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The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. The slogan reads: "We kolkhoz farmers, on the basis of complete collectivisation, will liquidate the kulaks as a class."

In the Soviet Union, collectivisation was a policy, pursued between 1928 and 1933, to consolidate individual land and labour into collective farms (Russian: колхо́з, kolkhoz) and into state farms (Russian: совхо́з, sovkhoz). Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Collectivization. ... Collectivization. ... Collective farming is an organizational unit in agriculture in which peasants are not paid wages, but rather receive a share of the farms net output. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Collective farming is an organizational unit in agriculture in which peasants are not paid wages, but rather receive a share of the farms net output. ... A kolkhoz (Russian: IPA: ), plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms (sovkhoz). ... A sovkhoz (Russian language: Совхоз, Советское хозяйство, sovetskoe khoziaistvo), typically translated as state farm, is a Soviet state-owned farm, in contrast with kolkhoz, which is a collective-owned...

Background

Following Emancipation reform of 1861 and the end of Russian serfdom, peasants gained control of about half of the land they had previously cultivated, and instantly began to ask for the redistribution of all land.^[1] Their dreams of land for all the peasants, however, would be difficult to achieve; given the simple cultivation technology of Russian peasants at the time, there wasn't enough land to sustain everyone who wanted their own farm.^[1] The Stolypin Reform gave incentives for the creation of large farms, but these ended during World War I. The Russian Provisional Government response to such a difficult situation (particularly during wartime) was to do very little, but continue to promise redistribution. The peasants began to turn against the Provisional Government and organized themselves into land committees, which together with the traditional peasant communes became a powerful force of opposition. When Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia on April 3, 1917, he promised the people "Peace, Bread, and Land," the latter appearing as a promise to the peasants for the redistribution of confiscated land. The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia was the first and most important of liberal reforms effected during the reign of Alexander II. The reform amounted to the liquidation of serf dependence previously suffered by Russian peasants. ... A Peasant Leaving His Landlord on Yuriev Day, painting by Sergei V. Ivanov. ... Stolypin agrarian reforms are the agrarian reforms to Imperial Russias agricultural sector instituted during the tenure of Pyotr Stolypin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister). ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... The Russian word mir (мир), besides its direct meanings of peace and world, had some other meanings related to social organization in Imperial Russia. ... “Lenin” redirects here. ... is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ...

During the period of War communism, however, the policy of Prodrazvyorstka meant peasantry were obligated to surrender the surpluses of almost any kind of agricultural produce for a fixed price. When the Russian Civil War ended, the economy changed with the New Economic Policy (NEP) and specifically, the policy of Prodrazvyorstka or "food tax." This new policy was designed to re-build morale among embittered farmers, and lead to increased production, while as a progressive tax, those with more money paid more. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Prodrazvyorstka (prodovolstvennaya razvyorstka) (Продразвёрстка, продовольственная развёрстка in Russian, or food apportionment) was... Combatants Local Soviet powers led by Russian SFSR and Red Army Far Eastern Republic Chinese Volunteers White Movement Allied Intervention: Japan Czechoslovakia Greece  United States  Canada Serbia Romania  Turkey UK  France Foreign volunteers: Polish Italian Local nationalist movements, national states, and decentralist movements  German Empire  Mongolia Warlords Commanders Vladimir Lenin... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Prodrazvyorstka (prodovolstvennaya razvyorstka) (Продразвёрстка, продовольственная развёрстка in Russian, or food apportionment) was... A progressive tax is a tax imposed so that the tax rate increases as the amount to which the rate is applied increases. ...

Peasants having lunch in a commune.

Until this time, the Bolsheviks had little choice but to allow the peasants to take the land and farm it privately.^[1] In the 1920s, however, they began to lean toward the idea of collective agriculture. The pre-existing communes, which redistributed land periodically, did little to encourage improvements in the land, and formed a source of power beyond the control of the Soviet government. Although the income gap between wealthy and poor farmers did grow under the NEP, it remained quite small, but the Bolsheviks began to take aim at the wealthy kulaks. Clearly identifying this group was difficult, though, since only about 1% of the peasantry employed labourers (the basic Marxist definition of a capitalist), and 80% of the country's population were peasants.^[1]The equal land shares among the peasants gave rise to food shortages in the cities. Although grain had nearly returned to pre-war production levels, the large estates who had produced it for urban markets had been divided up.^[1] Not interested in acquiring money to purchase over priced goods, the peasants chose to eat their produce rather than sell it, so city dwellers only saw half the grain that had been available before the war.^[1] Before the revolution, peasants controlled only 2,100,000 km² in 16 million holdings, producing 50% of the food grown in Russia and consuming 60%. After the revolution, the peasants controlled 3,140,000 km² in 25 million holdings producing 85% of the food, but consuming 80% of what they grew. .^[2] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ...

