Formation of the food supply system in Ukraine in 1917 under the conditions of revolutionary transformations (based on materials of the Uman district food committee/administration)

Abstract

Abstract. In the article, using the example of the Uman powiat of Kyiv governorate as an important agricultural region of Right-bank Ukraine, the peculiarities of the implementation of food policy at the local level, the interaction between the authorities and the population, as well as the effectiveness of new management practices in 1917 are examined. The purpose of the study is to analyze, on the basis of the materials of the Uman powiat food committee and the district board, as well as a complex of regional studies, the process of forming the food supply system in Ukraine in 1917 under the conditions of revolutionary transformations. The scientific novelty. For the first time, on the basis of a local documentary corpus, the practical mechanisms of establishing a food supply system at the county level as a component of all-Ukrainian revolutionary processes have been reconstructed. It has been established that under conditions of collapsing traditional market ties, transport crisis, and wartime pressures, food committees became key institutions of state regulation, combining the functions of accounting, procurement, resource distribution, and supervision over mandatory deliveries. It has been proven that the food supply system was formed as a multi-level administrative structure in which county bodies coordinated the activities of volost and rural institutions, ensuring the implementation of centralized policy at the local level. It has been determined that the effectiveness of this system was significantly limited by peasant resistance, economic disorganization, transport shortages, political instability, and the spread of alternative supply channels. It is substantiated that food policy acted not only as an economic factor, but also as a socio-political one, influencing the nature of relations between the authorities and the population during the revolutionary era. The conclusions. It has been determined that the formation of the food supply system in 1917 was transitional in nature and combined elements of centralized state regulation with practices of local self-organization and informal circulation of products. Using the example of Uman County, it has been demonstrated that food institutions became an important instrument of anti-crisis governance; however, their effectiveness remained limited due to the depth of the general social crisis. The experience of 1917 confirmed the decisive role of the food factor in the processes of state-building and social stabilization during the revolutionary period.