Collectivisation Flashcards
What was the great turn?
Rapid industrialisation at any cost and collectivisation would provide food supplies for the masses
What were the reasons for the great turn?
- weaknesses in industrial management as increases efficiency was needed for increased production as it would improve the quality and price of industrial goods
-By 1927, the growth of the NEP was limited to support self-sufficiency and growth of USSR military strength - In the winter of 1927-8, the amount of grain purchased by the government was 25% less than the previous year. Grain prices were low and peasant productions were concentrated on other goods catalysing a stream of complaints for party officials for grain hoarding as they hoped for higher prices
- Many called for true socialism with state control over grain production and industrialisation
- Stalin was willing to have a radical view on the NEP and economic circumstances due to its problems
What happened in the 14th party congress in 1925?
It called for a transformation from agrarian to industrial
When was there concerns over industrialisation but still maintained the NEP?
1926
What was introduced in the 15th party congress in December 1927?
The first 5 year plan
What were the targets of the first 5 year plan?
- develop heavy machinery (coal, iron, steel, oil and machinery)
- boost overall production by 300%
- improve transport systems especially railways
- increase the use of electricity by 600% in 1933
- big increases in agricultural production
- light industries (chemicals, household goods) were given a lower priority but still expected to double
Why were ambitious targets set?
- It forced managers and workers to devote maximum effort as it was supported by propaganda
- Stalin claimed it would be fulfilled by mass enthusiasm from the workers
What did it architecturally encourage?
- The planning of Magnitogorsk from 1928
- Tractor factories in Stalingrad and Kharkiv in Ukraine
How did party members view the 1st five year plan?
- pleased with radical social change even though it was hyperbolic through propaganda
- saw kulaks as the backbones of the agricultural economy and harsh imposure of collectivisation would reduce food production
How did urban workers view the first 5 year plan?
better employment prospects and living standards
How did the poor view the first 5 year plan?
Improvements from land reforms and use of modern farming methods
How did managing industrial production view the first 5 year plan?
Centralised planning was a gamble as it wouldn’t magically solve the problems
What happened between late 1927 and December 1929?
Debates arose around between the Bukharinists who wanted prices to rise as it gave incentives to produce as their wages grew whilst opponents sawt his as getting in the way of modernisation and industry
How did Stalin implement collectivisation initally?
In western Siberia and the Urals as grain production was down by 1/3 forcing his officials and police to close free markers, using article 107 to stop speculation and pressures to seize grain allowed it to be seen as a weapon of choice
What happened in Bukharin in 1928?
By summer, his position was weak and was outnumbered. By October, Bukharinists lost the majority. In November, Stalin felt strong enough of accusing Bukharin of right deviation
What happened to collectivisation in 1929?
- In summer, Molotov issued central directives from local officials despite less than 5% of farms being collectivised
- 25,000 urban workers on central committee orders to accelerate the development of industrialised farms
- In December 1929, Stalin wanted to annihilate the kulaks as a class
How was violence used in stage 1 of collectivisation?
- Governments began to issue quotas with punishments if they weren’t kept as propaganda started to present a class divide between peasants and the kulaks
- By the end of 1929, they began forced collectivisation through local party members, OGPU and the red army. They executed or deported kulaks who were about 4% of the population
- In practice about 15% of households were destroyed and 150,000 fled north and east to poorer lands as well as killing livestock and crops to prevent the label
What happened from January 1930?
Stalin announced that 25% of grain farming areas were collectivised that year as people were frightened to join collectivised farms and by March, 58% of households were collectivised which led Stalin to suggest that local officials were too rigorous
When happened voluntary confession returned in autumn?
- they had the opportunity to leave and regain their livestock if they were not kulaks
- By the following October only 20% of households were collectivised
What happened in the second stage of collectivisation?
By 1931, numbers rose to 50% collectivised however only 10 years later, 100% were collectivised
What were kolkhozs?
- The typical collective farms by combining smaller farms as a cooperative unit with up to 75 families and their livestock
- Many compromised in a single village living in the same houses and working on the same plot of land as well communal fields
- These fields had to be mapped out, work parties dug out ditches, erect fences, communal buildings such as schools and clinic
- quotas were delivered to each farm with up to 40% being taken, allow purchase prices to be set up by the government but the farm paid if the quota was not met
What happened to leftover profits and goods?
- shared out dependent on labour days
- from 1932, it could be sold on the collective farm market
Who were the chairmen?
Communist party members
When were internal passports in the kolkhoz introduced?
1932
What were Sovkhozs?
- Former large estates that hired workers to create state farms as an example of, socialist agriculture of the highest form who were paid a wage by the state
- They were usually larger with industrial principles from large-scale production from landless rural residents as workers
- Suitable in grain growing areas such as Ukraine and Southern Russia
- Stalin expected all farms to become Sovkhozs, Kolkhozs were the still the most popular farm in the 1930S
What were machine tractor stations?
- They were set up in 1931 to provide seed tractors and machinery to collectivised and sate farms to support the use of farming mechanisation to reduce peasants needed on the land
- Agronomists, veterinary surgeons, surveyors and technicians were to sent advice and encourage farming developments especially on Sovkhozs
What happened in 1940?
There was only 1 MTS for every 40 collective farms however sovkhoz received better machinery and chemical fertilisers
What happened by 1938?
- There were 196,000 lorries compared to 1 million in the USA
- 95% of threshing, 72% of ploughing and 57% of spring sowing and 48% of harvesting was mechanical however many machines were labour intensive such as harvest reapers that only cut grain and weeding was still manual
What happened due to the process of dekulakisation?
- It removed millions of skilled workers into labour camps or deported them to isolated areas like Siberia
- 10 million died as a result of resistance and deportation
- By 1939, 19 million peasants had immigrated to become urban workers
How was collectivisation viewed as the new form of serfdom?
- Anyone who stole from the collective could be gaoled for 10 years
- Up to 10 year sentences if you stole meat or grain before the quota
- Internal passports from 1932
- Peasants rarely received a share from the leftover quota reducing the incentive to work hard as they prioritised private plots from 1935 to sell on the market place
- Little social benefits however it wasn’t a priority
By the 1930s, what percentage of foods were farmed on private plots?
- 52% of vegetables
- 70% of meat
- 71% of milk
What was education like?
It was disproportionate and poor compared to urban areas
What happened in October 1931?
Drought hit many areas and combined with the loss of kulaks, a famine emerged in 1932 in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Northern Caucasus sometimes until 1934 reducing food supplies to feed the workforce
What happened to livestock?
25-30% of cattle, pigs and sheep were slaughtered between 1929 and 1933 and numbers didn’t exceed pre-collectivisation levels until 1953
When did grain exceed pre-collectivisation levels?
1935
What were collective chairmen like?
They knew nothing about farming and with limited infrastructure, they lacked organisation emphasising the brutality of the policy. However, the use of party management did increase political control over the countryside moving towards socialism as class differences and large-scale private enterprises were destroyed
