Post-war collectivization and "dekulakization" in Soviet historiography in the 1980s

The article examines the development of domestic historiography in the context of post-war collectivization in the USSR, using studies from the 1980s as an example. The object of the study is the dynamics of changes in Soviet historiography and the key circumstances of the final stage of its formation. The subject is the scientific contribution of Soviet scholars to the interpretation of the processes of post-war collectivization and dekulakization in the western regions of the Soviet Union. The goal is to identify the extent of the influence of factors related to the evolution of Soviet historiography on the specifics and results of the study of these processes during the indicated period. The author conducts a comparative analysis of the themes, statistical data, and assessments made by historians of the 1980s and their colleagues from the preceding period, revealing both continuity (contradictions in the evaluations of collectivization and statistics regarding the maturation of prerequisites and the pace of collectivization) and innovations (prerequisites and difficulties of collectivization in the Kaliningrad region, deportation). Special attention is paid to the unique conditions of the formation of historiography on post-war collectivization in the 1980s, and the new statistics utilized by historians are analyzed, along with the reasons for the retention of several aspects of the topic as poorly studied or unexplored. The study was conducted using comparative-historical and problem-historical methods to identify the peculiarities of themes and assessments of various aspects of post-war collectivization, and the method of retrospective analysis to contemplate under-researched topics and the reasons for such a state of affairs in Soviet historiography. The results obtained were structured according to the principle of historicism. The scientific novelty is associated with the application of modern achievements in historical science (the experience of studying pre-war collectivization from the scientific school of V. P. Danilov). In the 1980s, the study of post-war collectivization was influenced by the concept of developed socialism, the end of L.I. Brezhnev's leadership, and perestroika. Most publications from the 1980s are summarizing works due to the introduction into scientific circulation of a wide range of documents in the mid-1960s to 1970s. In the 1980s, the opinion solidified regarding the immaturity of the prerequisites for post-war collectivization and the presence of violations during collectivization; historians began writing about the seizure of agricultural products through collective farms, campaigns as an organizational tool, and the number of deportees for the first time. The author's special contribution is a comparative analysis of the historiography of the 1980s and previous stages, allowing for the tracing of the evolution of views among Soviet historians under the influence of ideological, political, and subjective factors.