The impact of collectivisation on kulaks and other peasants and the famine of 1932-34 (textbook only)

What was opposition to collectivisation like?

Widespread and violent

What group of peasants were generally more willing to join collective farms?

Poorer peasants

What types of areas were particularly hostile to collectivisation?

Fertile areas like Ukraine

What did peasants do instead of handing their resources over/out of fear they’d be labelled as kulaks?

Burn their farms and crops and killed their livestock

What was one of the brutal ways the armed forces reacted to the unrest against collectivisation?

Burn down whole villages

What was any peasant who resisted labelled as?

A kulak and class enemy

What happened to lots of peasants who resisted collectivisation?

Millions were deported to remote areas like Siberia and herded into labour camps where they would be forced to work on large industrial projects

What was one of the counterproductive impacts of dekulakisation/

Removed a lot of the most successful, skilled farmers from the countryside

How many peasants are estimated to have died as a result of resistance/effects of deportation?

over 10 million

What was the proportion of workers who joined collective farms versus peasants that migrated to towns?

By 1939, for every three peasants that joined a collective, one left the countryside to become an urban worker

What phrase was show how the remaining peasants in the countryside perceived their situation in collective farms?

“new serfdom”

When was the new law about stealing from collective farms

August 1932

What was the law passed surrounding stealing from collective farms like? How did this change ovre time?

Very harsh - anyone who even stole a few ears of corn could be gaoled for ten years. Was subsequently heightened to capital punishmen

What was decreed to warrant a ten-year sentence?

Trying to sell meat or grain before quotas were filled

Why were internal passport controls introduced during this time>

To prevent peasants fleeing from famine-stricken areas

What was promised to peasants in terms of rewards from their labour vs what was the reality?

They were supposed to receive a portion of the ‘profits’ from their farms, but in reality quotas were so high that there was rarely any ‘profit’ and thus less incentive to work hard

From when were peasants allowed to have their own personal plot and why?

March 1930, widespread chaos and resistance to collectivisation

Why were peasants more interested in their own personal plots ?

They could more easily provide food for their family by focusing on their own livestock and crops and from 1935, sell in the market place

What was happening even before March 1930?

Peasants were still having their own private patches of land that they were selling stuff from

By the late 1930s, what percentage of vegetables were being produced on private peasant plots?

52%

What did some peasants benefit from through collectivisation?

Better education (e.g. schools and creches set up on collective farms)

What were the needs of the peasantry sacrificed in favour of?

Soviet ideology and industry

What prompted the 1932-34 famine?

A severe drought in many agricultural areas in October 1931

What three factors contributed to the 1932-34 famine?

Poor centralised economic plans, severe drought, mass deportation of kulaks

When did famine appear in Ukraine?

Spring 1932

Where did the famine spread to over 1932-33?

Kazakhstan and the Northern Caucausus

How long did the famine continue to in some areas?

1934