The Soviet Communist Party had never been happy with private agriculture and saw collectivization as the best remedy for the problem. Lenin claimed "Small-scale production gives birth to capitalism and the bourgeoisie constantly, daily, hourly, with elemental force, and in vast proportions."^[3] Apart from ideological goals, Stalin also wished to embark on a program of rapid heavy industrialisation which required larger surpluses to be extracted from the agricultural sector in order to feed a growing industrial work force and to pay for imports of machinery.^[4] The state also hoped to export grain, a source of foreign currency needed to import technologies necessary for heavy industrialisation.^{[citation needed]} Social and ideological goals would also be served though mobilisation of the peasants in a co-operative economic enterprise which would produce higher returns for the State and could serve a secondary purpose of providing social services to the people. Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314...

The crisis of 1928

This demand for more grain resulted in the reintroduction of requisitioning which was resisted in rural areas. In 1928 there was a 2 million ton shortfall in grains purchased by the state. Stalin claimed the grain had been produced but was being hoarded by "kulaks." Rather than raise the price, the Politburo adopted an emergency measure to requisition 2.5 million tons of grain. Politburo is short for Political Bureau. ...

The seizures of grain discouraged the peasants and less grain was produced during 1928 and again the government restorted to requisitions. Much of the grain being requisitioned from middle peasants as sufficient quantities were not in the hands of the "kulaks." In 1929, resistance to the seizures became widespread with some violent incidents of resistance but also massive hoarding (burial was the common method) and illegal transfers of grain. If they could not hide or otherwise dispose their entire crops, some peasants harvested it as hay, burned it, or threw it into the rivers.^{[citation needed]}

Faced with the refusal to hand grain over, a decision was made at a plenum of the Central Committee in November 1929 to embark on a nationwide program of collectivisation. The Central Committee, abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, Tseka, was the highest body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). ...

Several forms of collective farming were suggested by the People's Commissariat of Agriculture (Narkomzem), ranging in the level of common property: ^[5]

• Association for Joint Cultivation of Land (Товарищество по совместной обработке земли, ТОЗ/TOZ), where only land was in common ownership
• agricultural artel (initially in a loose meaning, later formalized to become an oranizational basis of kolkhozes, via "The Recommended Statute of an Agricultural Artel"),
• agricultural commune, with the highest level of common ownership.

For comparison, in sovkhozes the land was the property of the state and employed waged labor. Also, various cooperatives for processing of agricultural products were installed. An Association for Joint Cultivation of Land (Russian: ), TOZ, was a form of agricultural cooperation in early Soviet Union (1918-1938). ... Artel (Russian: ) is a general term for various cooperative associations in Russia, historical and modern. ... Commune can refer to various things: commune (subnational entity) of various European and African countries Commune in France. ...

In November 1929, the Central Committee decided to implement accelerated collectivisation in the form of kolkhozes and sovkhozes. This marked the end of the New Economic Policy (NEP), which had allowed peasants to sell their surpluses on the open market. Stalin had many so-called "kulaks" transported to collective farms in distant places to work in agricultural labor camps. It has been calculated that one in five of these deportees, many of them women and children, died. In all, 6 million peasants lost their lives to the conditions of the transportation or the conditions of the work camps^{[citation needed]}. In response to this, many peasants initiated an armed resistance. As a form of protest, many peasants preferred to slaughter their animals for food rather than give them over to collective farms, which produced a major reduction in livestock. Central Committee most commonly refers to the central executive unit of a communist party, whether ruling or non-ruling. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Kulaks (from the Russian кулак (kulak, fist)) is a pejorative term extensively used in Soviet political language, originally referring to relatively wealthy peasants in the Russian Empire who owned larger farms and used hired labor, as a result of the Stolypin reform introduced since 1906. ...

Collectivisation had been encouraged since the revolution, but in 1928, only about one percent of farm land was collectivized, and despite efforts to encourage and coerce collectivization, the rather optimistic First Five Year Plan only forecast 15 percent of farms to be run collectively.^[1] The First Five-Year Plan was a list of economic goals that was designed to strengthen the USSRs economy between 1928 and 1932, making the nation both militarily and industrially self-sufficient. ...

This situation changed incredibly quickly in the fall of 1929 and winter of 1930. Between September and December 1929, collectivization increased from 7.4% to 15%, but in the first two months of 1930, 11 million households joined collectivized farms, pushing the total to nearly 60% almost overnight.

Strategies of implementation

To assist collectivisation, the Party decided to send 25,000 "socially conscious" industry workers to the countryside. This was accomplished during 1929–1933, and these workers have become known as twenty-five-thousanders ("dvadtsatipyatitysyachniki"). Shock brigades were used to force reluctant peasants into joining the collective farms and remove those who were declared kulaks and "kulaks' helpers". Twenty-five-thousanders (Двадцатипятитысячники in Russian, or Dvadtsatipyatitysyachniki) was a made-up collective name for the frontline workers from big industrial cities of the USSR, who voluntarily left their homes... Udarnik (Yдapник in Russian) is a Russian term for a superproductive worker in the Soviet Union. ... The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. ...

