The aftermath of war agriculture Flashcards
state of agriculture at the end of the war?
terrible state
whole rural districts had been wrecked. How many collective farms or kolkhozy had stopped functioning?
nearly 100,000
many peasants returned to farming the land privately
why had there been a shortage of agricultural labour?
most of the Red Army had been peasants and there had been heavy loss of life
many peasant soldiers had learned skills in the army and went into industry rather than return to villages
a large amount of arable land had?
not been cultivated for some time, had to be brought back into operation
there was shortages of?
tractors, horses, fuel and seeds
pressure on the peasantry was fierce. There was a major drive in 1946, what did this intend to do?
tighten discipline on the kolkhozy and reverse wartime trends, particularly the expansion of private plots
grain procurements to feed the people in cities and towns took up how much yield?
took up 70% of much reduced yield
grain procurements meant that?
there was barely any left to feed the peasants and keep the animals alive, and there was a drought too
in 1946-47 how many people died from starvation and diseases (with Ukraine hit the hardest)?
1.5 million
during 1947 what happened to delivery targets and taxes on income arising from private plots?
raised to a new height
extra taxes invented e.g on each fruit tree in a peasant households garden
by the end of 1952, what happened to the number of kolkhozy and why?
number of kolkhozy was reduced by 2/3 to 94,800 to increase production but also mainly to increase party control
since top priority given to industry, what did this mean to villages?
were not allowed electricity apart from state power stations + not provided with building materials to rebuild their houses
peasants perpetually squeezed under Stalin , that even in 1954(a full year after Stalin’s death), the average pay of a kolkhoznik remained?
lower than 1/6 of the earnings of the average factory worker
