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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Áûòü, collective farms, World War II, Soviet Union

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

History

Abstract

Collective farms in the Soviet Union have always been enigmatic. Stalin’s initiative to collectivize the peasants in 1930 met with heavy opposition. With heavy-handed brutality, the government put down the rebellions and forced farmers to stay on the Kolkhoz to endure the 1932-1933 famine. While this famine reached holocaust-levels of casualties, the incident has gone relatively unnoticed. With the start of World War II conditions on the collective farm worsened due to redirected funds and lack of the male workers needed to perform the rigorous labor. Rumors of Western intervention to alleviate suffering, kept the hopes of the downtrodden peasants aloft1. At the end of the war their dreams were crushed as it became apparent that there would be no intervention. That coupled with the extreme loss of able-bodied workers to the war made the future seemed grave to kolkhoz members. As the triumphant victors returned, they faced the challenge of rebuilding the farm and stabilizing their harvests. What happened in this time period is crucial to understanding the outcome of the Kolkhoz. These brave men and women stepped forward to forge the longest surviving Soviet system. The irony and the enigma is that the system most bitterly protested became the longest lasting.

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