sucess

• The seizure of grain did help to pay for industrial growth but this should not be exaggerated
• It was not until 1937 that grain production again reached the pre-collectivisation amount, an indication of the chaos collectivisation caused
• Judged purely from an economic point of view the result was disappointing
• Livestock numbers collapsed, not recovering until the 1950s
• To a party which distrusted the growth of peasant capitalism this limited success seemed economically necessary and politically justifiable
• In the long-term Soviet agriculture was crippled
• The productivity on collective farms was poor
• By 1937, after the state had relented and again allowed peasants the right to own small private plots of land, over 50% of vegetables and 70% of milk came from these plots
• These relics of free farming produced more than the collectivised sector, where peasants were subject to heavy taxation 'in kind' and had low living standards and morale
• In 1932-33 famine raged in southern Russia, while food was exported to pay for industrialisation, with recent analysis suggesting up to 8 million may have died
• By 1939 around 19 million people had left the countryside to work in towns and on construction projects
• This though had a more positive effect, providing labour for the Five-Year Plans
• Politically the state was strengthened and firmly controlled the countryside
• The process of collectivisation 'served to brutalise and perhaps atomise the rural population'
• This made people less able to resist state demands and coercion
• The secret police had agents in each local Machine Tractor Station, where technical equipment was kept for the local kolkhozi
• These became part of the control mechanism in a subdued countryside
• Malcolm Muggeridge, Winter in Moscow (1934):

  • Pye's Observation: Observed a man "gobbling and retching" in desperation and hunger.
  • Doubt: Pye questioned if others were starving as well, likening the situation to scavenging animals.
  • Hunger Everywhere: Noticed signs of hunger in people's faces, queues, and empty shops.
  • Stone Busts: Shops displaying busts of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin, instead of food.
  • Reflection: Pye considered that the Dictatorship of the Proletariat might not serve excellent meals to foreigners if locals were suffering.