The article applies a new approach to the social history of the Soviet village; in the framework of this approach agricultural specialists are treated as the social class of agrarian production intellectuals. The author analyzes their relationship with other categories of rural population in northern villages. The place of intellectuals in public relations was largely determined by their legal status. Until the mid-1950s, working within the state structure, agrarian production intellectuals performed the role of representatives of state institutions (machine and tractor stations or local departments) and they were not subordinate to the chairman of a collective farm. Intellectuals lived mostly near cities and district centers, and they visited collective farms not very often. Due to this fact, rural residents considered them to be alienated from village life. When intellectuals were transferred directly to collective farms in the mid-1950s, their social status changed significantly: they became members of the collective farm and, accordingly, they were subordinate directly to chairpersons. Modernization of agricultural production in the second half of the 1950s – early 1960s led to an increase of the role of intellectual factor in production processes. As a consequence, intellectuals gradually became “trusted helpers” for managers of collective farm and state farm production. During the whole period, despite the fact that rural population was uncertain about the role and place of intellectuals in the production process, the latter were highly regarded in the social hierarchy; they were ranked together with village authorities and rural intelligentsia
Keywords
agrarian production intellectuals, public relations, social class