The Night of ‘Long Debts’ in the Urals: Organising the 1929 Campaign to Collect Arrears from Private Entrepreneurs

This article aims to study the process of organising a campaign with the purpose of collecting arrears from private entrepreneurs and for clearing of tax bureaucracy. The source of the research is the instructions of the Central Headquarters of the working team for the patronage over the USSR People...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alexey Pavlovich Kilin
Format: Article
Language:Russian
Published: Ural Federal University Press 2018-12-01
Series:Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.urfu.ru/index.php/Izvestia2/article/view/3630
_version_ 1828407797573746688
author Alexey Pavlovich Kilin
author_facet Alexey Pavlovich Kilin
author_sort Alexey Pavlovich Kilin
collection DOAJ
description This article aims to study the process of organising a campaign with the purpose of collecting arrears from private entrepreneurs and for clearing of tax bureaucracy. The source of the research is the instructions of the Central Headquarters of the working team for the patronage over the USSR People’s Commissariat for Finance and the administration of Sverdlovsk Regional Financial Administration concerning the Sverdlovsk Regional Financial Department (SRFD). The author studies the problems of adequacy of private sector taxation under the SRFD policy. This policy was one of the reasons for organising a tax campaign. The analysis of documents allows the author to conclude that the methods and means of the campaign planned testify to a radicalisation of the policy of a total and final exclusion of private sector from the country’s economy, and to the abolition of the NEP mixed economy. Apart from fiscal aims proper, the authorities purposed political ones too; their goal was to demonstrate the determination of the government and to conduct a cleaning up of the financial body which was ‘littered’ with petty-bourgeois elements. To maintain the class equality of the campaign, factory workers were actively involved which led to several legal and organisational problems and caused various instances of abuse. Rapid and unexpected mass confiscations at night which happened without prior notice and on a wide scale, with arrears collected even from relatives and acquaintances of an entrepreneur were similar to a war campaign, resembling an act of intimidation targeted at political opponents. Some points of instructions contradicted the legislature of the time in question; however, this fact was not viewed as a flaw considering the political character of this campaign. The rightful desire of the government to collect arrears under the dictatorship of proletariat and under the final stages of the NEP was transformed into a force operation accompanied by the deprivation of property of the conquered class in the spirit of the theory of ‘primary socialist accumulation’.
first_indexed 2024-12-10T11:29:43Z
format Article
id doaj.art-4686e21070b24d93b218bc591406ce90
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2227-2283
2587-6929
language Russian
last_indexed 2024-12-10T11:29:43Z
publishDate 2018-12-01
publisher Ural Federal University Press
record_format Article
series Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки
spelling doaj.art-4686e21070b24d93b218bc591406ce902022-12-22T01:50:37ZrusUral Federal University PressИзвестия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки2227-22832587-69292018-12-01204(181)16718210.15826/izv2.2018.20.4.0742953The Night of ‘Long Debts’ in the Urals: Organising the 1929 Campaign to Collect Arrears from Private EntrepreneursAlexey Pavlovich Kilin0Уральский федеральный университет, ЕкатеринбургThis article aims to study the process of organising a campaign with the purpose of collecting arrears from private entrepreneurs and for clearing of tax bureaucracy. The source of the research is the instructions of the Central Headquarters of the working team for the patronage over the USSR People’s Commissariat for Finance and the administration of Sverdlovsk Regional Financial Administration concerning the Sverdlovsk Regional Financial Department (SRFD). The author studies the problems of adequacy of private sector taxation under the SRFD policy. This policy was one of the reasons for organising a tax campaign. The analysis of documents allows the author to conclude that the methods and means of the campaign planned testify to a radicalisation of the policy of a total and final exclusion of private sector from the country’s economy, and to the abolition of the NEP mixed economy. Apart from fiscal aims proper, the authorities purposed political ones too; their goal was to demonstrate the determination of the government and to conduct a cleaning up of the financial body which was ‘littered’ with petty-bourgeois elements. To maintain the class equality of the campaign, factory workers were actively involved which led to several legal and organisational problems and caused various instances of abuse. Rapid and unexpected mass confiscations at night which happened without prior notice and on a wide scale, with arrears collected even from relatives and acquaintances of an entrepreneur were similar to a war campaign, resembling an act of intimidation targeted at political opponents. Some points of instructions contradicted the legislature of the time in question; however, this fact was not viewed as a flaw considering the political character of this campaign. The rightful desire of the government to collect arrears under the dictatorship of proletariat and under the final stages of the NEP was transformed into a force operation accompanied by the deprivation of property of the conquered class in the spirit of the theory of ‘primary socialist accumulation’.https://journals.urfu.ru/index.php/Izvestia2/article/view/3630Уралналогообложениенэпчастное предпринимательствоконфискацияправо.
spellingShingle Alexey Pavlovich Kilin
The Night of ‘Long Debts’ in the Urals: Organising the 1929 Campaign to Collect Arrears from Private Entrepreneurs
Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки
Урал
налогообложение
нэп
частное предпринимательство
конфискация
право.
title The Night of ‘Long Debts’ in the Urals: Organising the 1929 Campaign to Collect Arrears from Private Entrepreneurs
title_full The Night of ‘Long Debts’ in the Urals: Organising the 1929 Campaign to Collect Arrears from Private Entrepreneurs
title_fullStr The Night of ‘Long Debts’ in the Urals: Organising the 1929 Campaign to Collect Arrears from Private Entrepreneurs
title_full_unstemmed The Night of ‘Long Debts’ in the Urals: Organising the 1929 Campaign to Collect Arrears from Private Entrepreneurs
title_short The Night of ‘Long Debts’ in the Urals: Organising the 1929 Campaign to Collect Arrears from Private Entrepreneurs
title_sort night of long debts in the urals organising the 1929 campaign to collect arrears from private entrepreneurs
topic Урал
налогообложение
нэп
частное предпринимательство
конфискация
право.
url https://journals.urfu.ru/index.php/Izvestia2/article/view/3630
work_keys_str_mv AT alexeypavlovichkilin thenightoflongdebtsintheuralsorganisingthe1929campaigntocollectarrearsfromprivateentrepreneurs
AT alexeypavlovichkilin nightoflongdebtsintheuralsorganisingthe1929campaigntocollectarrearsfromprivateentrepreneurs