Stalin's Russia - Collectivisation and Purging the Kulaks

White

"Collective farms did bring some benefits such as schools, libraries and hospitals."

Christian

"For most peasants, collectivisation was a disaster"

Davies

"Stalin's policy towards the peasants was ruthless and brutal."

Davies (strengthen...)

"strengthen central power and the repressive apparatus"

by 1937

18 million people were sent to labour camps and 99% of land had been collectivised and 90% of peasants lived on one of the 250,000 kolkhoz

How was collectivisation carried out?

25,000 police and red army units confiscated grain and livestock

Aim of liquidation of the Kulaks

Aim of identifying the Kulaks as a class enemy was to frighten the middle and poor peasants

December 1929

Central Committee revised this objective to the complete collectivisation of important regions by the end of 1930

1930 and 1932-3

Famines caused 5 million people to starve

1925 to 1928

Grain harvest was relatively good however, the peasants were holding back grain as the price that the state was paying them was too low for them to live off

1928 to 1929

Grain procurement crisis where Stalin himself and other official Party members were forced to visit the main grain-producing areas to seize grain to feed the starving workers in the cities

1937

Grain production rose to nearly 100 million tonnes

How did Stalin use the Kulaks

Kulaks owned 90% of fertile land and were perceived to Stalin as a threat to collectivisation

Kulak resistance

Kulaks practised passive resistance killing many animals to avoid them being confiscated. They slaughtered their animals to such a extent that the 1928 livestock levels would not be reached again until 1953.

1927

Party Congress had set an objective of 20% of farms to be collectivised by 1933

January 1930

Stalin announced that 25% of farms across the Soviet union would be collectivised by the end of the year

January 1929

Stalin announced the "complete liquidation of the Kulaks as a class"

Topic sentence

Stalin was faced with an agriculturally backward nation when he first came to power and so he implemented collectivisation with the belief that it would boost food production and bring the Soviet Union out of the procurement crisis which was causing disharmony in the Russian population.

By mid-1930s

The Kulaks as a class had either been shot or expelled to the GULAGS in Siberia to be used as slave labour

Failures in eradicating the Kulaks

The Kulaks had been the skilled farmers who knew how best to work the land, with the eradication of the class, Stalin had lost the talented farmers.

How was the policy received?

The policy was well-received by most of the Party as it was believed that through collectives it was easier to introduce modern machinery and new methods of farming which would require fewer peasants to work the land, releasing the labour needed for the growing industries

What did Stalin become aware of?

There were food shortages across the country and Stalin recognised the need to put into place a policy which would bring the peasants back under his control. At this time Stalin was also facing the possible threat of an invasion and he was worried that without a strong economy the Soviet Union would be weak to defend themselves

Shelia Fitzpatrick

While collectivism had been successful in furthering the soviet ideology of the collective it was unpopular amongst the peasantry as the mentality of the peasantry was that of "resistance to change"

1 February 1930

a decree which gave local party organisations the power to use 'necessary' measures against the kulaks

1932

over 60% of farms had been collectivised, therefore adopting the socialist attitude with Motor Transport Stations set up all over the country so that collective could hire machinery and their grain would be collected

Molotov

said they would hit Kulaks so hard that the 'middle peasants would snap to attention'