13. Agricultural and social developments in the countryside

Question 1

HOW WAS THE EXPANSION OF THE URALS SIBERIAN METHOD A WAY OF ENFORCING COLLECTIVISATION

Answer 1

• in may 1929 the urals siberbian method of enforced grain requisitioning was extended to almost all grain producing regions of the ussr despite opposition from bukarin that this risked making the peasants hostile to the state

Question 2

HOW DID HELP FROM THE POORER PEASANTS HELP TO ENFORCE COLLECTIVSATION

Answer 2

• local party officials called on peasants to help identify the kulaks
• these poor peasants had the most to gain from collective farms, they would get to use the richer peasants land, livestock and equipment and share in the collective harvests

Question 3

HOW DID PARTY ACTIVISTS HELP TO ENFORCE COLLECTIVISATION

Answer 3

• NOV 1929- 25,000 party activists were sent to the countryside to help dekulakisation. they were officially sent to promote the benifits of collective farms, but in relaity searched households for for hidden grain and help identify and round up kulaks and enforce collectivisation on the remaining peasants.
• they were assisted by the ogbu and the red army

Question 4

HOW DID STALIN USE PROPOGANDA AND FEAR TO ENFORCE COLLECTIVSATION

Answer 4

• although party officials used propoganda and positive messages to convince villages to join collective farms, the real motivation came from fear of what was happening to the kulaks . people who resisted joining the collective farms were likely to be classed as kuklaks too.

Question 5

DESCRIBE THE PROCESS OF COLLETCIVISATION

Answer 5

• START OF 1929- 5% collectivised (voluntarily)
• during this year 15% peasant household classified as kulaks. those who weren’t shot by the ogbu were forced into exile in Siberia, 150,000 kulaks families deported to Siberia

1930

• march- 50% peasant farms collectivised. Stalin criticised local party officials for overzealousness, and allowed a brief return to voluntary membership of collective farms
• October- the return of voluntary collectivisation meant only 20% still collectivised

1931- once spring crop had sown in 1931, collectivisation enforced again

1941- all farms collectivised

Question 6

DEFINE FEATURES OF A KOLKHOZES FARM

Answer 6

• combining small individual farms together
• created from farms that already existed
• typical kolkhoz consisted of of around 75 families living in one village
• kolkhoz members paid by dividing any farm earnings by the number of labour days that members had contributed
• had communal field which everyone worked on, but members allowed small private plots to farm
• all communal land was held in common and tools and livestock were pooled; the peasants farmed the land as a single unit

Question 7

DEFINE FEATURES OF A SOVKHOZES FARM

Answer 7

• created in land confiscated from tsarist-era large estates, usually larger than the kolkhoz, and owned and run by the state
• members were recruited from landless rural labourers, often housed in barracks
• members classified as workers, not peasants and were paid a wage for their work
• organised for large scale production on industry lines, here too private plots were still allowed
• veiwed as ideal form of socialist farming
• state owned all the land

Question 8

WHAT ARE THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN KOLKHOZES AND SOVKHOZES

Answer 8

• required to meet high quotas by the state
• price set for these workers low. this meant industrial workers could be fed cheaply, state could make big profits on exporting grain in order to finance industrialisation
• after 1932, kolkoz and sovhkov members were restricted by internal passports to stop them leaving

Question 9

WHAT WERE MACHINE TRACTOR STATIONS

Answer 9

• set up from 1931

- hired out tractors and machinery to collective and state farms as well as distributing seeds

Question 10

WHAT ARE SOME ADVANATGES OF THE MACHINE TRACTOR STATIONS

Answer 10

• provided mechanisation and expertise to modernise farming
• tractors were the main focus, by start of 1933, 75,000 MTS tractors
• mechanisation reduced the need for peasant labour, so more peasants could leave the countryside and become industrial workers
• agronomists, vets, surveyors and technicians helped improved efficiency and advised on how to use the machines

Question 11

WHAT ARE SOME DISADVANATGES OF THE MACHINE TRACTOR STATIONS

Answer 11

• more farms than MTS, by 1940 there was still only one MTS for every farm
• tractor hire prices were because the state was squeezing farming for money
• efficacy was only improved in some areas because the machines only often completed part of the process (e.g cutting the hay but not bailing it)
• state farms tended to get the majority of MTS support and access to the best machinery (e.g combine harvesters; advisers were used to spy on workers to ensure political correctness

Question 12

HOW DID COLLECTIVISATION FAIL TO INCREASE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

Answer 12

• during the period of peasant opposition, agriculture fell drastically,, 1933 the harvest was 9 million tonnes less than in 1937
• grain output did not exceed pre collectivisation levels until after 1935
• livestock numbers fell by 25-30 percent during collectivisation and did not recover until 1953

Question 13

HOW DID COLLECTIVISATION SUCCEED IN TERMS OF ACHEIVING SOCIAL AIMS

Answer 13

• dekulakisation and collectivisation put farming completely under state control, there was no opporunity for farmers to hold back grain in order to benifit from higher prices
• capitalism in the countryside was eradicated, except for the peasanst privately owned small plots. by 1941 100% of peasant household were collectivised
• the money from grain exports funded industrialisation whle the poor conditions on collective farms fuelled migration to the cities

Question 14

HOW DID COLLECTIVISATION FAIL IN TERMS OF ACHEIVING SOCIAL AIMS

Answer 14

• living standards fell in both urban and rural areas. in the towns and cities wages also declined
• famine across the USSR killed approximately 6-8 million people, an extraordinary high social cost, however it was not seen this way amongst the party leadership

Question 15

HOW DID COLLECTIVISATION CONSOLIDATE STALINS POSITION

Answer 15

• Ussr succeeded in its aim of exporting more grain (grain exports rose from 30,000 tonnes in 1928 to more than 5 million tonnes in 1931). this provided investment for rapid industrialisation, justifying stalins great turn away from the NEP
• Bukharin had opposed collectivsation saying it would endanger food supplies to the towns and cities. depite bukharin being proved right about peasant opposition, the party agreed with stalin that the peasant opposition to collectivisation was actually class war, kulak counter revolutionary terrorism, that needed to be brutally exterminated
• collectivisation allowed the soviet regime to etxend its political control over the countryside
• many party members had tolerated the NEP long enough and there was great enthusiasm for stalins model of building socialism

Question 16

WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF KULAKS AND OTHER PEASANTS

Answer 16

• widespread and violent opposition to the process of collectivisation, many peasants killed their livestock dstroyed their machines, fearing they would be branded as kulaks if they kept them
• the armed forces responded brutally to the unrest, sometimes burnign down whole villages and deporting anyone who resisted
• deported peasnats in exile to siberbia hwre they worked in labour camps. thousands died in harsh conditions, 10 millions poeple deported as kulaks under stalin
• peasants in collective farms treated badly, state targets were set high, with farms recieving nothing if quotas were not met,