Table of contents:
- Why the peasants were unhappy
- How the peasants were kept in the village
- What were the ways to leave the village and change your destiny
Video: Why Soviet peasants were kept in the villages, and why was it necessary
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
How to make free labor out of prosperous peasants? For this, instead of an individual farm, it is required to organize a collective farm, to fix workers on it for life and to impose criminal liability for failure to fulfill the plan.
During the NEP period, peasants often succeeded in both farming and marketing. Representatives of this stratum of society did not intend to sell bread at a reduced price offered by the state - they were trying to get a decent wage for their labor.
In 1927, the Soviet cities did not receive the necessary amount of food, since the state and the peasants could not agree on a price, and this led to numerous hunger strikes. Collectivization became an effective measure that made it possible to put in place the peasantry disloyal to Soviet values, and besides, to freely dispose of food, bypassing the stage of agreeing on the terms of the deal.
Why the peasants were unhappy
Collectivization was not at all voluntary; this process was accompanied by large-scale repressions. But even after his graduation, the peasants did not receive any advantages of working on collective farms.
The Yekaterinburg historian I. Motrevich names many factors in the organization of collective farm activities that contributed to the degradation of the countryside. Both poorly and well-working collective farmers received equally little. In some periods, the peasants worked without pay at all, only for the right to use their personal plot. Therefore, people were not motivated to work conscientiously. Management has addressed this issue by setting a minimum number of workdays per year.
Collective farmers who did not fulfill the plan were deprived of their personal plots and were criminally liable. According to the verdict of the court, saboteurs and idlers were punished with corrective labor on a collective farm for up to six months, 25% of the payment for workdays was withheld in favor of the state. In 1948, a decree was adopted, according to which collective farmers who maliciously evaded work and lead a parasitic lifestyle could be evicted to remote areas. More than 46 thousand people were sent to the link in the next 5 years alone. Of course, everything that was part of the individual economy of these peasants was nationalized.
Collective farm products, as well as money from its sale, were distributed as follows: first, the plan for state supplies was fulfilled and seed loans were returned, the work of the motor-tractor station was paid in kind, grain was harvested for sowing and for animal feed for a year in advance. Then a fund was formed for the elderly, the disabled, families of the Red Army soldiers, orphans, part of the products were allocated for sale on the collective farm market. And only then the rest was distributed for workdays.
According to I. Motrevich, in the period of the 30-50s, the peasants, due to payments in kind by the collective farm, could satisfy their needs only partially - by 50% for grain, and only 1-2% for meat, milk, vegetables. Self-farming was a matter of survival.
I. Motrevich writes that in the collective farms of the Urals the share of products intended for workers was 15% in the pre-war period, and during the Second World War this value dropped to 11%. It often happened that the collective farmers did not receive their due remuneration in full.
During Hitler's aggression, the collective farms actually turned into state enterprises with absolute dependence on the regional leadership. The only difference was the lack of government funding. Important decisions were made by party workers, who often lacked the necessary qualifications and foresight, but were eager to curry favor with the party leadership. And the responsibility for the failure to fulfill the plan was borne by the peasants.
The guaranteed minimum wage for a collective farmer began to be introduced only in 1959, 30 years after the beginning of collectivization.
How the peasants were kept in the village
One of the consequences of collectivization was the flight of peasants from villages to cities, especially large ones, where workers were required at industrial enterprises. But in 1932, it was decided to stop the outflow of people from the village. There were enough employees in factories and factories, and food supplies were perceptibly lacking. Then they began to issue identity documents, but not to everyone, but only to residents of large cities - primarily Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov.
The lack of a passport was an unconditional reason for the eviction of a person from the city. Such cleansing regulated the migration of the population, and also allowed to maintain a low level of crime, but most importantly, they reduced the number of eaters.
The list of settlements subject to certification was expanding. By 1937, it included not only cities, but also workers' settlements, motor-tractor stations, regional centers, all villages within 100 kilometers from Moscow and Leningrad. But rural residents of other territories did not receive their passports until 1974. The exceptions were the peasants of the Asian and Caucasian republics, as well as the recently annexed Baltic states.
For the peasants, this meant that it was impossible to leave the collective farm and change their place of residence. Attempts to violate the passport regime were suppressed by imprisonment. Then the peasant returned to his duties, which were assigned to him for life.
What were the ways to leave the village and change your destiny
It was possible to change work on the collective farm only for even more difficult work - this is construction in the northern regions, logging, peat mining. Such an opportunity fell out when a work order came to the collective farm, after which those who wished received permits for departure, their validity period was limited to one year. But some managed to renegotiate the contract with the company anew and even move to the number of permanent employees.
Service in the army made it possible for rural guys to evade work on a collective farm with subsequent employment in the city. Also, children were saved from forced enrollment in the ranks of collective farmers, sending them to study in factories. It is important that studies begin before the age of 16, otherwise there was a high probability that after school the teenager could be returned to his native village and deprived of any prospects for a different fate.
The situation of the peasantry did not change even after Stalin's death, in 1967 the proposal of the chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers D. Polyansky to issue passports to rural residents was rejected. The Soviet leadership rightly feared that if the peasants were given the right to choose, they would not be able to get cheap food in the future. During the reign of Brezhnev alone, more than 60 million Soviet citizens living in the villages were able to obtain a passport. However, the existing procedure for hiring them outside the collective farm remained - without special certificates it was impossible.
Today, photographs that provide life in the Soviet Union in the 30s - early 40s.
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