Stalin's desire to modernise agriculture led him to collectivise the farms, amalgamating them and putting them totally under state control.
In the end, this did lead to more efficient farming and increased production, but in the short term it involved him in a 'war' with the kulaks, and a disastrous fall in output, which led to famine.
Collectivisation
Reed Brett on Collectivisation
Prof Rempel on Collectivisation
Old-fashioned/ inefficient/ no machinery/ too small/ subsistence (only grew enough for themselves).
Essential if the Five-Year Plans were to succeed.
By 1928, the USSR was 20 million tons of grain short to feed the towns.
If the USSR was to become modern/ industrial, peasants needed to migrate to work in the towns.
If the USSR was to industrialise, peasants needed to grow cash crops (eg grain) which could be exported to raise money to buy foreign machinery and expertise.
The Kulaks opposed Communism – they liked their private wealth. They hid food from the government collectors. Also they were influential, and led peasant opinion. Stalin wanted to destroy them.
1927 Stalin announced collectivisation – peasants asked to take part voluntarily. Ignored.
1928 Food shortages. Police confiscated food and took it to the towns.
1929 Stalin announced compulsory collectivisation, enforced by the army. The peasants burned their crops and barns, and killed their animals.
1930 Famine. Stalin paused collectivisation. Peasants were allowed to own a small plot of land.
1931 Collectivisation re-started. By 1932 two-thirds of the villages had been collectivised. More resistance, burning/ killing. Meanwhile, the government took more food for the towns, so:
1932–3 Famine, esp. in Ukraine (where 5 million died). Stalin blamed, and declared war on, the Kulaks – their land was taken and they were shot/ sent to labour camps in Siberia/ whole villages surrounded and killed.
1934 All 7 million kulaks ‘eliminated’.
1939 99% of land collectivised; 90% peasants live on one of ¼ million kolkhoz; 4,000 state farms. Farming run by government officials.
Stalin's 1929 order simply required farmers to pool their land and their equipment, and to work in future under the orders of the collective farm committee (which was under the control of the Communist Party). No other details - such as how the workers would be paid - were given, and in 1930 Stalin even sent a contradictory order that 'small vegetable gardens, dwelling houses, some dairy cattle, small livestock poultry etc. are not socialised' (at which point, many farmers withdrew from the collectives).
Later rules, however, enforced collectivisation, prescribed punishments for 'enemies of the collective farms' (such as the kulaks), stipulated that 90% of the produce had to go to the state (with 10% left to feed the collective), and set up Motor Tractor Stations to provide mechanisation.
Bolshevik teachers instruct a less-than-enthusiastic group of peasants about the benefits of collectivisation.
Peasants celebrating on a collectivised farm – a propaganda painting from 1937.
99% of Russia had been collectivized . . .
New methods/ tractors/ fertilisers/ large-scale/ new attitudes (trying to produce as much as possible)
By 1937, 97 million tonnes were produced PLUS cash crops for export.
17 million peasants left the countryside to work in the towns, 1928–37
Officials ran farming. Peasants obeyed the Party, through enthusiasm or fear. Stalin had all power.
Fell – see Source C!
(Millions)
1928
1933
1937
Tons of Grain
73
69
97
(State Procurement, tons)
11
23
?
Head of cattle
70
38
51
Head of sheep & goats
150
50
66
In 1932–33; millions died.
Were eliminated.
Many historians believe that collectivisation was as much about establishing Stalin's power as it was about increasing production. What do you think?