The First Tractor by Vladimir Krikhatsky (Socialist realism)

Collectivisation sought to modernise Soviet agriculture, consolidating the land into parcels that could be farmed by modern equipment using the latest scientific methods of agriculture. It was often claimed that an American Fordson tractor (called "Фордзон" in Russian) was the best propaganda in favor of collectivisation. The Communist Party, which adopted the plan in 1929, predicted an increase of 330% in industrial production, and an increase of 50% in agricultural production. A painting by Vladimir Krikhatsky named The First Tractor (Первый трактор). It is an oil on cardboard and is 34,5 x 50 cm. ... A painting by Vladimir Krikhatsky named The First Tractor (Первый трактор). It is an oil on cardboard and is 34,5 x 50 cm. ... Categories: Stub | Paintings | Soviet culture ... Roses for Stalin, Boris Vladimirski, 1949 For other meanings of the term realism, see realism (disambiguation). ... Fordson Model F The Fordson tractor by the Ford Motor Company was the first agricultural tractor to be mass produced. ...

"Dizzy with Success"

The price of collectivisation was so high that the March 2, 1930, issue of Pravda contained Stalin's article Dizzy with success, in which he called for a temporary halt to the process: is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pravda (Russian: , The Truth) was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991. ...

"It is a fact that by February 20 of this year 50 per cent of the peasant farms throughout the U.S.S.R. had been collectivised. That means that by February 20, 1930, we had overfulfilled the five-year plan of collectivisation by more than 100 per cent... some of our comrades have become dizzy with success and for the moment have lost clearness of mind and sobriety of vision."

The failures of collectivisation are also revealed in official documents of the time (see in English and original [3])

After the publication of the article, the pressure for collectivisation temporarily decreased and peasants started leaving collective farms. According to Martin Kitchen, the number of members of collective farms dropped by 50% in 1930. But soon collectivisation was intensified again, and by 1936, about 90% of Soviet agriculture was collectivised.

Peasant reaction

Theoretically, landless peasants were to be the biggest beneficiaries from collectivisation, because it promised them an opportunity to take an equal share in labour and its rewards. However the rural areas did not have many landless peasants, given the wholesale redistribution of land following the Revolution, and so most of those without any land were widely seen as drunks, idlers and incompetent. For those with property, however, collectivisation meant giving it up to the collective farms and selling most of the food that they produced to the state at minimal prices set by the state itself, so they were opposed to the idea. Furthermore, collectivisation involved significant changes in the traditional village life of Russian peasants within a very short timeframe, despite the long Russian rural tradition of collectivism in obshchinas. The changes were even more dramatic in other places, such as in Ukraine, with its tradition of individual farming, in the Soviet republics of Central Asia, and in the trans-Volga steppes, where for a family to have a herd of livestock was not only a matter of sustenance, but of pride as well. The Russian word mir (мир), besides its direct meanings of peace and world, had some other meanings related to social organization in Imperial Russia. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... A steppe in Western Kazakhstan in early spring In physical geography, a steppe (Russian: - , Ukrainian: - , Kazakh: - ), pronounced in English as , is a plain without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes); it is similar to a prairie, although a prairie is generally considered as being dominated by tall grasses...

Many peasants opposed collectivization, and often responded with acts of sabotage, included burning of crops and slaughtering draught animals. According to Party sources, there were also some cases of destruction of property, and attacks on officials and members of the collectives. Isaac Mazepa, former prime minister (1919-1920) of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), claimed "[t]he catastrophe of 1932" was the result of "passive resistance … which aimed at the systematic frustration of the Bolsheviks' plans for the sowing and gathering of the harvest". In his words, "[w]hole tracts were left unsown, [and as much as] 50 per cent [of the crop] was left in the fields, and was either not collected at all or was ruined in the threshing". A draught animal is a (semi-)domesticated animal used for transport and haulage (the heavy labour of pulling carts, hauling timber and ploughing fields are examples). ... Ukrainian Peoples Republic (Ukrainian: ), also sometimes translated as Ukrainian National Republic, abbreviated UNR (УНР), was a republic in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura. ...

Results

Due to high government quotas peasants got, as a rule, less for their labor than they did before collectivisation, and some refused to work. Indeed Merle Fainsod estimated that, in 1952, collective farm earnings were only one fourth of the cash income from private plots on Soviet collective farms.^[6] In many cases, the immediate effect of collectivisation was to reduce grain output and almost halve livestock. The subsequent recovery of the agricultural production was also impeded by the losses suffered by the Soviet Union during the World War II and the severe drought of 1946. However the largest loss of live stock was caused by collectivization for all animals except pigs.^[7] The numbers of cows in the USSR fell from 33.2 million in 1928, to 27.8 million in 1941 and to 24.6 million in 1950. The number of pigs fell from 27.7 million in 1928, to 27.5 million in 1941 and then to 22.2 million in 1950. The number of sheep fell from 114.6 million in 1928, to 91.6 million in 1941, and to 93.6 million in 1950. The number of horses fell from 36.1 million in 1928 to 21.0 million in 1941 and to 12.7 million in 1950. By the late 1950s Soviet farm animals approached their 1928 levels.^[8] Look up quota in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Droughts and famines in Imperial Russia and USSR are known to have happened every 10-13 years, with average droughts happening every 5-7 years. ...

