The success of Stalin's Collectivisation.docx

1. Was the policy of collectivization motivated more by a desire to destroy the peasants' traditional way of life or by a desire to achieve socialist modernization? Choose a side, discuss the evidence you find for that position in our two textbooks, and evaluate how successful the policy was in terms of the objective you decided to highlight. Although the lives of peasants were greatly impacted by collectivization in a myriad of ways, some of which included violence and terror, the policy of collectivization was more motivated by a desire to achieve socialist modernization and catch up to the industrial progress of the West. This is clear due to the widespread cultural reorganization in Russia, such as the secularization of church and state as well as in the use of terror as a means to subdue public resistance and secure the stability of new leadership, despite the atrocities and injustices inflicted upon the lower and peasant classes as a result. It was the primary concern of the Bolsheviks and Stalin to modernize and industrialize Russia. This modernization meant a shift in the entirety of Russian culture in order to dispose of the old regime and, as a result, the peasant way of life was also altered; however, this was not the primary intention of the Bolshevik party, simply a side effect of their political agenda. Stalin once said, "socialism in one country," advocating for a monolithic and nationalistic culture that united the people under collectivization and socialism. "He meant that the country could bring about socialism by creating an industrial base and by raising the cultural level of the people without waiting for international revolution," (78, Kenez, emph mine). Stalin advocated for "independence and pride" meaning the people must be united through a culture that valued socialism and industrialization. This meant that Russian way of life was being challenged and altered in order to fit these new political ideals of the country. We can see the more encompassing ways in which the entirety of Russian culture was altered, not just the peasantry, in the secularization of Russia. The soviets believed that the old regime used religion in order to manipulate the lower classes into accepting their lowly conditions in life as divine or destiny. In order to take power from the church, religious institutions were forced to register members, holidays were outlawed and replaced with socialist propaganda holidays, priests and religious people were arrested, and churches were shut down. Therefore, the challenging of traditional Russian culture, including that of the peasant way of life, was used as a tool to dismantle the remnants of the old regime to prevent revolt and resistance. This can be seen within Russian society on a larger scale than simply the peasantry. The utopian ideals of the soviets were seen as only possible by cutting ties with old traditions and ways of life that supported the ideals of the monarchy. Although peasant life was undoubtedly altered and challenged, it was only a result of soviet's political goal to dismantle the old regime and institute a new leadership. This was clearly effective according to Kenez in that 60% of the general public supported the effort to collectivize, abandoning (albeit resentfully) their old way of life. 1 1 Page 85 kenez

Osteuropa, 2016

The collectivisation of agriculture is one of the central events in the early Soviet Union, alongside enforced industrialisation. The amalgamation of private farms to form collectives changed the social and economic foundations of the Soviet system of rule and still influences Russia's economic culture today. The Bolsheviks assumed that the mechanisation of soil cultivation in large, socialised farms was superior to traditional land management. However, the prospect of mechanisation did not lead the farmers to voluntarily come together in collective farms. The Bolsheviks reacted to resistance among farmers with violence and force. During the early 1930s, the repression of the farmers, slaughtering of livestock and the collapse of the grain industry resulted in starvation which led to the deaths of over six million people.

Optimum. Economic Studies

Goal-the aim of the paper is to present the fundamental institutional changes which took place in the Polish social policy between 1918 and 1956, i.e. from regaining independence to the end of the Stalinist period in Poland. Therefore, the paper will present both the processes that constitute the construction of the social policy system, embedded in the European tradition and capitalist economy, and the process of dismantling of that system carried out by the communists at the end of the 1940s and at the beginning of the next decade, which imitated the Stalinist model of social activity of the state. Research methodology-the paper has been prepared with the use of a number of research methods in the field of humanities and social studies, necessary for the proper reconstruction of institutional changes which took place in the Polish social policy in the discussed period. The research has been based on the query of the archival sources, printed and legal, as well as specialist press and research papers. Score-the construction of the social policy system, which began in 1918, was not completed in the interwar period, but strong institutional foundations for such a system were created. After the World War II its reconstruction was, understandably, based on the prewar rules. Political and systemic changes, which took place in Poland after communists gained full power, meant even greater nonuniformity between the institutional solutions, which stemmed from capitalism, and the model of socialism built in the late 1940s. Along with this process, social policy also underwent salinization and, as the result of institutional changes at the beginning of the 1950s, it had completely different functions than in the capitalist economy. It was objectified and it became an instrument of economic policy aimed at socialist industrialization and collectivization of villages. Its main task was no longer to solve social issues but to meet social needs. This new role, resulting from the Stalinist system, meant significant impoverishment of social policy and limiting the effectiveness of the state activity on social life.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2022

In Soviet Central Asia, efforts at the mass collectivization of agriculture began in early 1930, and by 1935, more than 80 percent of all farming and herding households joined collective farms (kolkhoz) or state farms (sovkhoz). The Communist Party's main purpose was to control peasant lives and labor. Collectivization was supposed to lead to increased agricultural production due to modernized methods and intensification. The USSR's Central Asian republics were given unachievable plans to raise their output of cotton, wheat, and meat, while wealthier herders and peasants were threatened with arrest and exile if they resisted collectivization. Collectivization was devastating for Kazakh nomadic herders, whose livestock numbers plummeted, and who endured a three-year long famine that killed more than one-fourth of the Kazakh population. Investments went into expanding irrigation canals and irrigable fields, forcing an ever-increasing number of kolkhoz members to expend most of their labor on cotton cultivation.