section 4- economy and society 1929-41 Flashcards
agricultural developments in the countryside
stalin committed to collective farming as a result of his Great Turn- used collectivisation to fix grain shortages
- used ‘Urals-Siberian’ method of requisitioning after voluntary collectivisation did not work
involved seizure of grain and the closing down of private markets
collectivisation and the 1st 5YP
the success of the 5YP depended on regular supplies of food to support the workers and plenty of surplus to export to finance industrial development
voluntary collectivisation
had very little effect
by 1929, less than 5% farms were collectivised
the govt used:
- posters
- leaflets
- films
to try to convince the peasants of the benefits of working communally
forced collectivisation
started in 1929 and enforced by the govt
- involved denunciation and execution of the kulaks to scare the rest of the peasants to join the collective farms
kulaks and early collectivisation
Kulaks = said to by 4% of the pop, in practise 15% peasant households = destroyed and ~150,000 forced to migrate north + east to poorer land
by march 1930, 58% households were collectivised- speed even concerned stalin, who said local party members were overzealous- led to a brief return to voluntary to keep peasants appeased for the harvest
result of brief voluntary collectivisation (harvest 1930)
peasants were allowed to leave their collectives and had their livestock returned if they could prove they weren’t a kulak
this immediately dropped the numbers collectivised:
oct 1930- 20% collectivised
kolkhoz
most popular form of collectivised farm
av. 75 families and their livestock
under the control of a local party member = chairman
had to deliver a quota of up to 40% crops and were not paid if it was not met
profit was shared depending on how much you worked
from 1932- allowed to sell surplus in the only free market allowed in the USSR, forbidden to leave due to internal passports
sovkhoz
less popular
seen by communist purists as the ideal
labourers = workers not peasants, paid wage
larger area than kolkhozes
organised according to industrial principles for specialised large scale production
suited for grain growing areas particularly
peasant opposition to becoming wage workers made stalin accept kolkhozes as more popular (BUT: under expectation kolkhozes -> sovkhozes in future)
machine tractor stations (MTS)
1931- supplied seed and heavy machinery to farms- meant less peasants were needed so they could work in the cities
2500 (1 per 40 farms) established
state farms received better machinery and more support from experts
also used as ideological stations to distribute propaganda
impact of MTS
by 1938:
- 95% threshing
- 72% ploughing
- 57% spring sowing
- 48% harvesting
done by machines
BUT: machines were still labour intensive and there were limited nos of lorries to transport the goods (196000 lorries 1936 vs 1 million in USA)
collectivisation and dekulakisation
class warfare used to separate kulaks from other peasants
stalin believed grain shortages were due to the kulaks hoarding grain -> “annihilate the kulaks as a class”
forced collectivisation- kulaks attacked and Red Army + OGPU used to identify, execute or deport them
some burned land/killed their livestock to avoid being denounced
result:
- lost the most successful and skilled farmers
around 10 million peasants died as a result of resistance/deportation
impact of collectivisation on peasants
1 in 4 peasants became an urban worker- 19 million migrated to towns
peasants in collectives saw it as “new serfdom”
Aug 1932- stealing from collective - 10 yrs jail
internal passports used to tie peasants to collectives
high quotas = little profit or incentive so focused on their 1 acre private plots
some benefitted from education provided at the farms
IN CONC: peasants = sacrificed in the name of soviet ideology to meet the needs of industry
how much produce did the private plots contribute?
- 52% veg
- 70% meat
- 71% milk
in the USSR produced by private plots
famine 1932-34 timeline
Oct 1931:
- Drought hit many agricultural areas
- This combined with deportation of kulaks sent food production on the decrease
Spring 1932- 1933:
Famine began in Ukraine -> Northern Caucasus and Kazakhstan
factors contributing to the famine’s continuation
- high quotas continued- drop in production couldn’t meet them
-led to grain requisitioning/prison/death is found to steal grain- starved them further - in Ukraine, many farms + villages were blacklisted from receiving rations after not fulfilling quotas
- Ukrainian border = closed and migration to cities = closely managed
estimated 5 million deaths
Conquest’s POV of the famine
believes there was a deliberate policy to take unrealistic grain quotas in areas that had opposed collectivisation (particularly Ukraine)
thus condemning millions to starvation
overall success of collectivisation
- achieved purpose of collectivising all rural areas by 1941 (98%)
- industrial workforce = fed
- able to export grain for money
BUT - at expense of the peasants e.g. millions dead, upheaval and destroyed ways of life
impact of collectivisation in rural areas (problems)
- agricultural output fell due to opposition (some to 1913 levels)
- recovery didn’t take place until the late 1930s
- 25-30% livestock were slaughtered between 1929-33- took until 1953 to recover
- often poorly organised
- party activists in charge often had no knowledge of farming
- too few machines and animals
political success of collectivisation
- first time = govt had control over peasants in rural areas which reinforced stalin’s control over the party + USSR
- Bukharin and Rykov who opposed lost power and influence
- class differences in the countryside were abolished
- apart from private plots, all capitalism was abolished
E H Carr and collectivisation
‘second serfdom’- disastrous impact on the peasantry in particular
Gosplan
the state planning agency responsible for drawing up plans and establishing output targets for all areas of the economy in line with party objectives
responsibilities of Gosplan
- govt made overall decision on what was produced
- regional party leaders competed to put forward ambitious projects and get the 1st pick of resources
- lacked reliable info (managers lied about output as it was a crime to not meet targets)
- targets set = ambitious
- accompanied by propaganda
therefore, was in the position of working from falsified stats but could be criminalised if they did not succeed
role of foreign workers
helped build show projects e.g. the Moscow Metro due to their expertise- its engineering designs, routes and construction plans were handled by specialists from the London Underground
some foreign workers travelled to the USSR to work due to great depression
disadvantages of being a foreign worker
- looked on with suspicion- easy to scapegoat
e.g. NKVD arrested numerous British engineers working in Moscow as they had gained in depth knowledge of the city layout