Despite the initial plans, collectivisation, accompanied by the bad harvest of 1932–1933, did not rise to expectations. The CPSU blamed these problems in food production on kulaks (Russian: fist; prosperous peasants), who were organising resistance to collectivisation. Allegedly, many kulaks had been hoarding grain in order to speculate on higher prices. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за = &#1050... The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. ...

The Soviet government responded to these acts by cutting off food rations to peasants and areas where there was opposition to collectivization, especially in the Ukrainian region. Hundreds of thousands of those who opposed collectivization were executed or sent to forced-labour camps. Many peasant families were forcibly resettled in Siberia and Kazakhstan into exile settlements and a significant number died on the way. Gulag ( , Russian: ) was the government body responsible for administering prison camps across the former Soviet Union. ... This article is about Siberia as a whole. ... Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union took several forms. ...

On August 7, 1932, the Decree about the Protection of Socialist Property proclaimed that the punishment for theft of kolkhoz or cooperative property was death sentence, which "under extenuating circumstances" could be replaced by at least ten years of incarceration. With what some called the Law of Spikelets ("Закон о колосках"): peasants (including children) who hand-collected grains in the collective fields after the harvest were arrested for damaging the state grain production. Martin Amis writes in Koba the Dread that the number of sentences for this particular offence in the bad harvest period from August 1932 to December 1933 was 125,000. is the 219th day of the year (220th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Law of Spikelets (закон о колосках) was a common name of the law based on the decree of Central Executive Committee and Sovnarkom of the USSR About protection of the property of state enterprises, kolkhozes and cooperatives, and strengthening... Photo of Martin Amis by Robert Birnbaum Martin Amis (born August 25, 1949) is an English novelist. ...

Between 1929 and 1932 there were massive drops in agricultural production and famine in the countryside. Stalin blamed the well-to-do peasants, referred to as 'kulaks', who he said had sabotaged grain collection and resolved to eliminate them as a class. Estimates suggest that about a million so-called 'kulak' families, or perhaps some five million people, were sent to forced labor camps.^[9][10] Estimates of the dead from starvation or disease directly caused by collectivization have been estimated as between four and ten million. According to official Soviet figures some 24 million peasants disappeared from rural areas with only an extra 12.6 million moving to State jobs^{[citation needed]}. The implication is that the total death toll (both direct and indirect) for Stalin's collectivization program was on the order of twelve million people.^[11]

Siberia

Main article: History of Siberia

Long before the twentieth century, Siberia had been a major agricultural supplier for Russia, in particular its southern territories (nowadays Altai Krai, Omsk Oblast, Novosibirsk Oblast, Kemerovo Oblast, Khakassia, Irkutsk Oblast). Stolypin's program of resettlement granted a lot of land for immigrants from elsewhere in the empire, creating a large portion of well-off peasants and boosting the rapid agricultural development in 1910s. Local merchants, for example, were able to export labelled grain, flour and butter into the central Russia and Western Europe^[12] The history of Siberia may be traced to the sophisticated nomadic civilizations of the Scythians (Pazyryk) and the Xiongnu, both flourishing before the Christian era. ... This article is about Siberia as a whole. ... Altai Krai (Russian: ) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai) in the Siberian Federal District. ... Omsk Oblast (Russian: ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southwestern Siberia. ... Novosibirsk Oblast (Russian: ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). ... Kemerovo Oblast (Russian: , Kemerovskaya oblast), often called Kuzbass () after the Kuznetsk Basin, is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), is located in southwestern Siberia, where the West-Siberian Plain meets the South Siberian mountains. ... Khakassia or Khakasiya (Russian: or ) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic) located in south central Siberia. ... Irkutsk Oblast (Russian: ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in south-eastern Siberia in the basins of Angara, Lena, and Nizhnyaya Tunguska rivers, and occupies an area of 767,900 km² (4. ... Stolypin agrarian reforms are the agrarian reforms to Imperial Russias agricultural sector instituted during the tenure of Pyotr Stolypin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister). ...

After the October Revolution, a special resolution of the Western-Siberian regional executive committee ordered the expropriation of property and the deportation of kulaks to sparsely-populated areas in northern Siberia, such as the Evenk and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugs, and the northern parts of the Tomsk Oblast.^[13] For other uses, see October Revolution (disambiguation). ... Evenk Autonomous Okrug (Russian: ), or Evenkia, is a federal subject of Russia (an autonomous okrug of Krasnoyarsk Krai). ... Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug—Yugra (Russian: ), or Khantia-Mansia, is a federal subject of Russia (an autonomous okrug of Tyumen Oblast). ... Oblast administation office in Tomsk Tomsk Oblast (Russian: , Tomskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). ...

Central Asia and Kazakhstan

A photograph of a man sowing in Uzbekistan.

In areas where the major agricultural activity was nomadic herding, collectivisation met with massive resistance and major losses and confiscation of livestock. Livestock in Kazakhstan fell from 7 million cattle to 1.6 million and from 22 million sheep to 1.7 million. Restrictions on migration proved ineffective and half a million migrated to other regions of Central Asia and 1.5 million to China. Of those who remained as many as a million died in the resulting famine. In Mongolia, a Soviet dependency, attempted collectivisation was abandoned in 1932 after the loss of 8 million head of livestock. Image File history File links Uzb_coll. ... Image File history File links Uzb_coll. ... Sowing is the process of planting seeds. ...

