SUCCESS OF COLLECTIVISATION

Question 1

ECONOMIC

Answer 1

1930 witness bumper year in grain harvest — 83.5 million tons compared to 73.3 million tons in 1928
 NEP had failed to solve the eternal problem of feeding the people, Collectivisation had to work
 many crops suited better to larger farms — small farms meant poor use of labour, unable to benefit from mechanisation. Too much consumed by the farm, not enough going to market
 larger units of land meant efficiency via mechanisation — tractors and machinery supplied through MTS
 fewer peasants needed to work land — released labour for industry
 easier for state to take grain for cities and export — controlled by Communist supporters.

Question 2

ECON BUT

Answer 2

However
 agriculture was a disaster: significant numbers of animals slaughtered, enterprising peasants
had left the country, fled to city to seize opportunity of upward mobility
 grain procurement crisis 1928-9 — peasants were resisting government policies and not
sending goods to market: bread and meat therefore rationed in the cities
 building a social and economic system to make USSR a great power
 those left were in no mood to begin work, and passive resistance was the order of the day —
referred to this as ‘second serfdom’
 statistics after 1930 distorted to show alleged success, even though grain harvest had fallen,
grain procurement still increased — 10.8 million tons in 1928 with 73.3 million tons harvested
but by 1933 22.6 million tons procured from only 68.4 million tons harvested
 ‘dizzy with success’ speech (2 March 1930) meant pace slowed down and return to voluntary
principle indicates limitations of policy
 life was the same for most, same wooden huts
 tractors were largely imaginary.

Question 3

SOCIAL

Answer 3

by February 1930, the party claimed that half of all peasant holdings had been collectivised
 estimated 70% peasants households collectivised by 1934 and 90% by 1936; 120 million
people, 600,000 villages, 25 million holdings consolidated into 240,000 state-controlled collective farms.

Question 4

SOCIAL BUT

Answer 4

famine 1932-34 because high targets at time of huge drop in grain production due to
Collectivisation, 7 million died from man-made famine
 the most successful peasant farmers were accused of being Kulaks and were deported or
killed. 25 to 30% of animals killed due to starvation
 OGPU were vicious. 1.73 million tons exported
 1932 strict laws introduced to ensure grain was handed over, handing out ten year sentences
for stealing ‘socialised property’
 requisitioned grain was left rotting in huge dumps or on trains whilst people were starving.

Question 5

POLITICAL

Answer 5

end to peasant ‘petit-bourgeois’ Kulaks influence which created enemies of the state ripe for purging
 socialist solution not to have private holdings (NEP), but ‘socialist agrotowns’
 strengthening control of Central Party apparatus over provinces such as Ukraine and central
Asia
 exerting control of local Party cliques from above
 needed to prepare for potential war and to support industrial expansion
 to compete with USA as a superpower.

Question 6

POLITICAL BUT

Answer 6

force, propaganda and terror was used
 liquidation of the kulak class, to make the middle peasants obey Stalin
 ‘Twenty Five Thousanders’ rounded up families and deported some 10 million people (some
estimate 20 million dead or deported)
 the extent of denunciations by neighbours reflects the success of the propaganda machine in
inflaming class hatred
 armed resistance and riots: crops, tools and houses burned rather than handed over
 women’s protests were significant and effective in organisation and outcome.