Stalin - Collectivization (Economic Policy)

Collectivisation

Historical context

1. When Stalin came to power in 1929, Russia was still operating as a “backwards” nation.
1. Over 80% of its population worked in agriculture.
2. Under the concept of “Socialism in one country”, Stalin was determined to secure the safety of Soviet Russia from more advanced nations in order to facilitate the development of socialism within it.
3. This meant that the USSR needed to match the power of more advanced nations. Stalin shifted his nation’s economic policies to reflect.

Means and Methods

1. Collectivized farms utilized 50 to 100 holdings in one unit.
1. Since effective use of resources was the goal, larger units made the use of agricultural machinery more efficient.
2. Stalin said in 1931 that “we are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries.”
1. Stalin stressed the necessity of collectivizing the country in generating the funds to secure the safety of the USSR. By referencing how the advanced nations took advantage of a “backwards” Russia in the past was effective in gaining support for collectivisation.
3. Stain also said in 1931 that “the tempo must not be reduced!”
1. He stressed the necessity for the use of force as the only means of success for collectivisation. Other members of the Bolshevik agreed with this because of the mutual contempt felt towards the peasantry.
4. Stalin identified a class of “kulaks”, peasants who got rich from the NEP and used their wealth to operate as ‘petty capitalists’ among the peasantry.
1. Descriptions of the kulaks were likened to the landlord oppression experienced during tsarist rule. This was effective in providing the grounds of coercion for collectivisation amongst the peasantry.
5. Stalin assigned “grain hoarding” as a characteristic of the kulak class, who also
1. By doing so, he provided moral grounds for the persecution of the kulaks. 
6. In December 1929, Stalin declared the “liquidating of the kulaks as a class” as a main goal of the Party.
1. By this point Stalin had effectively antagonized the kulaks. He skilfully secured the support of his fellow Party members for “de-kulakization”.
7. In the winter of 1929-30, 1.5 million kulaks were dispossessed of their property.
1. “De-kulakization” served as a warning for the rest of the peasantry and demonstrated the consequences of resisting State efforts for collectivisation.

Successes

8. Russia exported 5 million tons of grain a year between 1931-2.
1. With the increased grain procurements resulting from collectivisation, more could be exported abroad. The money made was subsequently used to purchase the machinery of industry (eg. Factories).
9. In 1928, the state procured 15% of the harvest. In 1933, this increased to over 40%.
1. Through collectivisation, the government was able to significantly increase their control over the grain supply.
2. Increased procurement of grain also allowed the state to feed an expanded industrial workforce. Accommodation of this workforce was necessary for the Five Year Plan.
10. Collectivization resulted in a massive increase in urban population, which grew by 12 million in the first five years of the program.
1. This provided the necessary workforce for Russia’s developing industries under the Five Year Plan.
11. By 1935, over 90% of farmland was collectivized.
1. The Party now had much greater control over the peasants and the countryside.

Failures

12. In 1913 Russia’s population produced 0.57 tons of grain per head. This increased to 0.57 tons of grain per head in 1937.
1. Collectivisation did not increase efficiency because peasants lacked the initiative to work hard on land that belonged to the collectives.
13. By the 1960s the USSR had to purchase large amounts of grain from Canada and the USA.
1. The lack of success in collectivisation was especially apparent in the long-term. It remained inefficient after many years.
14. By the early 1930s, the peasants had slaughtered 46% of their cattle.
1. This demonstrates the desperate conditions created in the lives of the peasantry as a result of collectivisation. Peasants killed their own livestock because they had no other option.
15. An estimated 10-15 million died in the “man-made famine” created during the collectivisation years.
1. Collectivisation occurred at the expense of the people and so it was an inappropriate means of achieving Stalin’s goals for reforming agriculture. Also, the large number of farmers lost took away from the workforce of collectivization.

RR Palmer and J Colton, Stalin’s economic reforms created change that was “greater than the 1917 revolution”. A History of the Modern World.

Michael Lynch refers to Stalin’s economic policies as “the revolution from above”. Stalin and Khrushchev: USSR, 1924-1964.  àAnti-kulak squads were hired under the OPGU.