Voluntary and Forced Collectivisation (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Voluntary and Forced Collectivisation
Background: Stalin's Great Turn of 1928
In 1928, Stalin's Great Turn marked the USSR's commitment to collective farming. The initial approach emphasized voluntary collectivisation, with the regime using posters, leaflets and films to persuade peasants of the benefits of communal working. However, this voluntary strategy achieved minimal success. The Ural-Siberian method, which involved forcibly seizing grain and closing private markets, created unrest in rural areas.
By 1929, less than 5 per cent of all farms had been collectivised, and Stalin blamed procurement problems on the richer kulaks who were allegedly hoarding grain supplies. In December 1929, Stalin announced his intention to 'annihilate the kulaks as a class', signalling a dramatic shift towards forced collectivisation.
Reasons for collectivisation
Stalin launched the collectivisation programme in 1929 for several interconnected reasons. The policy coincided with his first Five Year Plan for industry, and the regime needed guaranteed supplies of food to feed the growing urban workforce. Additionally, the state required substantial grain exports to finance industrial development through foreign currency earnings.
For Stalin personally, collectivisation represented both an economic and social crusade. It offered a means to transform rural society along socialist lines and extend Communist Party control over the countryside.
Collectivisation Stage 1, 1929-1930
Methods and tactics
The regime initiated the campaign by imposing new procurement quotas on peasant households, with severe punishments for those failing to meet delivery targets. Simultaneously, the government waged a deliberate propaganda campaign against the kulaks, attempting to divide the peasant class by creating animosity between poorer and better-off farmers. By the end of 1929, the regime had abandoned voluntary methods entirely, implementing forced collectivisation instead.
Local party members, often young urban students filled with revolutionary enthusiasm, drove peasants into collectives with support from the OGPU and Red Army when needed. Stalin declared that kulaks were 'liquidated as a class', meaning they were not permitted to join collectives.
The Red Army and OGPU identified, executed or deported kulaks, who supposedly represented 4 per cent of peasant households. However, distinguishing between different peasant types proved difficult in practice. Up to 6 per cent of peasant households faced destruction, with approximately 150,000 peasants forcibly migrated north and east to poorer land.
Results and peasant resistance
Some peasants attempted to avoid classification as kulaks by killing their livestock and destroying crops, which only worsened rural problems. In January 1930, Stalin announced that 25 per cent of grain-farming areas would be collectivised that year. The brutal treatment of kulaks intimidated poorer peasants into joining collectives, and by March 1930, 58 per cent of peasant households had been collectivised through this combination of propaganda and force, despite mounting peasant unrest.
The "Dizzy with Success" Retreat
The operation's speed concerned even Stalin, who noted in an article that local officials were becoming 'dizzy with success' and applying overly rigorous and confrontational methods. A brief return to voluntary collectivisation followed after the harvest had been collected that year.
Result: Peasants were allowed to leave collectives and received their livestock back, provided they were not kulaks. This immediately reduced collective numbers; by October 1930, only approximately 20 per cent of households remained collectivised.
Collectivisation Stage 2, 1930-1941
Stalin's climb down proved merely temporary. Once peasants had sown the spring crop in 1931, collectivisation accelerated again. The rate of collectivisation increased gradually, ultimately reaching 100 per cent of households by 1941.
| Year | Percentage of collectivised households |
|---|---|
| 1931 | 50% |
| 1934 | 70% |
| 1935 | 75% |
| 1937 | 90% |
| 1941 | 100% |
The kolkhoz
Kolkhoz refers to the typical collective farm created by combining small individual farms into a cooperative structure. Many comprised a single village, where peasants lived in the same houses as before and retained plots of land for their own use, while also farming communal fields.
The average kolkhoz contained approximately 75 families, along with their livestock including cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens.
Creating such collectives required substantial work. Communal fields needed surveying and mapping, work parties had to dig new ditches and erect new fences, and some larger kolkhozes established communal buildings. Larger collectives sometimes included schools and clinics.
Obligations and control
Each kolkhoz operated under strict state control with several requirements. Farms had to deliver set quotas of produce to the state, with quotas reaching up to 40 per cent of crops. The government set low purchase prices, and farms received no payment if they failed to meet quotas. Any profit or goods remaining after procurement were shared among collective farm members, allocated according to the number of 'labour days' each person had contributed to the farming year.
From 1932, kolkhozes could sell leftover produce in collective farm markets, the only free market permitted in the USSR.
A Communist Party member served as Chairman of each collective, ensuring communist control over rural areas. From 1932, the regime forbade peasants from leaving the kolkhoz through a system of internal passports, effectively trapping them on the land.
Key Points to Remember:
- Stalin's Great Turn of 1928 committed the USSR to collectivisation, but voluntary methods achieved less than 5% success by 1929, leading to forced collectivisation and the targeting of kulaks.
- Collectivisation Stage 1 (1929-1930) used propaganda, OGPU and Red Army force to reach 58% by March 1930, followed by a temporary retreat to 20% by October 1930 after peasant resistance and Stalin's "dizzy with success" warning.
- Collectivisation Stage 2 (1930-1941) saw gradual but steady increase from 50% in 1931 to 100% by 1941, demonstrating Stalin's determination to complete the transformation of Soviet agriculture.
- Kolkhozes were cooperative farms averaging 75 families with quotas up to 40% of crops, Communist Party control through chairmen, and internal passports preventing peasants from leaving from 1932.