Collective farming: Difference between revisions

The Soviet Union introduced collective farming in its constituent [[Republics of the Soviet Union|republic]]s between 1927 and 1933. The [[Baltic states under Soviet rule (1944–1991)|Baltic states]] and most of the [[Eastern Bloc]] (except [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]]) adopted collective farming after [[World War II]], with the accession of [[communist regimes]] to power. In Asia ([[People's Republic of China]], [[North Korea]], [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]]) the adoption of collective farming was also driven by communist government policies.

The efficiency of collective farms in the USSR is debatable. A Soviet article in March 1975 found that 27% of the total value of Soviet agricultural produce was produced by privateprivately farmsfarmed plots despite the fact that they only consisted of less than 1% of arable land (approximately 20 million acres), making them roughly 40 times more efficient than collective farms.<ref>{{cite book | last =Smith | first =Hedrick |title =The Russians | publisher =[[Times Books|Quadrangle/New York Times Book Company]]| location=New York|year =1976 | page=201 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K_poAAAAMAAJ&q=March%201975 |isbn=9780812905212|oclc=1014770553}}</ref> In 1935, the establishment of Personal Subsidiary Farms (LPH) on collective land was allowed- in the range of .25-1 hectare. <ref>{{Citation |title=Подсобное хозяйство |date=2022-12-12 |work=Википедия |url=https://ru.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B7%D1%8F%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE&oldid=127213366 |access-date=2024-06-02 |language=ru}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tarkhanov |first=O |date=2022-01-29 |title=The agricultural sphere of production in the USSR: from the practice of socialism to the farmstead and the market |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.37468/2307-1400-2022-2021-4-38-58 |journal=National Security and Strategic Planning |volume=2021 |issue=4 |pages=38–58 |doi=10.37468/2307-1400-2022-2021-4-38-58 |issn=2307-1400}}</ref> Private cattle ownership existed after 1935, but was severely restricted by decree in 1956. <ref>{{Citation |title=Подсобное хозяйство |date=2022-12-12 |work=Википедия |url=https://ru.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B7%D1%8F%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE&oldid=127213366 |access-date=2024-06-02 |language=ru}}</ref>

Collective farms in the [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]], introduced in 1945, were called ''Labour cooperative agricultural holdings'' ({{Lang-bg|Трудово кооперативно земеделско стопанство|translit=Trudovo kooperativno zemedelsko stopanstvo}}).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-23 |title=Безплатен Държавен Вестник издание - Официален раздел , брой 95 от 25.IV.1945 |url=https://www.ciela.net/svobodna-zona-darjaven-vestnik/document/2135734302/issue/4629/naredba-zakon-za-trudovi-kooperativni-zemedelski-stopanstva |access-date=2023-10-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231023181510/https://www.ciela.net/svobodna-zona-darjaven-vestnik/document/2135734302/issue/4629/naredba-zakon-za-trudovi-kooperativni-zemedelski-stopanstva |archive-date=23 October 2023 }}</ref>