Ukraine

See also: Holodomor

Most historians agree that the disruption caused by collectivisation and the resistance of the peasants significantly contributed to the Great Famine of 1932–1933, especially in Ukraine, a region famous for its rich soil (chernozem). This particular period is called the Holodomor in Ukrainian. During the similar famine of 1921–1923, numerous campaigns, inside the country, as well as internationally were held to raise money and food in support of the population of the affected regions. Nothing similar was done during the drought of 1932–1933, mainly because the information about the disaster was suppressed by the Soviet Union's government.^[14] Moreover, migration of population from the affected areas was restricted.^[15] Child victim of the Holodomor The Ukrainian famine (1932-1933), or Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомор), was one of the largest national catastrophes of the Ukrainian nation in modern history with direct loss of human life in the range of millions (estimates vary). ... Central Black Earth Region or Central Chernozem Region (Центрально-черноземная область, центральная че&#1088... Child victim of the Holodomor The Ukrainian famine (1932-1933), or Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомор), was one of the largest national catastrophes of the Ukrainian nation in modern history with direct loss of human life in the range of millions (estimates vary). ...

About 40 million people were affected by the food shortages including areas near Moscow where mortality rates increased by 50%. The center of the famine, however, was Ukraine and surrounding regions, including the Don, the Kuban, the Northern Caucasus and Kazakhstan where the toll was one million dead. The countryside was affected more than cities, but 120,000 died in Kharkiv, 40,000 in Krasnodar and 20,000 in Stavropol.^[16] This article is about the river in Western Russia. ... Kuban (Ukrainian - Кубань) is an ethnical ukrainian territory. ... Southern Federal District (Northern Caucasus) is one of the seven federal districts of Russia. ... Map of Ukraine with Kharkiv highlighted. ... 19th century photo depicting Kuban Cossacks obelisk in Krasnodar Krasnodar (Russian: ) is a city in Southern Russia on the Kuban River. ... Stavropol (Russian: ) is a city located in south-western Russia. ...

The declassified Soviet archives show that there were 1.54 million officially registered deaths in Ukraine from famine.^[17] Alec Nove claims that registration of deaths largely ceased in many areas during the famine.^[18] However, it's been pointed out that the registered deaths in the archives were substantially revised by the demographics officials. The older version of the data showed 600 thousand fewer deaths in Ukraine than the current, revised statistics.^[19] In The Black Book of Communism, authors claim the number of dead was at least 4 million, and characterize the Great Famine as "a genocide of the Ukrainian people".^[20] Alexander Nove FRSE, FBA (24 November 1915, Saint Petersburg - 15 May 1994, Glasgow) was Professor of Economics at the University of Glasgow and noted authority on Russian/Soviet economic history. ... The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a book authored by several European academics and senior researchers from CNRS, and edited by Dr. Stéphane Courtois. ...

Blame for the underfulfilment of plans of grain acquisition was put on "kulaks" and "bourgeois nationalist elements", which was followed by purges of Ukrainian management, communist party cadre, and intelligentsia. The notion of an intellectual elite as a distinguished social stratum can be traced far back in history. ...

The Soviet press did not report the famine and its lead was generally followed. But British journalists Malcolm Muggeridge #1 and Gareth Jones #2 separately traveled to North Caucasus and Ukraine where they witnessed terror and mass starvations first hand. Muggeridge wrote in his diary: "Whatever else I may do or think in the future, I must never pretend that I haven't seen this. Ideas will come and go, but this is more than an idea. It is peasants kneeling down in the snow and asking for bread." Their reports were heavily criticised by Soviet government and western journalists sitting in Moscow who wrote their articles based on Soviet propaganda (notably, the New York Times' Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty). The Italian government received accurate information regarding the famine via diplomatic reports from Kharkiv, Odessa and Novorossiisk, but did not publicize the information. Walter Duranty Walter Duranty (1884–1957) was a Liverpool-born British journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for a set of stories he wrote in 1931 as The New York Times Moscow correspondent, covering Joseph Stalins Five-Year Plan to industrialize the Soviet Union. ...

Such estimates include those who died in the resulting famine, 6 million according to Nicolas Werth, Robert Conquest, and the 1988 United States Congress Commission on the Ukraine Famine. In 1983 Sergei Maksudov, a Russian demographer, having compared results of censuses and taken migration into account, estimated that there were no less than 4.5 million unnatural deaths in Ukraine between 1927 and 1938 (due to collectivization, dekulakization and purges). ^[21] Dr. George Robert Ackworth Conquest (born July 15, 1917), British historian, became one of the best-known writers on the Soviet Union with the publication, in 1968, of his account of Stalins purges of the 1930s, The Great Terror. ...

