From 1929, Stalin ordered the collectivisation of agriculture across the Soviet Union. (a) What was collectivisation and how was it carried out? [4] (b) Why...

(a) What was collectivisation and how was it carried out? [4 marks]

• Collectivisation was the policy of merging millions of small individual peasant farms into large collective farms called kolkhozes, where land, livestock, tools and equipment were pooled and worked communally.
• Peasants were forced to give up their private plots and join the collective. The state set production quotas and took a large share of the harvest, with the remainder shared among the collective's members.
• The campaign was enforced by 25,000 urban party workers (the 'Twenty-Five Thousanders') sent to the countryside, backed by OGPU (secret police) units.
• Wealthier peasants, labelled kulaks, were targeted for 'dekulakisation': their property was confiscated, and they were arrested, deported to labour camps or remote regions, or executed.

(b) Why did many peasants, particularly the kulaks, resist collectivisation? [6 marks]

• Loss of land and property: Kulaks faced the confiscation of land, livestock, tools and homes that they had worked for generations to acquire. Collectivisation destroyed their economic independence.
• Attachment to private farming: Most peasants had a deep attachment to their individual plots. The tradition of peasant farming was central to rural life, and the idea of communal farming was alien and threatening.
• Excessive procurement quotas: The government's grain quotas often left peasants with barely enough food to survive. State procurement officers confiscated grain even when it meant families would go hungry.
• Slaughter of livestock: Rather than surrender their animals to the collectives, many peasants slaughtered their livestock. Between 1929 and 1933, the number of cattle fell by approximately half, and the number of horses fell similarly. This was both an act of resistance and desperation.
• Brutal enforcement: The methods used to enforce collectivisation were violent and arbitrary. Families were deported to Siberia or Central Asia with minimal notice, often in winter conditions. An estimated five million kulaks were deported.
• Distrust of the state: Peasants had deep historical distrust of urban authorities and government officials. Collectivisation confirmed their worst fears about Soviet rule.

(c) How far was collectivisation a disaster for the Soviet Union? [10 marks]

Arguments that collectivisation was a disaster:

• Livestock destruction: The mass slaughter of animals by resisting peasants caused catastrophic losses. The number of cattle fell from 70 million in 1928 to 38 million by 1933, and horses from 34 million to 16 million. Soviet livestock numbers did not recover to 1928 levels until the 1950s.
• The Ukrainian famine (Holodomor): The famine of 1932-33 killed an estimated five to seven million people in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other grain-producing regions. The state continued to seize grain for export and for feeding the cities while peasants starved.
• Mass deportation and death: An estimated five million kulaks were deported to labour camps, remote regions of Siberia and Central Asia, or were executed. Many died in transit or in the harsh conditions of exile.
• Agricultural decline: Farm output fell dramatically in the early 1930s. Grain production dropped, and it was not until the late 1930s that output returned to 1928 levels - and even then, production was feeding a population that had grown.
• Human cost: The suffering caused by collectivisation was immense. Families were torn apart, communities destroyed, and millions died from famine, deportation or execution.

Arguments that collectivisation achieved some of Stalin's objectives:

• State control over grain: Collectivisation gave the state control over agricultural production and grain supplies. This enabled the export of grain to finance rapid industrialisation under the Five-Year Plans.
• Destruction of the kulaks: The elimination of the kulaks as a class removed a potential source of political opposition to the regime. The independent peasantry, which had resisted Bolshevik policies since 1917, was broken.
• Mechanisation: The introduction of Machine Tractor Stations (MTS) eventually brought mechanised farming to the collective farms, improving efficiency in the longer term.
• Labour for industry: Collectivisation drove millions of peasants off the land and into the cities, providing the workforce needed for rapid industrialisation. The urban population grew from 26 million in 1926 to 56 million by 1939.
• Political control: The collective farm system placed rural communities under state control, allowing surveillance and ideological conformity in areas that had previously been difficult for the government to reach.

Conclusion: Collectivisation was an unmitigated disaster in human and agricultural terms. The death toll from famine, deportation and execution was enormous, and agricultural production was severely damaged. However, it did achieve Stalin's political and economic objectives of breaking peasant resistance, funding industrialisation through grain exports, and providing labour for the factories. Whether these objectives justified the catastrophic human cost is a moral question as much as a historical one.