Stalin: Agricultural Collectivisation And It's Impact

Question 1

What happened to Soviet Agriculture between 1928 and 1941?

Answer 1

Collectivised:

• small farms were merged into large farms— anything between 20 and 150 families
• ownership of farms taken over by the state

❌❌❌ EXTREMELY VIOLENT
❌❌❌ LED TO A MASSIVE DECLINE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

Question 2

What were the causes of collectivisation?

Answer 2

• IDEOLOGY: NEP farming was essentially capitalist— communists wanted to abolish capitalism by ending private ownership of farms
• ECONOMICS: NEP government collected a small tax on farms. Collectivisation: the government could take much more wealth from farms, that could be invested in industrialisation.
• FAILURE OF THE NEP: agricultural production fell in 1927–> food shortages in the cities
• POLITICAL: Stalin could win support from the left of the Party

Question 3

What was the process of collectivisation?

Answer 3

Introduced in late 1929

Farms forcibly merged,
equipment taken from richer peasants and given to poorer peasants 🎁

Many peasants responded by DESTROYING THEIR CROPS, ANIMALS, MACHINERY🌾🐄🏎

Government executed or deported KULAKS who resisted collectivisation 🔪🔪🔪

Question 4

What did collectivisation lead to?

Answer 4

A CRISIS in agriculture

Question 5

Why was falling production a consequence of collectivisation?

Answer 5

Unrest in rural areas led to the destruction of:
• 17m horses 
• 26m cattle
• 11m pigs 
• 60m sheep and goats 

Grain production decreased at the same time:
1928– 73.3m tons
1933– 68.4m tons

Question 6

Why was famine a consequence of collectivisation?

Answer 6

Led to famine in Ukraine (resistance to collectivisation intense there)

Stalin punished the Ukraine—
• seized its grain and livestock—
government-created famine between 1932 and 1933– 5 million deaths

Question 7

Why was modernisation a consequence of collectivisation?

Answer 7

Collectivisation was accompanied by a degree of modernisation.

The government allowed farms to hire tractors from Machine Tractor Stations (set up across the country)

They provided 75,000 tractors but they had a limited impact on soviet farming.
At best, they made up for all the horses that were lost due to collectivisation.

Question 8

Why was grain procurement a consequence of collectivisation?

Answer 8

The government could provide much more grain than during the NEP

1928: 10.8m tons
1933: 22.6m tons

Grain exports also rose:

1928: less than 1m tons
1930: 4.7m tons
1931: 5m tons

Question 9

How did agriculture recover from collectivisation?

Answer 9

It recovered slowly.

Grain harvest weds regularly smaller than they had been in the best years of their NEP— partly the result of the fact tag collective farms were LESS PRODUCTIVE than private farms: On average,
• private farms— around 410 kilos of grain per hectare
• collective farms— about 320

PRIOR TO WWII— collective farms less productive than farms under the NEP