A kolkhoz (Russian: колхо́з (help· info) IPA: [kʌlˈxos]), plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms (sovkhoz). The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective economy". The latter term is usually translated "collective farm." Image File history File links Ru-kolkhoz. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Collective farming regards a system of agricultural organization whereas farm laborers are not compensated via wages. ... 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...

In a kolkhoz, a member, called kolkhoznik (колхо́зник, feminine колхо́зница), was paid a share of the farm’s product and profit according to the number of workdays, while a sovkhoz employed salaried workers. Also members of kolkhozy were allowed to hold one acre of private land and a couple of animals. The kolkhozy were widely hated as a Soviet institution (Inkeles & Bauer - The Soviet Citizen) but, unlike work on a sovkhoz, on a kolkhoz peasants were at least able to cultivate private plots once they had filled their daily obilgations, and these private plots were often the source of the majority of their income.

See collectivisation in the USSR and agriculture of the Soviet Union for general discussion of Soviet agriculture. In the Soviet Union, collectivisation was a policy introduced in the late 1920s, of consolidation of individual land and labour into co-operatives called collective farms (Russian: , kolkhoz) and state farms (Russian: , sovkhoz). ... Agriculture in the Soviet Union was organized into a system of state and collective farms, known as sovkhozes and kolkhozes, respectively. ...