Negatives of Collectivisation.

• Removal of the Kulaks led also to a removal of some of the most skilled, motivated peasants in the farming sector. Stalin's opposing them meant that performance in the countryside was significantly reduced, which subsequently became a cause of the great famine, as the peasants who remained able to work on collective farms were very unproductive compared to the Kulaks before them.
• The Great Famine occurred from 1932-1933, and during that time period an estimated 4-5 million people died.

  Some other causes for the Great Famine, aside from dekulakisation are believed to be

  1. Long drought
  2. The chaos and sudden switch to collectivisation
  3. Farms being badly run
• When a problem of famine first began to emerge through the countryside, instead of taking measures to prevent it spreading/getting worse, Stalin and the government instead increased grain quotas, and increased the amount of army officials who were in charge of seizing this grain.

  Stalin also refused help from other countries, refusing to acknowledge this was an actual problem, he continued to sell produce to other countries meanwhile so as to not affect the country's income.
• Many people believe therefore that Stalin was engineering a problem that could have been relatively unserious in order to 'punish' the peasants for their rejection to collectivisation and scare them into cooperation.
• The situation of the Great Famine in the countryside became increasingly serious. People had to eat earth worms, tree bark, mice, ants, and even human flesh to survive.

  2500 people were convicted of cannibalism after the years of Great Famine, but many who survived in such way were not caught.
• Stalin also did not permit peasants who were dying in the countryside from leaving the region to find food elsewhere, as he did not want those in urban areas to realise the extent of the problem/ risk the issue becoming a countrywide problem.

  The hardest hit region ironically was Ukraine (It was prior known as the 'Bread Basket of Europe')
• The Great Famine took away all of Ukraine's independence, and in Ukraine today it is still remembered as 'Holodomor' which means 'extermination by hunger'
• Collectivisation had the opposite affect to what was desired, as rather than food production thriving, it instead collapsed.

  During 1928-33, grain harvests fell by 7% (And they were already pretty low)
• Although economy was thriving, animals were not. This was due to strict regimes which allowed only few peasants to have ownership of animals, and also due to Kulaks and other peasants 'mass-killing' their animals before widespread collectivisation was implemented.

  • Cattle numbers halved.
  • Took 20 years for animal numbers to recover.
• The standard of living for workers fell significantly and motivation also dropped because peasants were working just hard enough to avoid being fined, there was no incentive to work hard, because all they would get out of it was the same low wage everyone received and regardless how much grain they produced the majority of it would be seized from them anyway.
• Peasants put their energy into their tiny personal plots which they were allowed to keep after 1935. From just 4% of the land they supplied the majority of the Soviet Unions vegetables, fruit, meat and milk.