NUTRITION IN THE EXPENDITURE PART OF THE BUDGETS OF THE PEASANT FARMS OF UKRAINE DURING THE NEP PERIOD (1921 – 1929)

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to analyze the structure of peasant farms expenditures budgets for food for their families comprehensively and their ratio to other expenses and actual incomes of peasant families during the financial year. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of systematicity, reliability, historicism, logic. General scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special historical (historical typological, historical systemic) methods have been used. The scientific novelty is that for the first time in modern domestic historiography the costs of food in the peasant farms budgets’ formation during the NEP (New Economic Policy) and their ration to other actual expenditure and income during the financial year have been considered. Quantitative and qualitative indicators of food have been analyzed; the quantity of the consumed staple food and their power value has been traced in dynamics. The Conclusions. It has been determined that the plant products prevailed in the average daily consumption of the rural population. According to the norms of the annual consumption of staple food of peasants in the district of the USSR, it was depicted that everywhere more than half of all consumed products was bread with certain regional differences in the share of the annual consumption of rye and wheat bread. At the same time, along with the increase in the absolute consumption of bread products, which were considered to be the basis of the rural population nutrition, their qualitative composition changed slowly, hence, it reflected some improvement in the economic condition of the peasantry. The daily norm for products of animal origin was not high. The peasant budgets reflected the difficult material life of peasant families in the 1920s, including the problem of food costs. The peasant families were forced to tighten their belts, in particular, to limit the already modest food standards and did not give any grain to livestock in order to get out of the predicament. The family abnegated itself any factory products – manufactories, shoes, sugar, kerosene and even needles became luxuries. It was noted that by reducing the cost of food, the peasants tried to balance the expenditure part of their budget and ensure its deficit. As a result, the diet of most farms was impoverished, especially in the spring, when there was a shortage of meat, milk and dairy products, while the consumption of bread and potatoes exceeded the norm. Prior to that, the quality of products, especially bread, in many cases was low.

Key words: expenditure part, budget, new economic policy, nutrition, ration, energy value, peasant economy.