Abstract
The structural transformation that occurred in the countryside in the late 1920s and early 1930s as a consequence of the Stalinist revolution was a truly national upheaval, affecting some three-quarters of the Soviet population. It was also characterized by the most ruthless brutality. Millions of peasants perished, either as a direct result of violence or, more commonly, indirectly, as a result of exile or famine. Millions of others ended up in the Gulags, the forced labour camps, in the inhospitable climes of Siberia or Northern Russia. By the end of the 1930s, the bulk of some 25 million peasant households, the majority of which in 1928 continued to live and work in village communities, had been reorganized into state and collective farms, controlled by the Party. Since the first flickers of glasnost appeared under Gorbachev, work on reassessing these years has been underway in the Former Soviet Union.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
V.P. Popov, Krest′ianstvo i gosudarstvo (1945–1953), Paris, 1992.
’Neizvestnaia initsiativa Khrushcheva (o podgotovke ukaza 1948 g. o vyselenii krest′ian’, (prepared by V.P. Popov with commentary), Otechestvennye arkhivy, no. 2, 1993, pp. 31–7 (hereafter ‘Neizvestnaia initsiativa’); V.P. Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika (1946–1947 gg.)’, Otechestvennye arkhivy, no. 6, 1992, pp. 36–60 (includes 14 archive documents); I.M. Volkov, ‘Zasukha, golod 1946–47 gg.)’, Istoriia SSSR, no. 4, 1991, pp. 3–19; V.F. Zima, ‘Zhertvy goloda 1946–47 gg.’, Istoriia sovetskoi Rossii: novye idei, suzhdeniia. Tezisy., Tyumen’, 1991, pt. 2, pp. 43–5; V.F. Zima, ‘Golod v Rossii 1946–47 godov′, Otechestvennaia Istoriia, no. 1, 1993, pp. 35–52; B.G. Bomeshko, Zasukha i golod v Moldavii 1946–1947 gg., Kishinev, 1990; A.L. Perkovskii, S.I Pirozhkov, ‘Demograficheskie poteri narodonaseleniia Ukrainskoi SSR v 40-x godakh’, Ukrains’kyi istorychnyi zhurnal, no. 2, 1990; I.M. Makoviichuk, Iu. H. Pyliavets’, ‘Holod na Ukraini u 1946–1947 rr.’, Ukrains′kyi istorychnyi zhurnal, no. 8, 1990, pp. 14–32.
Ivan V. Karasev, The Reconstruction of Agriculture in Pskov Oblast’ 1945–1953’, Soviet Studies, vol. 43, no. 2, 1991, pp. 301–9 (hereafter The Reconstruction of Agriculture…’); David R. Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine in the 1940s, New York, 1992; David R. Marples, ‘Collective Farm Production in East and West Ukraine during the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946–1950): A Comparative Study’, Canadian Slavonic Papers, vol. 22, no. 4, December 1980, pp. 496–505; R. Taagepera, ‘Soviet Collectivization of Estonian Agriculture: The Deportation Phase’, Soviet Studies, no. 1, 1990, pp. 379–97 (hereafter ‘Soviet Collectivization…’); E. Jacobs, ‘The Collectivization of Agriculture in Right-Bank Moldavia’, PhD dissertation, London School of Economics, 1979; J. Biggart, ‘The Collectivization of Agriculture in Soviet Lithuania’, East European Quarterly, no. 9, 1975, pp. 5375; J. Labsvirs, ‘A Case Study in the Sovietization of Baltic States: Collectivization of Latvian Agriculture, 1944–1956’, PhD dissertation, Indiana University, 1959.
Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture. From Alexander II to Khrushchev, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970, p. 303.
Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, London, 1969, p. 297.
For the peasantry during the War see: Nove, An Economic History of the USSR; J. Barber & M. Harrison, The Soviet Home Front, 1941–45: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II, London, 1991; A. Nove, ‘Soviet Peasantry in World War IF, in S.J. Linz (ed.), The Impact of World War II on the Soviet Union, Totowa, New Jersey, 1985; Iu.V. Arutiunian, Sovetskoe krest′ianstvo v gody velikoi otechestvennoi voiny, Moscow, 1970; W. Moskoff, The Bread of Affliction: The Food Supply in the USSR During World War II, Cambridge, 1990.
Popov, Krest ′ianstvo i gosudarstvo.
For other evidence from the countryside in the 1930s of expectations of a coming major war and the dissolution of the kolkhoz system see S. Fitzpatrick, Stalin’s Peasants, Oxford, 1994.
Medvedev, Soviet Agriculture, New York, 1987, p. 136.
Medvedev, Soviet Agriculture, New York, 1987, p. 137;see also table 159.
Medvedev, Soviet Agriculture, New York, 1987, p. 141.
Popov, Krest ‘ianstvo i gosudarstvo.
Nove, in fact, found nothing published on the subject (see An Economic History of the USSR, p. 298).
See L. Volin, A Survey of Soviet Russian Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture, 1951, for numbers of kolkhozy and their amalgamation.
See Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, but also Fitzpatrick, Stalin’s Peasants.
