Decision to collectivise

Question 1

What was collectivisation?

Answer 1

The process in which smaller farms were merged into larger farms and the land and resources were taken over by the state

Question 2

What was Bukharin’s view?

Answer 2

Helping peasants was key to success and prices should be allowed to rise so that peasants with produce more

Question 3

What did those that opposed Bukharin say?

Answer 3

They wanted faster modernisation and growth of industry and the peasants were an obstacle

Question 4

What are the factors that drove collectivisation?

Answer 4

Grain crisis 1927-8
The need for increased food supply to support workers
Right socialist path to follow

Question 5

Where did S focus his attention?

Answer 5

Siberia and Urals where the harvest was generally good however grain production was 1/3 what it was the previous year

Question 6

How did S take action in Siberia?

Answer 6

He sent officials and police to close free markets to stop speculation and seize grain by force

Question 7

How did collectivisation prove to be more popular in 1929?

Answer 7

The CC sent 25,000 industrial workers to the countryside to accelerate the development of farms

Question 8

What was introduced in December 1929

Answer 8

Forced collectivisation to “smash kulaks as a class”

Question 9

What were Kulaks?

Answer 9

Russian peasants wealthy enough to own a farm and hire labour

Question 10

What was voluntary collectivisation?

Answer 10

Persuading peasants on the benefits of working communally through posters, leaflets and films. This has limited effect.

Question 11

What was the attitude to collectivise by 1929?

Answer 11

Less of 5% of all farms had been collectivised and Stalin believed that some of the brain procurement problems were as a result of Kulaks holding back supplies. Stalin wanted to ‘annihilate the Kulaks’.

Question 12

What was the first stage of collectivisation?

Answer 12

The government began the campaign with new procurement of quotas, with punishments for peasants who did not keep up with deliveries. A deliberate propaganda campaign was waged against the Kulaks in attempts to create a rift within the peasant class between poor and better off farmers.

Question 13

What was forced collectivisation of 1929?

Answer 13

Peasants were driven into collectives by local party members with the support of the OGPU and the Red Army.

Question 14

Why did Stalin hate Kulaks?

Answer 14

They had to be ‘liquidated as a class’ as they were not permitted to join collectives

Question 15

What was the role of the OGPU and Red Army in the first stage of collectivisation?

Answer 15

They were used to identify, execute or deport kulaks who represented 4% of peasant households. It was not always easy to distinguish the different peasant classes and in practice around 15% of all peasant households were destroyed and 150,000 peasants force to migrate from north and east to poorer land.

Question 16

By March 1930 how many households had been collectivised?

Answer 16

58% due to peasant and force

Question 17

What intention of his did Stalin announce in January 1930?

Answer 17

25% of grain farming areas were to be collectivised that year

Question 18

What did Stalin believe about the speed of collectivisation?

Answer 18

Local officials were being too rigorous and confrontational in their methods and were becoming dizzy with success.

Question 19

What was the impact of the speed of early collectivisation?

Answer 19

There was a brief return to voluntary collectivisation until the harvest had been collected that year- peasants were allowed to leave collectives and had their livestock returned to them- this was only a temporary tactic

Question 20

By October 1930 how many farms were actually collectivised?

Answer 20

20%

Question 21

In what year were 100% of farms collectivised?

Answer 21

1941

Question 22

What was a kolkhoz?

Answer 22

A type of collective farm created by combining small individual farms into one larger farm in a cooperative structure

Question 23

What did the average Kolkhoz compromise of?

Answer 23

Around 75 families and their livestock e.g. cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens

Question 24

Why was the creation of a Kolkhoz difficult?

Answer 24

Communal fields had to be mapped out and work parties had to join the peasants to dig new ditches, erect new fences and sometimes establish communal buildings.

Question 25

What the term for quotas in Kolkhozes?

Answer 25

Each had to deliver a set quota of produce to the state- they were high- 40% of crops- and a low purchase price was set by the government. The farm was not paid if quotas were not met.

Question 26

What did Kolkhozes do with left over goods and profits?

Answer 26

They would share them according to the number of labour days a farmer had contributed to the farming year. From 1932 they were allowed to sell any left over goods- the only free market allowed in the USSR.

Question 27

Who were Kolkhozes under the control of?

Answer 27

A communist party member who ensured communist control of rural areas

Question 28

What system was implemented in Kolkhozes?

Answer 28

The use of internal passports which forbade peasants leaving the Kolkhoz

Question 29

What was a Sovkhoz?

Answer 29

A relatively small number of farms ran as state farms, some created in early 1920s as an example of ‘socialist agriculture of the highest order’

Question 30

What were Sovkhozes viewed as?

Answer 30

The ideal way of farming

Question 31

How was a Sovkhoz different to a Kolkhoz?

