Collectivisation Flashcards
economic causes
- poor harvests in 1927, 8 & 9, increasing prices of agricultural products affected the government as they had been selling grain surpluses abroad since 1921 - they wouldn’t be able to build russia’s industry
- larger farms would increase efficiency
- wanted more workers in cities so, if few people were needed for farming more could move away
- purging kulaks would provide slave labour
social causes
- increased production would mean the government could provide a better standard of living for the industrial workers
- efficiency = more food for urban workers
- peasants weren’t embracing socialism - producing grain for themselves & profit rather than for the people
- healthcare & education could be provided if peasants were all in the same place
political causes
- more appealing to the left wing & many others than the right’s idea of importing grain (which would reduce industrialisation)
- stalin had only visited a farm once but believed farming could be transformed with strong will & good leadership
- removing private land ownership would be more communist
- control over the peasantry
how many horses & sheep were destroyed?
1929-33 = 18 million horses & 100 million sheep
what did kulaks do with machinery?
destroyed any machinery they had rather than giving it to the bolsheviks
what happened to labour productivity in rural areas?
declined = as they didn’t own the land or gain much from their work, there was little incentive to work
1933 harvest comparison
9 million tonnes less than the 1926 harvest
mechanisation
ineffective in the early stages - network of machine tractor stations organised but didn’t start for a year
grain exports stat
rose from 0.03 million tonnes (1928) to 5 million tonnes (1931)
what happened when stalin reintroduced grain requisitioning?
resentment created between peasants & kulaks - stalin rewarded poorer peasants who informed on kulaks by giving them land which belonged to the kulaks
the 25,000
‘socially conscious’ industrial workers sent to rural areas to offer technical help to peasants about machinery - BUT they LIED!!! they were used for dekulakisation - found secret stores of grain & confiscated them, exiled kulaks & forced peasants into collective farms
‘dizzy with success’
a pravda article by stalin = still defended collectivisation but claimed some local party members had been ‘over enthusiastic’ & argued targets had been met so the policy would be suspended - never admitted it had caused problems
how many died in the famine & how many were exiled during dekulakisation?
10 million for both
when was collectivisation stopped?
march 1930
what happened to grain sent to cities?
often sat rotting in barns whilst peasants starved in nearby villages