Stalin implemented the Ural-Siberian method, “The method, sometimes called Self Taxation, involved the use of social pressure against kulaks”. This was the start of dekulakisation, this campaign was the crucial weapon in the collectivisation process. Dekulakisation was divided into three classes; category one: kulaks were forced into labour camps or killed; category two: the kulaks were exiled; category three: the least dangerous were removed to a smaller patch. Dekulakisation had at least three functions, ideologically, it was an attack on the enemy; politically, it provided terror in the countryside and peasants were afraid of the consequences; economically, it supplied the state with the suitable foundation for the kolkhoz. The forced collectivisation and deklukisation campaigns raged through the countryside, “...more than a quarter of a million volunteers and conscripts (OGPU units, Red Army personnel, party members and about 25,000 workers organised into collectivised brigades)” This emphasises the rapid ness and the amount of chaos that the campaign was in. The drive was very spontaneous and as a result the central control was almost non existent and not effective. According to Viola “Collectivisation frequently consisted of a meeting; a show of peasant hands; a signature or X on an application to join a collective; and the arrest, exile, relocation, or harassment and expropriation of local kulaks and troublemakers.” The collectivisation drive took off too rapidly and as result the center was losing control as a result of the rural uprising, the military were told to annihilate the enemy, the countryside had become a war ground. There was a lot of conflict between the peasantry and the local officials, this would result in an arrest, prison confinement or more than often death (execution). Forced collectivisation was not planned to have manifested itself in this way (in the early stages). According to Viola it was meant to “...modernise agriculture, institute a reliable method of grain collection, stimulate a cultural revolution, and build a new social order and administrative base in the countryside.” The process in the early stages had not accomplished the original target, in fact it had failed on several levels as it had not built or constructed any new order or culture, it’s destruction and brutality had only put the task in disarray, and the future in jeopardy. This claims Fitzpatrick was largely due to the regime not giving correct instructions and it was never defined as to “what kind of collective farm the regime wanted, let alone how to achieve it.”
As there was lot of uncertainty repression was severe, the peasants were sentenced to long prison terms under Article 61, and many of these would exceed the stipulated sentence. A consequence of forced collectivisation is that it had a harsh effect on human life could this be classed as a political success when the country is in turmoil?
The regime faced pockets of resistance many resisted the process by burning their crops, not sowing their fields, slaughtering their livestock rather than giving them to the kolkhoz. The peasants joined the kolkhoz through sheer terror and fear, before they enlisted they would destroy their equipment, slaughter and eat their livestock, they would join the collective farm empty handed. Lewin describes this time as total chaos and the authorities were to blame “...that wrought more havoc than an earthquake. The cost of this upheaval in terms of human lives, livestock and equipment was immense.” The collectivisation process carried on even though the effects were tremendous, but the drive had thrived as many peasant households joined the kolkhoz.
L. Viola, The Best Sons Of The Fatherland Workers In The Vanguard Of Soviet Collectivisation, (Oxford, 1987), pp.25.
P. Boobbyer, The Stalin Era, (London, 2000), pp.29
C. Ward, Stalin’s Russian, (Great Britain, 1993), pp.43
L. Viola, The Best Sons Of The Fatherland Workers In The Vanguard Of Soviet Collectivisation, (Oxford, 1987), pp91
L. Viola, The Best Sons Of The Fatherland Workers In The Vanguard Of Soviet Collectivisation, (Oxford, 1987), pp91
S. Fitzpatrick, Stalin’s Peasants Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village After Collectivisation, (Oxford, 1996), pp.49
M. Lewin, Russian Peasants And Soviet Power, (London, 1968), pp515