Sevastopol's Economy in the 1920s: from the Policy of «War Communism» to a New Economic Policy

The article is devoted to the economic history of Sevastopol city in the 20s of the XX century. The purpose of the article is to study the peculiarities of the transformation of the Sevastopol economy in the context of the transition from the policy of «war communism» to a new economic policy. To achieve this goal, the process of creating the Council of People's Commissars and its restructuration was analyzed, the cooperative movement in the early years of the NEP was studied, the regional features of prodrazverstka (surplus appropriation system), and prodnalog (food tax) was investigated, as well as providing food to the population during the period of war communism and during the transition to the NEP. It was revealed that the creation of the Council of People's Commissars in 1920 led to the nationalization of all enterprises in the city. After the introduction of the NEP and the restructuring of the Council of People's Commissars in 1921, some enterprises were leased to private individuals or cooperative organizations. The largest and the most profitable and strategically important enterprises remained subordinate to the Council of People's Commissars. An analysis of the cooperative movement in Sevastopol during the NEP period revealed a gradual increase in production volumes within the framework of handicraft and fishing cooperation, as well as an increase in trade turnover within the framework of consumer cooperation by the mid-1920s. The study of the prodrazverstka (surplus appropriation system) revealed that from the autumn of 1920 to the spring of 1921 in Sevastopol it was not possible to accumulate the necessary amount of food products to provide the population and military units based in Sevastopol. As a result, the first step of the NEP was the introduction of a prodnalog (food tax) − a firmly fixed in-kind tax on peasant farms, which was an incentive for their development in Sevastopol, since its size was almost two times less than the prodrazverstka. A study of the food provision to the population revealed a decrease in the number of rations issued in Sevastopol in 1920-1921. The provision of food rations in the existing norms during the period of «war communism» (from November 1920 to May 1921) was difficult due to the complexity of collecting food. The adoption of the NEP relieved the city's leadership of the obligation to supply the population with state food rations and the number of rations decreased almost 10 times in the summer of 1921.