Economy and Society 1929-41

• Forced collectivisation:

  • After December 1929 - campaign of intimidation
  • Expansion of Urals-Siberian method
  • Poorest peasants used to identify Kulaks
  • Party activists - November 1929, 25,000 party activists sent to countryside to help dekulakisation - searched for hidden grain and kulaks
  • Propaganda and fear
• Process of collectivisation:

  • 1929 - 15% of all peasant households were identified as Kulaks - shot or exiled to Siberia - 150,000 families exiled
  • March 1930 - Stalin announced 50% of peasant farms had been collectivised, criticised local party officials for overzealousness and allowed for a brief return to voluntary membership of collectivised farms
  • October 1930 - return to voluntary collectivisation meant that only 20% of households were still collectivised
  • 1931 - once the spring crop had been sowed, collectivisation was enforced again
  • 1941 - all farms collectivised
• Impact of collectivisation:

  • Widespread and violent opposition - armed forces responded brutally - burning villages
  • As many as 10 million people were deported as kulaks
  • State targets were set high - farms received nothing if quotas were not met
  • Famine in Ukraine in 1932-33 - estimated 6-8 million people died
• Success of Collectivisation:

  • Failed to increase agricultural productivity - in 1933 the harvest was 9 million tonnes less than in 1929 - livestock numbers fell by 25-30% during collectivisation and did not recover until 1953
  • Dekulakisation and collectivisation put farming under state control
  • Capitalism was eradicated in the countryside
  • Money from grain exports funded industrialisation - poor conditions on collective farms fuelled migration to cities - urban population increased from 22 million to 63 million between 1922 and 1940
  • Living standards fell