Robert Conquest, however, has been criticized for an over-reliance on one book (Black Deeds of the Kremlin by S. O. Pidhainy) as a source for descriptions of the death toll in Ukraine without questioning the validity of the source, first published by Ukrainian emigrants to Canada and the United States. ^[22][23]. Subsequent estimations by Werth and the congressional committee have relied heavily on Conquest's work. The suggestion that the famine was consciously created as a genocide against the Ukrainian people, as well as the estimated number of deaths are disputed by those who claim much of the evidence is politically-motivated anti-Soviet propaganda.^[23]. Some left-wing writers such as Jeff Coplon and Ludo Martens have recently claimed a much more modest figure of between several hundred thousand and two million deaths. American Historian John Arch Getty suggested in the London Review of Books that responsibility for the famine "must be shared by the tens of thousands of activists and officials who carried out the policy and by the peasants who chose to slaughter animals, burn fields, and boycott cultivation in protest [against collectivization]." ^[23] Claims that the famine was deliberately engineered by Stalin have been rejected by notable sovietologist such as Alexander Dallin of Stanford, Moshe Lewin of the University of Pennsylvania, Lynne Viola of SUNY at Binghamton.^[23] The subject of this article may not satisfy the notability guideline or one of the following guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines. ... Ludo Martens (born 12 March 1946) is a Belgian historian noted for his work on francophone Africa and the Soviet Union. ... John Arch Getty is an American historian and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. ... The London Review of Books (or LRB) is a twice-monthly British literary magazine. ... The late Professor Alexander Dallin served as Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, in the Center for Russian and East European Studies (CREES) at Stanford University. ... Stanford may refer: Stanford University Places: Stanford, Kentucky Stanford, California, home of Stanford University Stanford Shopping Center Stanford, New York, town in Dutchess County. ... Moshe Lewin BA, Ph. ... This article is about the private Ivy League university in Philadelphia. ... Overlooking center of campus. ...

This uncertainty as to the death toll of collectivization is reflected in the words of Nikita Khrushchev: "Perhaps we'll never know how many people perished directly as a result of collectivisation, or indirectly as a result of Stalin's eagerness to blame his failure on others". ^[24] Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Russian: , Nikita Sergeevič Chruščiov; IPA: , in English, , or , occasionally ); surname more accurately romanized as Khrushchyov[1]; April 17 [O.S. April 5] 1894[2]–September 11, 1971) was the chief director of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. ...

Latvia

After the Soviet Occupation of Latvia in June 1940, the country's new rulers were faced with a problem: the agricultural reforms of the interwar period had created more individual farm owners than ever before. Landed properties of "Enemies of the people" and refugees, who had left their homes, as well as those above 30 hectares was nationalised in 1940-'44, but those who were still landless were then given parcels of 15 hectares. Thus, Latvian agriculture remained individualistic in character after 1945, making central planning difficult. In 1940-'41 the Communist Party repeatedly said that collectivisation would not occur forcibly, but rather voluntarily and by example. To encourage collectivisation high taxes were enfourced and new farms weren't given any support what so ever. But after 1945 the Party dropped its restraint as the voluntary approach was not yielding results. Latvians were accustomed to their separate and individual farmsteads (viensētas), which had even continued during the centuries of serfdom, and for many farmers, the plots awarded to them by the interwar reforms were the first their families had ever owned. Furthermore, the countryside was filled with rumours regarding the harshness of collective farm life. This article is about the occupation of Latvia by the USSR in 1940, its subsequent occupation by Nazi Germany 1941-1944, and its reoccupation by the USSR in 1944 through to the end of World War II. Latvia views that the occupation continued until its renewed independence and that the... The term enemy of the people (Russian language: враг народа, vrag naroda) was a fluid designation under the Bolsheviks rule in regards to their real or suspected political or class opponents, sometimes including former allies. ...

Since pressure from Moscow to collectivise continued, the authorities of the Latvian SSR sought to reduce the number of individual farmers (increasingly labelled kulaki or budži) through higher taxes and requisitioning of agricultural products for state use. The first kolkhoz was established only in November of 1946 and by 1948, just 617 kolkhozy, integrating 13,814 individual farmsteads (12.6% of the total), had been established. The process was still judged too slow, and in March 1949 slightly less than 13,000 kulak families as well as a large number of individuals were targeted: between March 24 and March 30, 1949, about 40,000 people were deported and resettled at various points throughout the USSR. For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... State motto: Visu zemju proletārieÅ¡i, savienojieties! Official language Latvian, Russian (de facto). ... The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. ... A kolkhoz (Russian: IPA: ), plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms (sovkhoz). ...

After these deportations, the pace of collectivisation sped up as a flood of farmers rushed into kolkhozy. Within two weeks 1740 new kolkhozs were established and by the end of 1950, just 4.5% of Latvian farmsteads remained outside the collectivised units; about 226,900 farmsteads belonged to collectives, of which there were now around 14,700. Rural life changed: farmers' daily movements were now dictated by plans, decisions and quotas formulated elsewhere and delivered through an intermediate non-farming hierarchy. The new kolkhozy, especially smaller ones, were ill equipped and poor - at first farmers were paid once a year in kind, later in money, but seleries were very small and sometimes farmers weren't paid at all or even owed money to kholhoz. Farmers still had small pieces of land (not larger than 0.5 ha) around their houses were they grew food for themselves. Along with collectivisation the government tried to uproot custom of living in individual farmsteads by moving people to villages. However this process failed due to lack of money since the Soviets planed to move houses as well.^[25][26] In finance, when a bond pays in kind, it means that the amount of principal owed to the bondholder is increased in lieu of paying current interest. ...

