Was Collectivisation A Success Or Failure
Was Collectivisation a success or failure?
Economic
AIMS: Large farms = would increase efficiency = fewer workers needed = more man power for industry = increase in production = more overseas trade = even more resources for industrialisation = further increase in production
SUCCESSES: 1928-1935 = grain doubles from 11 million tonnes to 75 million tonnes Mass migration from countryside to cities = accelerated urbanisation= relieved economic pressure + provided workforce for industrialisation. 1939: 19 million left the country side for the cities to the point where internal passports had to be issued. 1930 – 23.6% of farms collectivised to 98.0% of collective farms in the USSR.
FAIL: Grain harvest dropped dramatically in 1930s and didn’t recover until the latter half of the decade – even when recovered it was still less than the last years of Tsarist. Lack of livestock = lack of draught animals = ploughs and carts couldn’t be pulled = arable farming affected = efficiency affected. Officials sent to implement collectivisation = loyalists not agricultural experts
Social / Ideological
AIMS: Essential if capitalist peasants were to embrace socialism = industrialised society with urban public = conform to Marxist theory = replacing capitalist NEP – poor landless peasants form natural alliance.
SUCCESSES: Targets were kept impossibly high, punishments for hoarding or failing to meet targets = incentive to work harder. Peasants reportedly went as far as looking through horse manure for full seed grains to eat. Farms gave 90% to the State and kept 10% to feed the Collective and seed the following year. Even working hard would not guarantee enough food during the winter, but it would make it more
Economic
AIMS: Large farms = would increase efficiency = fewer workers needed = more man power for industry = increase in production = more overseas trade = even more resources for industrialisation = further increase in production
SUCCESSES: 1928-1935 = grain doubles from 11 million tonnes to 75 million tonnes Mass migration from countryside to cities = accelerated urbanisation= relieved economic pressure + provided workforce for industrialisation. 1939: 19 million left the country side for the cities to the point where internal passports had to be issued. 1930 – 23.6% of farms collectivised to 98.0% of collective farms in the USSR.
FAIL: Grain harvest dropped dramatically in 1930s and didn’t recover until the latter half of the decade – even when recovered it was still less than the last years of Tsarist. Lack of livestock = lack of draught animals = ploughs and carts couldn’t be pulled = arable farming affected = efficiency affected. Officials sent to implement collectivisation = loyalists not agricultural experts
Social / Ideological
AIMS: Essential if capitalist peasants were to embrace socialism = industrialised society with urban public = conform to Marxist theory = replacing capitalist NEP – poor landless peasants form natural alliance.
SUCCESSES: Targets were kept impossibly high, punishments for hoarding or failing to meet targets = incentive to work harder. Peasants reportedly went as far as looking through horse manure for full seed grains to eat. Farms gave 90% to the State and kept 10% to feed the Collective and seed the following year. Even working hard would not guarantee enough food during the winter, but it would make it more