Founding in Moscow (1921–1930) As the
Russian Civil War drew to an end, and in the middle of the
Russian famine of 1921–1922, the Life and Labor Commune was established. The Commune held 55 hectares of agricultural land in Shestakovka, roughly 10 kilometers outside of
Moscow. All its members were provided with
free,
vegetarian,
communal meals, as well as
housing,
lighting and
heating. Each member was also given a monthly allowance of 25
rubles, which were usually spent on
clothing and
footwear.
Move to Siberia (1931–1936) Life and Labor was one of several Tolstoyan agricultural communes that existed in the
Moscow region during the 1920s. Following
Joseph Stalin's rise to power, in 1929, the New Jerusalem Commune was forcibly dissolved and its members were taken in by the Life and Labor Commune. The government then pressed for the Life and Labor Commune to be
forcibly converted into a
kolkhoz, despite the Commune's members wishes to maintain their voluntary collective labor. They countered with a proposal that all Tolstoyans in Russia be granted land, where they could collectively resettle. In March 1931, the Life and Labour Commune transferred to
Novokuznetsk, in
Siberia. Over a thousand Tolstoyans from various different groups joined the Commune in Siberia. The different conditions in Siberia forced them to experiment with new kinds of agriculture, establishing greenhouses and using different grains. Their efforts were successful and they began supplying food for the local market, which gave them the resources to buy an
oil press, build a
watermill and set up an
apiary. They also established contact with Tolstoyan communities abroad, including in
Bulgaria,
Canada and the
United Kingdom.
Suppression From the start of their time in Siberia, the Commune faced a conflict with local Soviet authorities, which set high grain quotas and requisitioned food without authorization, conscripted the commune's pacifist members, carried out arbitrary arrests of Tolstoyans and tried its schoolteachers for teaching about religion. During the
Great Purge, 65 of the Commune's leading members were arrested and tried, with many of them being sentenced to
forced labor in the
Gulag, where a number of them died or were killed. During
World War II, 40 more of the Commune's members were conscripted to fight on the
Eastern Front, while others were sentenced as
conscientious objectors. With its membership facing a rapid decline, the Commune was finally converted into a
kolkhoz.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote about the persecution of the commune: {{quote| text="In the twenties, a large group of Tolstoyans was exiled to the foothills of the Altai mountains, and there they established communal settlements jointly with the Baptists. When the construction of the Kuznetsk industrial complex began, they supplied it with food products. Then arrests began - first the teachers (they were not teaching in accordance with the government program), and the children ran after the police cars, shouting. And after that the commune leaders were taken."| sign=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn == Memoirs of participants ==