Agricultural and Social Developments in the Countryside

Question 1

Stage 1 of Collectivisation was when?

Answer 1

1929-1930

Question 2

What happened to peasants who failed to meet Stalin’s grain quotas?

Answer 2

They were punished.

Question 3

How did Stalin try to stir up hatred for the Kulaks?

Answer 3

Propaganda campaigns were launched against them,

Question 4

By 1929, what was the situation like regarding Collectivisation?

Answer 4

Forced collectivisation for all peasants had begun, but was not completed yet.

Question 5

What did the Red Army and the OGPU do to Kulaks under Stalin?

Answer 5

Identify, deport or execute Kulaks.

Question 6

Between 1929 and 1930, how many peasants were forced to migrate North and East after being labelled Kulaks?

Answer 6

150,000

Question 7

What percentage of grain farms were to be collectivised in January 1930? Stalin announced it.

Answer 7

25%

Question 8

How many farms were collectivised by January 1930?

Answer 8

58%

Question 9

Stalin announced that local officials were being too harsh with the collectivisation in January 1930. What did Stalin then do?

Answer 9

He announced a brief return to voluntary collectivisation.

Question 10

When Stalin announced a brief return to voluntary collectivisation in January 1930, what was the outcome?

Answer 10

Bad for Stalin. By October 1930, only 20% of peasants farms were collectivised.

Question 11

When was Stage Two Collectivisation?

Answer 11

1930-1941

Question 12

What did Stage Two Collectivisation enforce?

Answer 12

Massive emphasis on collectivising all farms.

Question 13

How many peasant farms were collectivised by 1934?

Answer 13

70%

Question 14

How many peasant farms were collectivised by 1941?

Answer 14

100%

Question 15

What was a Kolkhoz? How was it created?

Answer 15

The typical collective farm.
Created by combining small individual farms together in a cooperative structure. Peasants lived in the same houses as before and had their own land to work on as well as a communal area too.

Question 16

How many families did the average Kolkhoz consist of?

Answer 16

75 and their livestock too.

Question 17

Which percentage of produce did each Kolkhoz have to give to the state? What happened if they didn’t produce enough?

Answer 17

40%. If they didn’t produce enough, the farm was not paid.

Question 18

What happened to left over produce from Kolkhozes?

Answer 18

From 1932, they could sell it in a ‘left-over produce market’. This was the only free market allowed in the USSR.

Question 19

Who oversaw the Kolkhozes production?

Answer 19

There was a Communist Party member which oversaw each farm.

Question 20

How was work on the Kolkhoz enforced?

Answer 20

Internal passports stopped people from leaving these farms.

Question 21

What was a Sovkhoz?

Answer 21

A ‘State’ farm.
These were the ideal socialist farms. A peasant was referred to as a ‘worker’ and they were paid a fixed wage by the State.

Question 22

Where were Sovkhoz workers typically recruited from?

Answer 22

Landless rural residents.

Question 23

Why was there peasant opposition towards Sovkhozes?

Answer 23

Because the Sovkhozes got wages and the Kolkhozes didn’t.

Question 24

Which machine became very important in the development of modern farming methods that could produce grain at a quicker rate?

Answer 24

The Tractor.

Question 25

What was a Machine Tractor Station? How many were originally established?

Answer 25

A station that hired out tractors and machinery to collective and state farms. 250 originally established.

Question 26

Who received better machinery - state farms or collective farms? What did the favoured farm receive?

Answer 26

State farms got better machinery (combine harvesters) and chemical fertilisers.

Question 27

By 1938, which percentage of threshing (separating grain from the crop) was done mechanically?

Answer 27

95%.

Question 28

What was the peasantry’s reaction to forced collectivisation?

Answer 28

They weren’t happy. Terrified that they’d be labelled Kulaks, some burnt their crops and livestock in response to the new measures

Question 29

What happened to any peasant who resisted collective farming?

Answer 29

They were labelled a Kulak and were deported to remote areas such as Siberia.

Question 30

Why did Dekulakisation create an issue in agriculture?

Answer 30

Removed the most skilled farmers from the countryside.

Question 31

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

Answer 31

10 million.

Question 32

How many peasants migrated from the countryside to towns due to collectivisation?

Answer 32

19 million.

Question 33

What did a law in August 1932 establish as a punishment for taking even just a handful of corn from a collective farm?

Answer 33

Prison for 10 years.

Question 34

Due to quotas being so high on collective farms, what did peasants do?

Answer 34

Focused on growing their own stuff and maintaining their own livestock on their individual farms to feed their families.

Question 35

By the late 1930s, what percentage of meat was produced on private plots and sold in the ‘left over’ market?

Answer 35

70% of meat. This shows that collectivisation was shit and didn’t work.

Question 36

The peasantry were sacrificed in the name of the Bolshevik ideology, while the urban workers were given a new purpose; to work relentlessly.

Answer 36

This is just a comment really. The book says it not me.

Question 37

Overall, did collectivisation succeed in increasing grain exports and feeding the cities?

Answer 37

It managed to achieve that, but it killed a lot of peasants in the name of ‘economic socialisation.’

Question 38

What was the result of peasant opposition to collectivisation?

Answer 38

Grain production fell to 1913 levels and didn’t recover entirely until the late 1930s

Question 39

In which year did grain output finally succeed pre-collectivisation levels?

Answer 39

1935.

Question 40

What was the main political outcome of Collectivisation?

Answer 40

Stalin had extended his brutal control over the countryside through Party management of the collective farms.

Question 41

What happened to class differences in the countryside?

Answer 41

Destroyed, none left. Everything was collective farming.