Collectivisation Flashcards
Why did Stalin want to reduce the number of farm labourers through collectivisation?
They could become factory workers
Why did Stalin want peasants to produce more food?
It could be sold abroad to raise capital
What percentage of Russians were workers by 1928?
20%
How much grain did Russia export in the best years of NEP?
Was this more or less than in 1913?
3 million tons
1/4 of 1913 levels (12 million tons)
NEP: What impact did the replacement of the tax in kind with a money tax have on the peasants?
Peasants had to sell at lower prices to the state, and they had to sell more than before to pay their money taxes
Outline the differences between the sovkhoz and the kolkhoz
Sovkhoz: farm owned and run by the state; peasants paid a regular wage (like factory workers)
Kolkhoz: land, tools and livestock held in common; run by an elected committee; 50-100 households farmed the land as a single unit; each household kept a private plot of up to one acre, with their own vegetables, a cow, pig and fowl
Give two ways in which collectivisation was meant to embrace mechanisation
Use of tractors, supplied by Machine and Tractor Stations (MTS), to farm land more efficiently
Use of metal ploughs and fertilisers, with peasants trained by experts, to lead to higher production
What impact did the kolkhoz have on the efficiency of grain procurement?
More efficient - common land meant fewer collection points
Give three ways in which peasants would live communally under collectivisation
Peasants lived in “socialist agrotowns”
Children left in creches
Peasants lived in apartment blocks with fellow labourers
Ate in canteens
What percentage of peasants worked on a collective farm before Stalin emerged as leader?
Just 3%
According to Stalin, who were the “kulaks”?
Who were the “kulaks” in reality?
Stalin: thought kulaks monopolised the best land, exploited poorer peasants to farm it, kept prices high and made themselves rich
Reality: kulaks were simply more efficient farmers
How did Stalin justify the slaughter of the kulaks?
They were condemned as enemies of the Soviet Union in its struggle to modernise itself
How was collectivisation explained initially to the peasants?
By plenipotentiaries (local party officials) at special meetings, with incentives offered (like a new tractor or combine harvester)
Who had the job of seeking out the “kulaks”? What impact did this have on the peasant communities?
Poorer peasants, Komsomols, ‘politically aware’ workers
Created a sense of fear and meant more support for collectivisation
What would happen to kulaks as part of dekulakisation?
Land and property was seized, physically attacked, arrested, imprisoned and deported to inhospitable regions by OGPU
What proportion of peasant farms in the USSR were collectivised by March 1931?
Roughly half
In what year was the mir abolished in Russia?
1930
Give two pieces of evidence which suggest that peasants resisted collectivisation between 1929 and 1930
30,000 arson attacks occurred
Number of organised mass rural disturbances increased from 172 in the first half of 1929, to 229 in the second half of 1929
Give two ways in which women resisted collectivisation
Broke into barns and seized grain that had been taken by the requisition squads
Lay in front of the trucks and tractors sent to break up private farms
Why did peasants choose women to lead demonstrations?
It was believed they would be less likely to suffer reprisals from the authorities
Why did Stalin call a temporary halt to collectivisation?
He acknowledged that there had been opposition, which he blamed on overzealous officials who became “dizzy with success”
What happened to grain exports:
- In 1928, at the start of collectivisation
- In 1930, at the “dizzying heights” of collectivisation
- In 1932
1928: grain exports were just 30,000 tons
1930: grain exports rose to 4.76 million tons
1932: grain exports dropped to 1.73 million tons
Why did grain exports drop between 1930 and 1932?
Russia had to move to autarky (self-sufficiency) to feed the expanding population at home
Give two reasons why mechanisation was unsuccessful during collectivisation
Tractors broke down
There was a lack of trained specialists and mechanics
How did kulaks try to avoid dekulakisation?
They sold their goods, killed their animals and abandoned their homes to flee to the towns before they were caught
How did Stalin’s officials categorise kulaks?
‘Fortunate’ kulaks: reallocated poor-quality land, then deported to the Gulag when they failed to meet their unrealistic food production targets
Standard kulaks: robbed and sent to the Gulag
‘Sub’-kulaks: deported immediately or shot
Between 1928 and 1930, how many kulak families were deported, and how many kulaks were shot?
1-3 million kulak families deported
30,000 kulaks shot
What happened to the peasant population and their livestock in Kazakhstan during collectivisation?
Peasant population dropped by 75% - many moved to China
90% of the livestock was lost
What would some peasants do to their seed corn as resistance to collectivisation?
They would eat it
How did the Party try to improve food production when faced with resistance? Did this work?
They sent party workers to work on the land themselves. No - their ignorance of farming just added to the disruption
How did the state try to control the flow of peasants into the towns?
Introduced a system of internal passports
What happened to the cattle who didn’t have a barn to house them?
They froze to death
What did the Stalinist government say about the 1932-34 famine? What impact did this have?
There was no famine
It protected Stalin’s reputation, and it meant that the government did not need to introduce measures to stop the famine (or appeal for foreign aid)
How many peasants died (estimate) in the 1932-34 famine?
7 million (5 million in Ukraine)
What happened to the amount of grain procured by the state between 1928 and 1933? What does this reveal about the success of collectivisation?
1928: state procured 10.8 million tons of grain
1933: procured 22.6 million tons of grain
Apart from a small dip in 1932 (to 18.5 million tons), state procurements did not decline - the state was successful in collecting the grain it needed to feed the industrial workforce, and to export to pay for industrial equipment
How much grain was produced in 1931?
How did this compare to 1930?
69.5 million tons in 1931
Drop from 83.5 million tons in 1930 (but state procurements remained constant)
How many cattle were there in: 1928 1931 1933 1935
What is significant about these figures?
1928: 70.5 million
1931: 47.9 million
1933: 38.4 million
1935: 49.3 million
Dramatic drop to 1933, but then the decline reversed
How many pigs were there in: 1928 1931 1933 1935
What is significant about these figures?
1928: 26 million
1931: 14.4 million
1933: 12.1 million
1935: 22.6 million
Dramatic drop to 1933, but then the decline reversed
How many sheep and goats were there in: 1928 1931 1933 1935
What is significant about these figures?
1928: 146.7 million
1931: 77.7 million
1933: 50.2 million
1935: 61.1 million
Dramatic drop to 1933, but then the decline (slowly) reversed
How many peasants were dispossessed (lost their homes) between 1929 and 1932?
Around 10 million
What did Robert Service argue about the success of collectivisation?
A political success: Stalin ‘acquired a reservoir of terrified peasants who would supply him with cheap industrial labour’ - the party no longer had to bargain with the peasants
What had happened to the consumption of meat and fish by the late 1930s as a result of collectivisation?
Fallen by 80%
What percentage of peasants were in Kolkhozy by the end of 1937?
93%
What percentage of peasants worked on collectives by 1941?
98%