Decollectivization

During the Great Patriotic War, Alfred Rosenberg, in his capacity as the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, issued a series of posters announcing the end of the Soviet collective farms. He also issued an Agrarian Law in February 1942, annulling all Soviet legislation on farming, restoring family farms for those willing to collaborate with the occupiers. But decollectivisation conflicted with the wider demands of wartime food production, and Hermann Goering demanded that the kolkhoz be retained, save for a change of name. Hitler himself denounced the redistribution of land as 'stupid.' The Eastern Front1 was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ...   (January 12, 1893 Reval (nowadays Tallinn) – October 16, 1946) was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi party, who later held several important posts in the Nazi government. ... Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also spelled Hermann Goering in English) (January 12, 1893–October 15, 1946) was a prominent and early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main architects of Nazi Germany. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ...

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} A History of the Soviet Union from Beginning to End. Kenez, Peter. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
2. ^ page 87, Harvest of Sorrow ISBN 0-19-504054-6, Conquest cites Lewin pages 36-37 and 176
3. ^ How Russia is Ruled by Merle Fainsod, p. 526
4. ^ How Russia is Ruled by Merle Fainsod, p. 529
5. ^ James W. Henzen, "Inventing a Soviet Countryside: State Power and the Transformation of Rural Russia, 1917-1929", University of Pittsburgh Press (2004) ISBN 0-8229-4215-1, Chapter 1, "A Ralse Start: The Birth and Early Activities of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, 1917-1920"
6. ^ How Russia is Ruled by Merle Fainsod, p. 542
7. ^ How Russia is Ruled by Merle Fainsod, p. 541
8. ^ How Russia is Ruled by Merle Fainsod, p. 541
9. ^ How Russia is Ruled by Merle Fainsod, p. 526
10. ^ The Economics of Soviet Agriculture by Leonard E. Hubbard, p. 117
11. ^ The Economics of Soviet Agriculture by Leonard E. Hubbard, pp. 117-18
12. ^ [1]
13. ^ [2]
14. ^ page 159, >Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panne, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, Stéphane Courtois, The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, Harvard University Press, 1999, hardcover, 858 pages, ISBN 0-674-07608-7
15. ^ page 164, The Black Book of Communism, ISBN 0-674-07608-7
16. ^ page 167, The Black Book of Communism, ISBN 0-674-07608-7
17. ^ Stephen Wheatcroft and RW Davies, The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933, Palgrave MacMillan, 2004
18. ^ page 266, Alec Nove, Victims of Stalinism: How Many?, in Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (edited by J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning), Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-521-44670-8.
19. ^ Davies and Wheatcroft
20. ^ page 168, The Black Book of Communism, ISBN 0-674-07608-7, , S. Merl, "Golod 1932-1933--Genotsid Ukraintsev dlya osushchestvleniya politiki russifikatsii?" (The famine of 1932-1933: Genocide of the Ukrainians for the realization of the policy of Russification?, Otechestvennaya istoriya, no. 1 (1995), 49-61
21. ^ B. Krawchenko, "Social Change and National Consciousness in Twentieth-Century Ukraine", St. Martin's Press, New York 1985, p. 114
22. ^ Starving the Hands that Feed Them, Craig R. Whitney, New York Times, October 26, 1986.
23. ^ ^{a b c d} "In Search of a Soviet Holocaust: A 55-Year-Old Famine Feeds the Right", Jeff Coplon, Village Voice, January 12, 1988.
24. ^ N. S. Khrushchev, "Khrushchev Remembers", Little, Brown, Boston & Toronto 1970
25. ^ Plakans, Andrejs. The Latvians: A Short History, 155-6. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1995.
26. ^ Freibergs J. (1998, 2001) Jaunako laiku vesture 20. gadsimts Zvaigzne ABC ISBN 9984-17-049-7

The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press. ... Andrzej Paczkowski (1938-) is a Polish historian. ... Stéphane Courtois is a French historian, currently employed as research director (i. ... The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a book authored by several European academics and senior researchers from CNRS, and edited by Dr. Stéphane Courtois. ... The Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. ... The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a book authored by several European academics and senior researchers from CNRS, and edited by Dr. Stéphane Courtois. ... The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a book authored by several European academics and senior researchers from CNRS, and edited by Dr. Stéphane Courtois. ... The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a book authored by several European academics and senior researchers from CNRS, and edited by Dr. Stéphane Courtois. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... The Village Voice is a New York City-based weekly newspaper featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City. ...

