Developments In The Countryside

Question 1

When and why did Stalin initially commit the USSR to collective farming

Answer 1

As a result of the great turn of 1928 - launched he programme in 1929 to coincide with the FYP

Question 2

When and why did Stalin announce he would ‘annihalate the kulaks’ as a class

Answer 2

December 1929 as he believed the grain procurement was caused by richer peasants

Question 3

What were the key features of forced industrialization

Answer 3

-localparty members drove peasants into collectives
-kulaksnot able to join collectives
-RA and OGPU were used to identify, execute or deport kulaks

• redirecting rural resources to the manufacturing economy

Question 4

What did ‘Stalin’s ‘dizzy with success’ article published in Pravda in march 1930 say

Answer 4

Local officials were being too rigorous and confrontational in their methods that party members were becoming dizzy with success

Question 5

What percentage of households were collectivized in march and October 1930 respectively? How did this change over the decade

Answer 5

58% - 20% - Stalins collectivization ion allowed for a sped up rate of results after peasants had sown the spring crops

Question 6

What was the kolkhoz

Answer 6

Typical collective farms created by combining a small individual farms together in a cooperative structure

Question 7

What was the key characteristics of kolkhoz

Answer 7

Many comprised a single village with a house and plot of land for each- average held 75 families and their livestock

Question 8

Expectations of kolkhoz

Answer 8

1. Had to deliver a set quota of produce to the state
2. Shared any profit or goods left after the procurement among the collective farm members
3. Was under the control of the communist party member who acted as the chairman of the collective
4. A series of internal passports from 1932 forbade peasants from leaving

Question 9

What was the sovkhoz

Answer 9

A relatively small number of farms ran as State Farm’s rather than ran by peasants

Question 10

How were the kolkhoz and sovkoz similar and different

Answer 10

Sovkoz were usually larger and were paid a wage where as kolkhoz was smaller. Similarly their movement was equally restricted

Question 11

How were collective farmers paid?

Answer 11

By delivering quotas, not paid if not met

Question 12

Why did the communists think collectivization was the solution to the ussrs agricultural problems?

Answer 12

Land could be farmed more efficiently to create more produce faster

Question 13

What impact did the MTS have?

Answer 13

Lots of industry was carried out mechanically however many things still remained labor instensive

Question 14

How did mechanization affect collectivization?

Answer 14

Reduced number of peasants needed so more could move to the cities to work

Question 15

How many lorries were being used in soviet agriculture by the end of 1938 compared with the USA?

Answer 15

USSR- 196.000, America- over one mill

Question 16

Why were peasants in the Ukraine particularly hostile to collectivistation?

Answer 16

Land was more fertile and didn’t want to hand their farms over so burnt the crops and killed livestock

Question 17

What was dekulakistaion and how was it carried out/ how did it effect the countryside

Answer 17

Any peasants who resisted were enemies and were deported to labor camps in remote areas meaning the most successful and skilled farmers were removed

Question 18

who were the twenty five thousanders?

Answer 18

Frontline workers from the major industrial cities of the Soviet Union who voluntarily left their urban homes for rural areas

Question 19

What role did women play in peasant resistantance to collectivistaion?

Answer 19

Caring for children and other family?

Question 20

How did propaganda support collectivization?

Answer 20

All forms showed devotion to the ideology of the party and communism, with ideas of the kulaks shown to be greedy and fat
Farms

Question 21

What was the law of the seven eighths?

Answer 21

Provided a severe punishment for stolen collective and cooperative property

Question 22

Why did communists thinkcollectivistaion was the solution to the ussrs agricultural problems

Answer 22

They believed that collectivistaion would improve agricultural productivity and would produce grain reserves sufficiently large to feed the growing urban labor force- anticipated surplus was to pay forindustrialistaion

Question 23

Where did famine hit in the early 1930s

Answer 23

Ukraine and spread to kazakhstan and northern Caucasus

Question 24

Why is it difficult to give an exact figure for the number of victims of the 1932-34 famine

Answer 24

It was such a widespread and populated area that it was hard to keep track over the death rates and many went unreported

Question 25

Why do historians say the famine of1932-34 was man made

Answer 25

Deliberate policies to take unrealistic quotas thus condemning peasants to starvation

Question 26

In what ways was collectivistation economically successful for the government?

Answer 26

Industrial workforce was fed and grain exports were increased and peasants swelled the workforce

Question 27

In what ways was collectivistaion an economic failure

Answer 27

Agricultural production fell dramatically due to peasant opposition

Question 28

In what ways was collectivistation politically successful for the gov?

Answer 28

For the first time the soviet regime had extended control throughout the countryside

Question 29

What was the human cost of collectivistaion?

Answer 29

On the order of 12 mil people- 10mil died

Question 30

What does the Smolensk archive tell us about the behavior and action of the kulaks and activists

Answer 30

Fond 89 covers of Stalin’s purges, creation and operation of forced labor camps and more - meaning th kulaks and activists were very disobedient

Question 31

How useful and how reliable do you think the Smolensk archive I as a resource of evidence

Answer 31

Reliable look into the power and for that was forced upon kulaks and uprisers however not all of it was revealed to the public allegidely