Chapter 13 - Agricultural and social developments in the countryside 1929-1941 Flashcards
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What did the ‘Great Turn’ ‘do’?
It committed the USSR to a programme of rapid industrialisation and the mass mobilisation of workers
What was necessary to facilitate the ‘Great Turn’?
An equally rapid agricultural revolution through forced collectivisation in the countryside
Why was collectivisation not a new concept?
It was a key element in Marxist-Leninist theory
Why was collectivisation slow and patchy in the 1920s?
The compromise of the NEP
How much did the ‘Great Turn’ plan to increase grain production by?
50% over the course of the first 5YP
What did the ‘Great Turn’ aim to do? (agriculture)
- Eradicate ‘class enemies in the countryside’ (kulaks)
- Make farming in the USSR socialist rather than capitalist
- Replace the NEP with true Marxist-Leninist theory
When did Stalin give his ‘war against the kulaks’ speech to the Party Congress?
1929
When was there a temporary return to voluntary collectivisation?
1930
When was the launch of Machine Tractor Stations?
1931
When was the resumption of all-out dekulakisation?
1931
When was the start of the famine in Ukraine?
1932
When was the mass famine in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and North Caucus?
1933
How were peasants forced into collective farms? When?
After December 1929
Through a campaign of intimidation
What were some of the methods used to enforce collectivisation?
- Expansion of the Urals-Siberian method
- Help from the poorest peasants
- Help from the Party activists
- A mixture of propaganda and fear
Expansion of the Urals-Siberian method
May 1929, ‘Urals-Siberian’ method of enforced grain requisitioning extended to almost all grain-producing regions of the USSR
Why did Bukharin oppose the expansion of the Urals-Siberian method?
He said it risked making the peasants hostile to the state
Help from the poorest peasants
- Local party officials called on the poorest peasants to help identify the kulaks
- Poor peasants had the most to gain from collective farms
- They’d get to use a richer peasants’ land, livestock and equipment and share in collective harvests
Help from the Party activists
Nov 1929, 25,000 Party activists (industrial workers) sent into countryside to help dekulakisation
What was the official job of the party activists?
To promote benefits of collective farms and provide technical help
What did the Party activists actually do?
- Searched households for hidden grain
- Helped identify and round up kulaks
- Administered the exile process
- Enforced the collectivisation of the remaining peasants
They were assisted by the local police, the OGPU and the Red Army
A mixture of propaganda and fear
- Party officials used propaganda and positive messages to convince villages to join collective farms
- The real motivation came from fear of what was happening to the kulaks
- People who resisted joining the collective farms were likely to be classed as kulaks too