References and further reading

• Ammende, Ewald, "Human life in Russia", (Cleveland: J.T. Zubal, 1984), Reprint, Originally published: London, England: Allen & Unwin, 1936, ISBN 0-939738-54-6
• Robert Conquest The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine, Oxford University Press, October 1986, hardcover, ISBN 0-88864-110-9; trade paperback, Oxford University Press, November, 1987, ISBN 0-19-505180-7; hardcover, ISBN 0-19-504054-6
• R. W. Davies, The Socialist Offensive (Volume 1 of The Industrialization of Soviet Russia), Harvard University Press (1980), hardcover, ISBN 0-674-81480-0
• R. W. Davies, The Soviet Collective Farm, 1929-1930 (Volume 2 of the Industrialization of Soviet Russia), Harvard University Press (1980), hardcover, ISBN 0-674-82600-0
• R. W. Davies, Soviet Economy in Turmoil, 1929-1930 (volume 3 of The Industrialization of Soviet Russia), Harvard University Press (1989), ISBN 0-674-82655-8
• R. W. Davies and Stephen G. Wheatcroft, Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933, (volume 4 of The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia), Palgrave Macmillan (April, 2004), hardcover, ISBN 0-333-31107-8
• R. W. Davies and S. G. Wheatcroft, Materials for a Balance of the Soviet National Economy, 1928-1930, Cambridge University Press (1985), hardcover, 467 pages, ISBN 0-521-26125-2
• Miron Dolot, Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust, W. W. Norton (1987), trade paperback, 231 pages, ISBN 0-393-30416-7; hardcover (1985), ISBN 0-393-01886-5
• Maurice Hindus, Red Bread: Collectivization in a Russian Village, Indiana University Press, 1988, hardcover, ISBN 0-253-34953-2; trade paperback, Indiana University Press, 1988, 372 pages, ISBN 0-253-20485-2; earlier editions dating from 1931 are available at used book sellers.
• Moshe Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power: A Study of Collectivisation, W.W. Norton (1975), trade paperback, ISBN 0-393-00752-9
• Library of Congress Revelations from the Russian Archives: Collectivization and Industrialization (primary documents from the period)
• Ludo Martens, Un autre regard sur Staline, Éditions EPO, 1994, 347 pages, ISBN 2-87262-081-8. See the section "External links" for an English translation.
• Nancy Nimitz. "Farm Development 1928–62", in Soviet and East European Agricultures, Jerry F. Karcz, ed. Berkeley, California (US): University of California, 1967.
• David Satter, Age of Delirium : The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union, Yale University Press (1996), hardcover, 424 pages, ISBN 0-394-52934-0
• The Russians Hedrick Smith (1976) ISBN 0-8129-0521-0
• Douglas Tottle. Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian genocide myth from Hitler to Harvard. Toronto: Progress Books, 1987. ISBN 0-919396-51-8.
• The Second Socialist Revolution, Tatyana Zaslavskaya, ISBN 0-253-20614-6 (a survey by a Soviet sociologist written in the late 1980s which advocated restructuring of the economy)
• Sally J. Taylor, Stalin's Apologist: Walter Duranty : The New York Times Man in Moscow, Oxford University Press (1990), hardcover, ISBN 0-19-505700-7

Dr. George Robert Ackworth Conquest (born July 15, 1917), British historian, became one of the best-known writers on the Soviet Union with the publication, in 1968, of his account of Stalins purges of the 1930s, The Great Terror. ... Moshe Lewin BA, Ph. ... Ludo Martens (born 12 March 1946) is a Belgian historian noted for his work on francophone Africa and the Soviet Union. ... The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. ... Douglas Tottle is a Canadian Journalist and the author of the controversial book Fraud, Famine, and Fascism the Myth of the Ukrainian Genocide from Hitler to Harvard Books Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard by Douglas Tottle See Also Holodomor Historical Revisionism (political) ... Tatyana Zaslavskaya (Татьяна Ивановна Заславская) (b. ...

See also

• History of the Soviet Union (1927-1953)
• Collectivisation in Hungary
• OZET

// At the fourteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in December 1927, Stalin attacked the left by expelling Trotsky and his supporters from the party and then moving against the right by abandoning Lenins New Economic Policy which had been championed by Nikolai Bukharin and Alexei... In the Hungarian Peoples Republic, agricultural collectivisation was attempted a number of times in the late 1940s, until it was finally successful in the early 1960s. ... OZET (Russian: ) was public Society for Settling Toiling Jews on the Land in the Soviet Union in the period from 1925 to 1938. ...

External links

• "The Collectivization 'Genocide'", in Another View of Stalin, by Ludo Martens. Translated from the French book Un autre regard sur Staline, listed above under "References and further reading".
• "Reply to Collective Farm Comrades" by Stalin
• Ukrainian Famine: Excerpts from the Original Electronic Text at the web site of Revelations from the Russian Archives
• "Soviet Agriculture: A critique of the myths constructed by Western critics", by Joseph E. Medley, Department of Economics, University of Southern Maine (US).
• "The Ninth Circle", by Olexa Woropay
• Prize-winning essay on FamineGenocide.com
• 1932-34 Great Famine: documented view by Dr. Dana Dalrymple
• COLLECTIVIZATION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION Revelations from the Russian Archives at the Library of Congress

Construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building, from July 8, 1888 to May 15, 1894. ...

Further reading

• Roy D. Laird, "Collective Farming in Russia: A Political Study of the Soviet Kolkhozy", University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (1958), 176pp.
• Robert G. Wesson, "Soviet Communes", Rutgers University Press, 1963