilov and his supporters. Andrii Shestakov regarded the revolutionary struggle of the peasantry in 1917 as an independent socio-political phenomenon. It took place in several stages. At first, it was relatively peaceful, hoping for a solution to the agrarian issue by the authorities. From March to May, the peasants actively appealed to various instances. They rarely resorted to radical action. In May – July 1917, the peasant movement became more organised. Its representatives were the executive committees of the parish and the land committees. In August – October peaceful methods of struggle were replaced by the peasantry force measures to seize landlords. From the end of October 1917 the revolutionary struggle of the peasantry merged into one stream with the revolutionary struggle of the workers, which led to the victory of the revolution. At the end of 1917 – in the beginning of 1918 there was a liquidation of the landed land ownership and transfer to the peasantry on the basis of the Soviet power legislation. Andrii Shestakov pointed to the low level of political parties` influence, as well as the revolutionary authorities and other institutions on the actions of the peasantry. Rural communities were the real organizer and leader of the revolutionary struggle of the peasantry. Andrii Shestakov considered the peasant revolution of 1917 to be victorious, and defined its character as bourgeois-democratic. As a result of this revolution, peasant land use per capita increased, on average, from 1¾ to 2¼ people. It is positively impacts on the peasant economy and the transfer of landlord inventory. As a result of the research, Andrii Shestakov's understanding of the concept "peasant revolution" is revealed, and thus shows the true origins of the concept of peasant revolution. The modern scientific school of the peasant revolution actually has its authoritative predecessors. In the 1920s, the concept of the peasant revolution was developed by Andrii Shestakov. According to the Shestakov`s concept the peasantry in the conditions of the revolutionary struggle of 1917 acted as an autonomous socio-political force. In its political behavior, it was beyond the control of political parties and urban social strata, and manifested a capacity for self-organization. The withdrawal from the scientific and cognitive use and forgetting the concept of the peasant revolution of 1917 came under pressure from the socio-political situation in the USSR. The consequences of this are tangible even in today's context, and still most historians do not see in the peasantry the self-sufficient power of revolutionary change. The conceptual similarity of Andrii Shestakov vision of the revolutionary struggle in 1917 and the modern scientific school of the peasant revolution indicates that the creative heritage of the scientist can be synthesized with modern methodological tools of historical science.