Abstract
<jats:p>This article analyzes the content, main directions and socio-economic consequences of Soviet social and agrarian policy implemented in rural Turkestan between 1917 and 1921. The study focuses on the class-based nature of the Bolshevik agrarian program, the nationalization of land and water resources, and the activities of land-water committees, poor peasants’ committees and other Soviet institutions aimed at restructuring traditional rural life. Particular attention is paid to the effects of War Communism, grain requisitioning, forced confiscations and administrative pressure on peasant farms, cotton production, livestock breeding and food supply. The article reveals the contradiction between official slogans of social equality and the actual outcomes of Soviet policy in rural areas. It argues that these measures intensified social tensions, disrupted economic relations, weakened agricultural production and led to the impoverishment of a significant part of the rural population in Turkestan.</jats:p>