History - agriculture and collectivisation

what was collectivisation

collectivisation was stalin’s solutino to the economic and ideological problems of peasant agriculture in the soviet union, and to his political problems with Bukharin.

when did collectivisation happen

it ran from 1928-33

reasons for collectivisation

falling grain production

grain production started to fall under NEP, and in 1927 grain collection fell below levels needed to feed the cities

communist ideology

marx taught that communism was built by proletarian workers: peasant farming should have disappeared

concerns about NEP

NEP favoured individual peasant farmers selling grain for profit - this looked like capitalism

stalins rival, Bukharin

Bukharin supported NEP, so stalin could attack him by attacking NEP

stalling industrial production

without cheap grain to feed workers, soviet industry was plateauing under NEP

Why did the party support collectivisation reforms

reactions against the impacts of NEP in the countryside and on industrial development

what was collective agriculture

the state owned the land, the equipment and everything the land produced

the state told each collective farm what to farm and set it a production target. the state paid a set (low) price when it took this

all collective farm workers were organised into brigades and set hours

collective farms were mechanised - tractors and combine harvesters were allocated. the secret police kept an eye on each farm.

each collective farm was also set a quota of produce that it was allowed to keep in order to feed its workers

attacks on kulaks timeline

1927-28

grain was taken by force from peasants because of the grain crisis. peasants were forced to join kolkhozes (collective farms) with red army pressure. many refused and were labelled kulaks.

1929

stalin launched a campaign of dekulakisation: ‘liquidation of the kulaks’. Peasants were shot or exiled to Siberia.

1930

30,000 kulaks died between 1930 and 1931. peasants continued to resist collectivisation. Stalin halted the scheme and peasants returned to their farms

1931-32

stalin revitalised the collectivisation campaign. famine struck the USSR

successes of collectivisation

prior to the MTS (Machine Tractor Stations) there had been very little mechanisation in farming

many more young people from rural areas went to agricultural school and learned about modern farming methods

rationing of food was ended by 1934

by 1935 the steep in grain production had begun to recover

the USSR increased its grain exports to other countries which earned the USSR money to invest in industrialisation

getting control over the countryside was a political success for stalin - many in the party disliked the power NEP gave to peasants

failures of collectivisation

the famine of 1932-33: peasants who had destroyed their crops and livestock had nothing to eat. Stalin probably refused to help because f peasants’ opposition to collectivisation. at least 3.3 million died.

the liquidation of the kulaks policy killed or removed many most experienced farmers from soviet agriculture

stlain allowed kolhoz peasants to keep their own small private plots: about 30% of the USSR’s food products came from private plots, although they only made up 4% of the farming area

too few tractors and most were poorly made and constantly needed to be repaired

because so many peasants fled to the cities, internal passports were introduced: this made it very difficult to leave the colelctive farms.

Kolkhozniks (collective farm workers) did as little work as they could get away with.

famine in ukraine 1932-33

the red army had defeated ukrainian nationalists in the civil war

many ukrainian peasants refused to join collective farms because they saw it as a new form of serfdom

to help crush the resistance to collectivisation, the state took more and more grain away from the ukraine, even as the people there were starving

all the time, the soviet government denied that there was any famine and refused foreign aid. around 3 million ukrainians are thought to have died in this deliberate famine.