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The Collectivization of Agriculture - Coggle Diagram
The Collectivization of Agriculture
Collectivisation
Stalin adoped collectivisation for two reasons
Raise capital
He worked to a simple formula
USSR needed inustrial investment and man power
The land could provide both
Surplus peasants to become factory workers
Stalin had little sympathy for peasants
Communist theory taught that the days of a peasantry revolutionary social force had passed
October 1918 had been the first stage in triumph of the industrial proletariat
Perfectly fitting that peasantry should bow to the needs of industrialization
Surplus grain sold abroad for investment funds for the industry
Stalin defined collectivization as "the setting up of collective farms in order to squeeze out all capitalist elements from the land"
State would now own the land, peasants no longer farm for individual profit
Plan was to group between 50 and 100 peasants into one unit
it was believed large farms would be more efficient and encourage machinery use
Bring peasants under control
The Kulaks
While introducing the plans in 1928, Stalin claimed it was voluntary
Truth was it forced onto reluctant peasants
In a propanda offensive, Stalin identified a class of Kulaks
Rich peasants who were hoarding their produce and keeping food prices high, making themselves wealth at poorer peasants and workers expense
Concept was a Stalinist myth
Kulaks were hard working ppeasants who were more efficient farmers
did not constitue a a class of exploiting's landowners
Notion of a Kulak class provided grounds for peasantry coercion
De-Kulakization
Kulaks had to be broken as a class
De-Kulakization became a state enforced campaign
Poorer peasants in regions undertook it with enthusiasm
gave them an excuse to settle old scores
Land and property were seized from beter off peasants and theit families were physically attacked
Prelude to arrest and deportation by OGPU anti Kulak squads
Renewal of terror served as a warning to mass peasantry resisiting state reorganization
This made the destruction of Kulaks an integral part in collectivization
Resistance to Collectivisation
Between December 1929 and March 1930
Nearly a quarter of peasant farms in the USSR were collectivised
Peasants in the millions still resisted
Resulted in a civil war in the countryside.
During 1929-30 , 30,000 arson attacks
Number of organized rural mass disturbances increased from 172 to 229
peasant resistance stood no chance of stopping collectivisation
By the end of the 1930s, virtually the whole peasantry had been collectivised
Consequences of Collectivisation
Silence
Despite overwhelming evidence of tragedy in the USSR, only two references to it in State press
Served to protect Stalins Image
Silence prevented introduction of methods to relieve the distress
Starvation
Persisted in the 1930s in many parts of the USSR
Worst years of 1932-33, national famine occured
Estimates suggested 6-8 million deaths, Ukraine and Kazakhstan severely affected
Postives
Enfroced Migration relived land pressure
provided workforce that enabled the industrialization programme to be started
Social Upheaval
Peasants became disoriented to the destruction of their traditional way of life
Led to peasant eating all their seed corn and slaughtering their animals, leaving no crops left or animals
Peasants moved to towns in huge numbers, internal passports had to be introduced to control the flow