Collectivisation Flashcards
What was a Kolkoz?
Farms that were run as co-operatives, where the peasants pooled their labour and wages.
What was a Sovkhoz?
Farms that contained peasants working directly for the state. The peasants were paid a wage.
What were the social reasons for introducing Collectivisation?
There was no mechanisation, so peasant farming techniques were primitive.
What were the political reasons for introducing Collectivisation?
Stalin was struggling against Bukharin and the Right in the power struggle. Collectivisation appealed to the Left of the Party and was also appealing to some on the Right.
Importing grain would mean reducing the pace of industrialisation, because the money used to buy the grain could not be spent on developing Russia’s industry.
What were the economic reasons for introducing Collectivisation?
The harvests of 1927, 1928 and 1929 were all poor.
(In 1926 77million tonnes of grain were produced, whereas in 1927 it was only 72million tonnes)
By 1928, the USSR was 20million tonnes of grain short to feed the towns.
The government used to sell grain surplus abroad, but now they could not, meaning there was less money to contribute to the development of industry.
The prices of agricultural products rose.
What were the ideological reasons for introducing Collectivisation?
Peasants were seen as lacking revolutionary spirit; they were keeping grain for their own profit.
Many socialists believed that collectivisation was necessary to introduce communism to the capitalist peasants.
Dekulakisation.
What was the collective term used to describe the decrease in grain production in 1927?
The Grain Procurement Crisis
In which year was collectivisation made compulsory?
1929 - the policy was to be enforced by the army.
How much land was collectivised by 1939?
By 1939:
-99% of land was collectivised.
-There were 4000 State Farms.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
By 1941:
-All farms in Soviet Russia were collectivised.
How did the peasants react to collectivisation?
Between 1929 and 1930:
- 30,000 arson attacks occurred.
- organised rural mass disturbances increased by 1/3 from 172 to 229.
The peasants destroyed livestock and crops:
- 18million horses were killed
- 100million sheep and goats were killed
- farm machinery was destroyed
How did Stalin try to promote mechanisation in the countryside?
In June 1930 the Central Committee agreed to the creation of a national network of Machine Tractor Stations (MTSs), but it was not implemented until 1931.
In order to extract more grain from the peasants the government kept the price of hiring tractors high.
consequently, few farmers could afford the equipment.
By the end of 1932 there were almost 75,000 tractors and 2,500 MTSs across Russia.
However, half of Russian farms were left out of the network and the extra tractors could not make up for the loss of millions of horses.
What were the Twenty-five-thousanders?
Local communists had been reluctant to enforce collectivisation, so Stalin issued a decree sending 25,000 ‘socially conscious’ industrial workers into the countryside to offer technical help to the farmers.
In reality, the Twenty-five-thousanders were just used to enforce dekulakisation, as they were expected to find hidden grain stores and confiscate them and to round up kulaks for exile.
What was the ‘Dizzy with Success’ article?
It was published in Pravda in March 1930, and was Stalin’s defence of collectivisation, although he did claim that some local officials had been ‘overenthusiastic’ in implementing the policy.
Stalin argued that as the targets for the policy had been met the programme could be suspended.
Stalin never admitted to the suffering collectivisation caused, but many party members believed that the article bordered on an admission that the policy had gone too far.
What were the effects of the policy of dekulakisation, which Stalin proposed in December 1929?
- Between 9,500,000 and 10,000,000 people were exiled.
- In some cases poorer local peasants undertook dekulakisation with enthusiasm.
- In 1929, 150,000 kulak families were exiled as part of the policy. This rose to 285,000 by 1931.
- In some cases, 10% of the peasants in a single village were exiled.
When was famine at its worst?
National famine occurred between 1932-1933.
