Indicators of land conflict in the analysis of the peasant identity of the period of agrarian transformations of 1917–1920

The study of social behavior in history is closely related to the concepts of mentality and social identity. Being a real factor in the historical process, mentality manifests itself in the activities of large social groups, acts as a psychological justification for life strategies for survival. At the same time, mentality itself carries the character of a strategy, which does not explain the tactical – behavioral – reactions of a particular social group to crisis moments of existence, such as epidemics, wars, hunger strikes, etc. The specification of mental manifestations led to the use of the “tactical” category of social identity. Researchers emphasize the complex semantic context of this category. The author’s understanding is tied to social specifics – to peasant identity. The latter is defined as the approval of the survival strategy used in a given social group, which is practically implemented in a certain set of repetitive behavioral reactions, a behavioral pattern. The purpose of this study is to study the peasant identity of a particular region – the Chernozem region – during the period of agrarian transformations of 1917–1920. The article considers the structure of peasant identity, the behavioral reactions of the peasantry to changing economic conditions, and gives a classification of land conflicts. The article also presents the indicator possibilities of land conflicts and determines the place of peasant identity in the behavioral pattern of the black earth peasantry. The presented methodology for indicating land conflicts to determine the state of peasant identity in 1917–1920. Can be applied in the analysis of other historical periods. The study was conducted on the materials of the archives of the Lipetsk, Voronezh, Kursk, Oryol and Tambov regions.

mentality, social reflection, peasant identity, behavioral pattern, land conflict, agrarian transformations