Stalin

• Collectivisation is the process of bringing a number of small farm units together to form bigger farms. The idea was that peasants would then collaborate to produce as much food as possible to feed themselves and the growing urban proletariat
• The famine of 1927 to 1928 prompted Stalin to push for mass collectiivsation. He was more generally motivated by the wish to create 'socialism in the countryside.'
• Collectivisation was based off of the belief that shortages were due mainly to surpluses being hoarded by peasants until they could be sold in markets at the highest possible price
• Under Stalin, collectivisation went hand in hand with dekulakisation
• By March 1930, Stalin claimed that 58% of all households had been collectivised, which was a gross exaggeration
• By 1938, over 93% of peasants were in kolkhozes
• Blocks of 40 farms were organised through motor-tractor stations.
• MTS were organisations through which tractors and other heavy equipment could be loaned to peasants. An MTS would be responsible for distributing seed, collecting grain, establishing levels of payment for produce and deciding on what produce farmers could keep for their own consumption
• Due to the famine in 1932 to 1934, a special charter was issued in 1935 to improve payments to farmers in the Kolkhozy and to give owners of small plots more legal security
• By 1941, 98% of all peasant households worked on collectives