The policy would also allow the government to export grain. This would act as a source of foreign capital needed to finance the import of technologies, raw materials and human resources, specifically agricultural experts, necessary for heavy industrialisation. It would also pay for the Five Year plans and the industrialisation of the Soviet Union. They would be able to obtain hard currency, such as the dollar or pound, which would hence be stable and have low inflation and they could thereby guarantee secure imports and long term investment. This was doubly important, since the west would not loan money as a result of the cancellation of debts owed by the Tsar to the west after the revolution.
Another key reason why Stalin introduced collectivisation was attributable to the previous organisation and nature of the NEP, which contradicted communism. The NEP consented to aspects of free enterprise and the privatisation of small organisations and Stalin accordingly believed that this legislation subdued the establishment of a truly communist agrarian society. Hence, with fixed wages and procurement quotas from Gosplan, he believed that he could debilitate the prosperity of affluent peasants called kulaks (who flourished as they could sell surplus grain and other minor assets) and by reinstating communism, it would increase his hold on power.
Due to collectivisation, the instigation of two different types of farms ensued; sovkhozy and kolkhozy. However, one similarity between the two was that the workers, called sovkhozniks and kolkhozniks respectively, were remunerated at a flat rate, set targets and had specified procurement quotas by Gosplan; hence, if they did not attain the targets, they would have no grain.
Sovkhozy, which literally means “Soviet household”, were state farms that were predominantly located around cities and the land was usually stemmed from the land sequestered from the church and other large estates. Furthermore, they were generally specialised and thus very few were set up, as it ascertained high expenditure due to requirements of the best machinery. Kolkhozy, which literally means, “Collective household”, were the collective farms and were formed via the amalgamation of the individual holdings of peasants, the majority of which were previously small strip farms called mir. The state supplied these collective farms with seeds, fertilisers, as well as tractors and agrarian machinery from a state enterprise called a Machine Tractor Station, however many of them did not function efficiently. By 1939, 99% of farmland had been collective and thus establishing 25,000 of them at that juncture.
Another change which Stalin implemented was the emphasis on the export of grain overseas. This enabled the Soviet Union to obtain a source of foreign capital, such as the dollar, which was hard currency at the time and would thereby be stable with low inflation. This enabled Stalin to finance the import of technical machines, raw materials and the recruitment of agricultural experts. Hence, collectivisation also allowed Russia to create allies within Europe and could serve as an aide in case of a crisis or invasion. This proved helpful for the USSR at the start of the Second World War, where the rise in industry of the country proved to be vital.
In addition to this, he delegated many local communist officials the task of ensuring that the process of collectivisation was implemented fruitfully and that any opposition by kulaks was contended with and prevented. The communist officials were to unearth any illicit activity such as the withholding or concealment of grain and any antagonism against the confiscation of their estate. The kulaks were to be subject to execution or deportation to Siberia or Central Asia, while some were even executed on the spot. By 1934, 7 million kulaks were eliminated and the aggregate deaths of kulaks between 1930 and 1937 was 11 million.
However, another aspect of the antagonism of the kulaks resulted in the devastation of many estates due to the animosity between Stalin’s agents and the kulaks. The kulaks were cognisant of the fact that their land would be sequestered by force, however they retaliated against the state by smashing edifices and slaughtering livestock. Through this and bad weather, ¼ of the entire nation’s livestock perished. Another action they took was carrying out a scorched earth policy in order to prevent the state from taking their crops. This was a major contributing factor to the famine between 1932 and 1933, where 7 million were killed and an area which was acutely affected was Ukraine, which they call Holodomor.
However in the long term, collectivisation proved to be a success to a certain extent. Grain production rose to nearly 95 million tonnes in 1939. This was an astonishing improvement and it really improved the worker’s health and quality of life. In 1928 the Soviet Union produced 73 million tonnes of grain. By 1933 it had dipped to 69 million tonnes and it was not until 1940 that production reached 95 million tonnes.
