Collectivisation

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Why was Collectivisation needed in 1929?

Problems in the USSR:

  • 1927 War scare with Poland, Japan and China. If war broke out, the Soviet government would need to have control over food production.
  • Soviet agriculture used backwards, old-fashioned methods and equipment. Farms used no machinery.
  • With the Five Year Plans, the population in cities was growing rapidly. Food for them was short.
  • The NEP wasn't working. Peasants didn't see the need to work harder to feed cities. Russia need two million more tons of grain to replace the shortages.
  • The NEP had made Peasants rich (called Kulaks). They were against communism and didn't want to share profits or hand over grain.
  • Russia was 70% peasants and had thousands of kilometres of farmland. Stalin needed grain to sell abroad to fund his Five Year Plans.
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Events in Collectivisation

Timeline of events in Collectivisation:

  • In 1927, Stalin declared that all people in each village were to voluntarily unite their farms into one collective farm. The collective farm (Kolkhoz) would be able to afford machinery, be efficient and create surplus to send to towns.
  • In 1929, after everyone ignored his idea and there had been a famine, Stalin made collectivisation compulsory.
  • There was a second famine in 1930. Peasants hated collectivisation, so burned crops and killed animals rather than hand them over to the Soviets.
  • In 1931, Stalin again tried to enforce collectivisation. The same resistance and a worse famine followed. The Kulaks were blamed and they were executed or sent to the Gulag (labour camps).
  • By 1939, 99% of land had been collectivised with 90% of peasants living on one of the 250,000 Kolkhoz. The government took 90% of production and the rest was left for people to live on.
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How successful was Collectivisation?

Stalin achieved most of his aims:

  • Grain production rose to nearly 100 million tonnes in 1937, although the numbers of animals never recovered.
  • Russia sold large quantities of grain to other countries.
  • 17 million people left the countryside to work in towns.
  • Kulaks were eliminated.
  • Peasants were closely under the government's control.

However, the human cost was immense:

  • Around three million Kulaks were killed.
  • There were famines in 1930 and 1932-3 where five million people starved to death.
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