to what extent was the policy of collectivisation sucessful?

collectivisation

policy adopted by the soviet government, pursued most intensively between 1929-1933, to transform traditional agriculture in the soviet union and to reduce the economic power of the kulaks. under collectivisation the peasantry were forced to give up their individual farms

why collectivise

• stalin overcoming rivals: collecitivisation ideoligical break to win power struggle

• 5 year plans- economic reasons: aim to increase grain production, need for urban workers

• NEP: failing by 1928

• socialist ideology

percentage of peasants

80%

collectivisation summary

1928: grain procurement crisis- use of requisitioning

1928: “policy of voluntary collectivisation”- failed

1929: wave 1- policy of forced collectivisation stalin calls for “liquidation of kulaks as a class”

1930: temporary halt “dizzy with success”

1931: second wave of forced collectivisation

1932-34: holomador (famine- ukraine/kubon 7 million die)

the annihilation of the kulaks as a class (1929)

• any peasant who opposed collectivisation labeled a kulak or ideological kulak

• each region given a number of kulaks to find

• counter revolutionaries to be shot or sent to forced-labour settlements

• active opponents of collectivisation to be deported to other areas, often siberia

• some expelled from farms onto poor land

• inamtes of gulak labour camps built canals, roads or new industrial centers

• May 1933: decided to stop mass deportation of Kulaks

deportation number

1.8 million deported in cattle trucks to sibera

number arested

390,000 people were arrested

number shot

21,000 shot

process of colectivisation

• recruited 25,000 industrial workers sent to oversee colectivisation

• rooted out “kulaks” and persuaded poor peasants to sign petitions that demanded their village was collecitivised

• land, animals, tools and buildings taken from kulaks for new farm

• 1930: half of soviet peasantry herded into collective farms

• MTS: to ensure quotas collected and deal with trouble makers

• august 1932: any0one who stole be jailed for 10 years- later death sentence

• internal passports brough to stop people from leaving

peasant households in collective farms

fell from 58% to 24% between march and june

number of outbreaks

1930: 13,000 outbreaks

number of people involved

2.5 million peasants

number collectivised

1930s: 90% of households collectivized

impacts of collecitivisation on peasants

• 1930s: village communes abolished

• churches closed

• 1931: reduction in grain production- lack of farming knowledge, not enough animals for ploughs, insufficient tractors

• 1931: major drought in USSR

• 1932: famine in Ukraine, the Don, KUban- 7 million died

• ukraine set high grain procurement

• OGPU (secret police)- took al grain peasants had no food

• famine was man made

• lack of machinery

number died in famine 1932

7 million

number of peasants that left

1928-41: 20 million peasants left countryside for urban areas

ways in which collectivisation was successful for the state

• although grain harvest declined, grain procurements did not: state collected grain it needed to feed rapidly growing workforce and to sell abroad to pay for industrial equipment

• dispossessed peasants from overpopulated countryside fled to towns, so providing labour for new factories

• collectivsation had succeeded its main purpose which was to provide for industrialisation

grain collected

1931: 22.8 million tons of grain

ways in which collectivisation was politically ideologically successful for the government

• for the party, collecitivsation was an essential part of its modernisation drive

• the party did not want a large sector of the economy to be dominated by the private market or be at the mercy of peasants who horded grain- collectivisation was a political success

• collectivisation was a way to create a socialist peasantry

grain harvest

1928: 73.3 million tonnes

1931: 71.7 million tonnes

1935: 75 million tonnes

grain procurement

1928:10.8 million tonnes

1931:22.8 million tonnes

ways in which collectivsation was an economic failure

• stalin forced collectivisation at a rapid pace, causing chaod in agriculture- drop in angricultural production and a famine

• grain harvest did not recover to 1928 levels until late 1930s

• 25-30% of animals slaughtered

• hidden stocks of grain held by peasants rooted out by requistioning gangs which condemned hundreds of thousants to starvation

the humand and social cost of collectivisation

• peasants burned crops, tools instead of handing over to state

• 1932: famine in ukraine, the don, kubon - 7 million died

• OGPU took all grain- peasants had no food and sowing grain

• 10 year prison sentence for stealing- later changed to death penatly

• internal passports to proevent peasants from escaping

• purging of peasants who had best knowledge