Collectivisation

Question 1

Voluntary Collectivisation

Answer 1

• Began in December 1927
• At first local party officials - sent into the villages to convince the peasants of the benefits of collectivisation
• Promises of providing machinery through the Machine and tractor stations(MTS)
• Plan = to merge 50-100 farms together
• Any peasant who refused to join - labelled as Kulaks

Question 2

1928

Answer 2

• July 1928 - Stalin ended NEP
• Blaming the Kulaks for hoarding grain - to keep the price high = thereby making themselves rich at the expense of the factory workers
• Stalin began requisitioning of grain again - ‘to limit the exploitative actions of the Kulaks’
• Sent in Red Army and Cheka into the countryside but they were met with resistance

Question 3

Process of Collectivisation - Opposition

Answer 3

• Violent opposition from a large number of peasants especially in the richer agricultural areas such as the Ukraine
• Peasants set fire to their farms and slaughtered their animals rather than hand them over
• Official figures for 1929-30 = 30k arson attacks

Question 4

Stalin’s reaction

Answer 4

• December 1929 - Stalin passed a resolution = enforced collectivisation
• New law v hoarding of grain = could be shot for having 5 ears of corn
• Dekulakisation - Stalin spoke of liquidating the Kulaks as a class
• Enlisted an army of 25K urban party activists - two week course
• Many Kulaks were shot and 10M were deported to the Gulags
• Govt continued to requisition grain

Question 5

Successes

Answer 5

• By 1941 - 98% of collective farms = collectivised
• Removed the Kulaks
• Peasant councils were replaced by state ones
• Party control - built watchtowers

Question 6

Limitations

Answer 6

• population and grain decreased
• Shortages of breads and potatoes
• Led to a famine causing 5 Million + people dying
• Holodomor in Ukraine
• The Kazakhs - nomadic - population decreased by 40%