 Paying lip service to the socialization of land, Komuch provided landowners with an opportunity to recover their confiscated lands from peasants and harvest the winter crops of 1917.Expeditions were sent to the rural areas of Russia to protect landowners, kulaks and their property and, later, to mobilize the People's Army of Komuch (the "People's Army").From June to August 1918, Komuch's influence spread from Samara into the provinces of Simbirsk, Kazan, Ufa and Saratov.