Collectivisation Flashcards
Effect of Stalin’s Great Turn on agriculture
Moved it to collective farming
Types of grain requisitioning that hadn’t worked
Ural-Siberain method and voluntary collectivisation
Percentage of collective farms in 1929
5%
Class which Stalin blamed for the grain requisitioning problems
Kulaks
Stalin’s quote about getting rid of the Kulaks
‘Annihilate the Kulaks as a class’
Date when Stalin did his war against Kulaks speech
1929
Date when voluntary collectivisation reintroduced
1930
Date when MTS launched
1930
Date of the start of the famine in Ukraine
1932
Date of the mass famine in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and North Casucasus
1933
People who drove peasants into collectives
Local party members
Groups used to identify kulaks
The Red Army and OGPU
Percentage estimated to be kulaks
4% of peasant households
Percentage of peasant households that were destroyed
15%
Number of peasants forced to migrate north and east to poorer land
150,000
Methods used by peasants to try to not be labelled as Kulaks
Killed their livestock and destroyed crops
Stalin’s goal for collectivisation in 1930
25% of grain farming areas
Percentage of peasants households collectivised by March 1930
58%
Stalin quote for party worker’s collectivisation methods
‘Dizzy with success’
Reason for turning back to voluntary collectivisation in 1930
Methods used had been too rigorous and confrontational
Percentage of collectives by October 1930 because of voluntary collectivisation
20%
% of collectivised households in 1931
50%
% of collectivised households in 1934
70%
% of collectives households in 1935
75%
% of collectivised households in 1937
90%
% of collectivised households in 1941
100%
Number of party activists sent to the countryside in November 1929
25,000
Reason behind sending party activist to help with collectivisation
Identified kulaks and searched of hidden grain rather than helped provide technical help
Motives of the poorer peasants to help with dekulakisation
They were rewarded with being able to use the richer peasants’ land, livestock and equipment and share with the collective harvests
Kolkhoz
A combination of individual farms into a collective structure
Number of families in a Kolkhoz
75
Layout of Kolkhoz farms
A single village whereby peasants lived in the same houses as before and had they own plot of land as well as communal fields
People who controlled the Kolkhoz
A Communist Party member who acted as the chairman of the collective
Quotas set on Kolkhoz farms
Set high up to 40% of crops, and the farm was not paid if they failed to meet the quotas
Profit sharing in the Kolkhoz
Shared out according to the number of labour days done
Price for the quotas in collective farms
Was set low so that the state could make big profits, and could feed industrial workers cheaply
Sovkhoz
State run farms
Difference in size between kolkhoz and sovkhoz
Sovkhoz much larger
Function of the sovkhoz
Large scale production
Opposition which forced Stalin to permit most farms to be kolkhoz
Peasants opposed becoming wage labourers
Long term vision of kolkhoz
Would be turned into sovkhoz
Classification of Sovkhoz members
Labelled workers rather than peasants
Machine Tractor Stations
Set up in 1931 to provide seed and hire out tractors/machinery to kolkhoz and sovkhoz farms
Benefit to industry by increasing machinery in agriculture
It decreased the demand for peasants so they could move to industrial cities
Number of MTS set up
2,500
Which farms received the better machinery
Sovkhoz, as they were state farms
Experts sent to the countryside to goes advice
Veterinary surgeons, surveyors and technicians
% of ploughing carried out by machine in 1938
72%
Types of manual work still carried out in 1938
Grain still had to be bound by hand, and weeding was still common
Number of lorries in Soviet agriculture compared to the US in 1938
196,000 lorries in Soviet Union compared to a million in the US
MTS benefit to the Party
Acted as a party prop in rural areas, with officials ensuring that quotas were being met and the correct propaganda messages were ebbing conveyed
Areas which were particularly hostile to collectivisation
Fertile areas like Ukraine
Methods by the armed forces to deal with the unrest
Burnt down whole villages
Places where peasants who resisted were deported
Siberia, where labour camps were located
Issue with dekulakisation
Removed the most skilful and successful farmers from the countryside
Number of peasants who died as a result of resistance
10 million
Number of peasants who had migrated to towns by 1939
19 million (every 1 out of 3 peasants)
What did the peasants regard collective farms as
‘A new serfdom’
Law of August 1932
Anyone who was caught stealing from a collective could be jailed for 10 years
Internal passports
Introduced to stop peasants leaving the collectives
Issue with profits in collective farms
Quotas were set so high that profits weren’t made, so there was less incentive for hard work
Date when peasants could sell their produce in the market place
1935
Percentage of meat produced by peasants privately selling it on the market
70%
Period of the famine
1932-34
Reasons why the famine was caused
Drought hit in October, and kulak deportations
Reason why the government can be blamed for the deaths during the famine
The state continued to demand its requisitions despite the drop in grain production
Economic success of collectivisation
Industrial workforce was fed and grew, and exports of grain increased
Economic failures of collectivisation
During the period of peasant opposition, agricultural production fell dramatically
Political success of collectivisation
First time the Soviet regime had extended their control over the countryside with the introduction of party officials
How did the political success of collectivisation improve Stalin’s position in the party
The right which opposed collectivisation (Bukharin and Rykov) lost power
Social success of collectivisation
Class differences in the countryside were destroyed and any signs of capitalism had been abolished
Death toll of the famine
6-8 million
% of harvesting carried out by machine in 1938
48%