Karasev, The Reconstruction of Agriculture…’; J.E. Howe, The Peasant Mode of Production, University of Tampere, Department of Folk Tradition, FUS, 1, Tampere, 1990.
Popov, Krest Ianstvo i gosudarstvo.
Ibid.
‘Neizvestnaia initsiativa’.
‘Neizvestnaia initsiati va’.
‘Neizvestnaia initsiati va’.
‘Neizvestnaia initsiati va’.
‘Neizvestnaia initsiati va’.
‘Neizvestnaia initsiati va’.
See Karasev, The Reconstruction of Agriculture.
See also in Estonia, where increased taxes were followed by deportations. Taagapera, ‘Soviet Collectivization…’.
Medvedev, Soviet Agriculture.
Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, p.299; see n. 3 above for sources on the collectivization of the Baltic states.
Taagapera, ‘Soviet Collectivization…’.
Taagapera, ‘Soviet Collectivization…’ p.393.
Labsvirs, ‘A Case Study…’ (n. 3 above), p. 475, n. 1.
Labsvirs, ‘A Case Study…’ (n. 3 above), p. 470 and Table 471.
Labsvirs, ‘A Case Study…’ (n. 3 above), p. 461.
Labsvirs, ‘A Case Study…’ (n. 3 above), p. 472.
Labsvirs, ‘A Case Study…’ (n. 3 above), p. 473.
Fitzpatrick, Stalin’s Peasants, ch. 2. See also M. Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, for similar comments concerning class categories in the 1920s.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 98.
Ibid., p. 99. For information on the land reforms in western Ukraine and western Belorussia before the Soviet invasion of 1939 see ibid., ch. 2.
Ibid., p. 99. For information on the land reforms in western Ukraine and western Belorussia before the Soviet invasion of 1939 see ibid., ch. 2.
Ibid. For the timing of collectivization in different areas see ibid., pp. 100–1
For the establishment of state and collective farms in western Ukraine from the spring of 1940 see ibid., pp. 35–41.
For the establishment of state and collective farms in western Ukraine from the spring of 1940 see ibid., pp. 101.
For the establishment of state and collective farms in western Ukraine from the spring of 1940 see ibid., pp. 35–41.
For the establishment of state and collective farms in western Ukraine from the spring of 1940 see ibid., p. 102. The phrase was coined by either Khrushchev or his Secretary for Propaganda.
For the establishment of state and collective farms in western Ukraine from the spring of 1940 see ibid., pp. 103.
For examples see J. Channon, ‘The Bolsheviks and the Peasantry: the Land Question During the First Eight Months of Soviet Rule’, Slavonic & East European Review, vol. 66, no. 4, October 1988, pp. 593–624; O. Figes, Peasant Russia, Civil War, Oxford, 1989.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, pp. 104–5.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, pp. 106, citing Taagepera.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, pp. 106–8.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, pp. 108, 109. The First Party Secretary of Ukraine was dismissed.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, pp. 109.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, pp. 104–5., p. 111, for a complete breakdown. For collectivization 1947–8 and 1950–1 see ibid., chapters 7 and 8.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, pp. 111.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, pp. 112–13., pp. 112–13, for reasons (see also Jacobs, ‘The Collectivization of Agriculture…’ (n. 3 above)).
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, see also ibid., p. 126.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, see also ibid., p. 174, n. 3 for details — refs. to ch. 2.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, see also ibid., p. 126.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, see also ibid., p. 125, n.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, see also ibid., p. 112, n. 2 for Right-Bank Moldova.
See oblasts of Stanyslaviv, Lviv, Ternopil. (Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 125).
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 126.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine. p. 126.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 126.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 126–7.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 127.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 126.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 127–8.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 128.
Marples, Stalinism in Ukraine, p. 128.
Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’, p. 36.
Medvedev, Soviet Agriculture.
See Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’. Work has also been published on the famine in Moldova.
For more details see Bomeshko, Zasukha i golod v Moldavii (n. 2 above), p. 42. There were 219,505 deaths in 1946–7 (62,187 in 1946 and 157,318 in 1947), although it is unclear how many were due to the famine, while 389,000 (roughly one-fifth of the population) were suffering from dystrophy and 116,000 were hospitalized. See also Zima, ‘Golod v Rossii 1946–47 godov’, p.42.
Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’, p. 37.
Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’, p. 37–8.
Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’, p. 38.
Zima, ‘Golod v Rossii 1946–47 godov’, p. 42.
Zima, ‘Golod v Rossii 1946–47 godov’, p. 42.
Zima, ‘Golod v Rossii 1946–47 godov’, p. 43. See Table 2 and comment.
Zima, ‘Golod v Rossii 1946–47 godov’, p. 42.
Zima, citing archives.
Zima, ‘Golod v Rossii 1946–47 godov’, p. 43.
See Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’ for details.
See Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’ for details., p .38.
See Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’ for details.
See Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’ for details., p .39.
See Popov, ‘Golod i gosudarstvennaia politika’ for details., p. 40.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1998 School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Channon, J. (1998). Stalin and the Peasantry: Reassessing the Postwar Years, 1945–53. In: Channon, J. (eds) Politics, Society and Stalinism in the USSR. Studies in Russia and East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26529-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26529-9_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-26531-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-26529-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)