Answer 31

The Sovkhozes were usually larges that Kolkhozes and were created on land confiscated from former larger estates.
Workers were recruited from landless rural residents and farms were organised according to industrial principles for specialised large scale production

Question 32

Why was the Sovkhoz not the most common type of farm?

Answer 32

There was peasant opposition to becoming wage labourers

Question 33

What was the official expectation of Kolkhozes?

Answer 33

They would eventually be turned into Sovkhozes

Question 34

What were Machine Tractor Stations?

Answer 34

They were set up from 1931 and they hired out tractors and machinery to collective and state farms

Question 35

How many MTS were established?

Answer 35

2500- there was only one MTS for every 40 collective farms

Question 36

How did state farms benefit from MTS?

Answer 36

They received more and better machinery e.g. to combine harvesters and chemical fertilisers

Question 37

How did the state farms receive support?

Answer 37

Agronomists, veterinary surgeons, surveyors and technicians were sent to the countryside to advise on how to use machinery and improve farming methods.

Question 38

What percentage of harvesting was carried out by machinery in 1938?

Answer 38

48%

Question 39

What is an example of the machinery still being very labour based?

Answer 39

The type of harvesting reapers merely cut grain, which then had to be removed from the reaper and bound by hand. Other tasks such as weeding were also largely manual work.

Question 40

What was there a limited number of in 1938?

Answer 40

Lorries to transport goods, by the end of 1938 there was 196,000 lorries being used in USSR agriculture compared to over a million in the USA

Question 41

Which type of peasants were particularly hostile?

Answer 41

Those from more fertile areas like the Ukraine

Question 42

What did peasants do to avoid being called Kulaks?

Answer 42

They burned their farms, produce and livestock.

Question 43

How did armed forces did with peasant resistance?

Answer 43

They would sometimes burn down whole villages, any peasant who resisted was classified as a kulak, millions of peasants were deported, usually to remote areas like Siberia, where they would be forced into labour camps- this was known as dekulakisation

Question 44

How many peasants died as a result of resistance?

Answer 44

10 million

Question 45

How many peasants had migrated to towns?

Answer 45

19 million- for every 3 farmers placed on a collective 1 became an urban worker

Question 46

What was the law of 1932?

Answer 46

Any one caught stealing from a collective- even as a little as a few grains of corn- could be gaoled for 10 years- it was a capital crime

Question 47

Why might a peasant get a 10 year sentence?

Answer 47

For attempting to sell meat or grain before quotas were filled

Question 48

Why was there a lack of motivation to work?

Answer 48

Although peasants were entitled to share any left over profits- the quotas were so high that there was often no goods left over to share

Question 49

What were most peasants only interested in?

Answer 49

Small private plots where they could keep their own animals and grow their own vegetables to provide for their families and sell in the market

Question 50

What do figures show about production within private plots?

Answer 50

Most of production occurred here by the late 1930s- 52% of vegetables, 70% of meat, and 71% of milk

Question 51

What was the significant event that occurred in October 1931?

Answer 51

A drought that hit many agricultural areas, this along with Kulak deportations caused a famine in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and parts of the North- this was one of the worst famines in Russian history

Question 52

How were the government responsible for the famine?

Answer 52

Despite the drop in grain production the state continued to demand its requisitions- Conquest believed there were deliberate high quotas in areas opposed to collectivisation to inflict starvation and suffering of those who resisted

Question 53

What were Soviet attitudes to the famine?

Answer 53

They refused to send aid from Moscow. At and after the time the authorities denied it happened

Question 54

What were some of the weaknesses of collectivisation?

Answer 54

During times of peasant opposition production fell dramatically- to even below 1913 levels and recovery did not occur until the 1930’s
Grain and livestock were killed
Grain output did not exceed pre collectivisation levels until 1935
It wasn’t until 1953 that livestock numbers recovered
The collectives were poorly organised in the early years- the party activists knew nothing of farming and tractors were slow and insufficient

Question 55

Why was collectivisation a political success?

Answer 55

For the first time the Soviet regime had extended its political power to the countryside- peasants could not resist the regime
Those on the right of the party e.g. Bukharin and Rykov lost power and the USSR moved towards Stalin’s idea of socialism.
Class systems had been abolished, any remains of capitalism based on private enterprise had been destroyed

Question 56

How many people died in the 1932 famine?

Answer 56

7 million

Question 57

How did peasant resistance affect grain figures?

Answer 57

In 1928 grain procurement =73.3 million tonnes

In 1934= 67.6

Question 58

What was the percentage of cows, sheep and pigs slaughtered?

Answer 58

30%

Question 59

How did collectivisation fair with their foreign aims?

Answer 59

Foreign exports did not do as well as hoped due to problems in the west and also the Great Depression which reduced prices