Collective farms in the [[German Democratic Republic]] were typically called {{lang|de|[[Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft]]}} (LPG), and corresponded closely to the Soviet kolkhoz. East Germany also had a few state-owned farms which were equivalent to the Soviet {{lang|ru-Latn|sovkhoz}}, which were called the {{lang|de|[[Volkseigenes Gut]]}} (VEG). The structure of farms in what was called [[East Elbia]] until German partition was dominated by [[latifundia]], and thus the [[land reform]] which was justified on [[denazification]] grounds<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hdg.de/lemo/bestand/objekt/plakat-enteignung-volksentscheid.html|title = Gerade auf LeMO gesehen: LeMO Objekt: Plakat Volksentscheid über Enteignungen}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hdg.de/lemo/bestand/objekt/plakat-bodenreform.html|title = Gerade auf LeMO gesehen: LeMO Objekt: Plakat Bodenreform}}</ref> and with the aim of destroying the Prussian ''[[Junker]]'' class – which had been hated by the left during the [[Weimar Republic]] and which was blamed for Prussian militarism and the authoritarian tendencies of the [[German Empire]] and later [[Nazi Germany]] – was initially popular with many small farmers and landless peasants. East German President [[Wilhelm Pieck]] coined the slogan {{lang|de|Junkerland in Bauernhand!}} ("Junker land into farmer's hand!") to promote land reform, which was initially pledged to be more moderate than full-scale collectivization. Although the ruling [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]] and the [[Soviet Military Administration in Germany]] promised to allow large landowners to keep their land, they were expelled as the LPG were introduced in 1953. After 1959 all farmers were required to surrender independently owned land and join the LPGs.<ref>Naimark, Norman M. (1995). ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949''. Cambridge: Belknap Press. pp. 86, 164–166</ref> Similarly to the Soviet Union, ultimately most of the land was transferred into ''de jure'' or ''de facto'' state controlled entities with the former farmers becoming employees – now of the state instead of the erstwhile ''Junker'' class.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/hintergrund-die-bodenreform-von-1945-1214490.html|title = Hintergrund: Die Bodenreform von 1945|newspaper = Faz.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hdg.de/lemo/kapitel/nachkriegsjahre/doppelte-staatsgruendung/anfaenge-der-planwirtschaft.html|title=Gerade auf LeMO gesehen: LeMO Kapitel: Anfänge der Planwirtschaft|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/beitrag/ddr-bodenreform-und-gruendung-von-lpg|title = DDR-Geschichte: Bodenreform und Gründung von LPG| date=29 January 2021 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bpb.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/deutschlandarchiv/144983/friedrich-ii-friedrich-der-grosse|title = Friedrich II. – Friedrich der Große| date=26 October 2012 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.zeit.de/1990/42/junkerland-in-bauernhand |title=Junkerland in Bauernhand! |first=Wolfgang |last=Zank |date=12 October 1990 |work=Zeit |access-date=3 March 2022|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.zeit.de/1991/14/rueckkehr-nach-preussen |title=Rückkehr nach Preußen? Die Bundesrepublik sollte auch künftig von Bonn aus regiert werden |first=Fritz |last=Fischer |date=29 March 1991 |work=Zeit |access-date=3 March 2022|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.mdr.de/heute-im-osten/schloss_interview100.html |title=Adelshäuser als Kuhställe oder Trinkerheilanstalten |work=Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk |date=4 December 2014 |access-date=3 March 2022|language=de}}</ref>{{too manyexcessive citations inline|date=March 2022}}

At the end of the [[Land Reform Movement (China)|Land Reform movement]], individual families in China owned the land they farmed, paid taxes as households, and sold grain at prices set by the state.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Harrell |first=Stevan |title=An Ecological History of Modern China |date=2023 |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |isbn=978-0-295-75171-9 |location=Seattle}}</ref>{{Rp|page=109}} the [[People's Republic of China]] experienced an era of collectivization. Rural collectivization began soon after the CCP announced its 1953 "general line for the transition to socialism.".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Lin |first=Chun |url= |title=The Transformation of Chinese Socialism |date=2006 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8223-3785-0 |location=Durham [N.C.] |pages=78–79 |oclc=63178961}}</ref> Over the next six years, collectivization took several incrementally progressing forms: mutual aid groups, primitive cooperatives, and people's communes.<ref name=":1" /> As London School of Economics and Political Science Professor Lin Chun notes, researchers agree that communization proceeded on a largely voluntary basis that avoided both the violence and sabotage that occurred during the Soviet collectivization.<ref name=":1" /> Like Professor [[Barry Naughton]], she observes that China's collectivization proceeded smoothly in part because, unlike the Soviet experience, a network of state institutions already existed in the countryside.<ref name=":1" /> Similarly, Professor Edward Friedman describes China's collectivization process as a "miracle of miracles.".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/956466048 |title=The transition to socialism in China |date=1982 |publisher=Routledge |others=Mark Selden, Victor D. Lippit, Association for Asian Studies. Meeting |isbn=978-1-315-62791-5 |location=Abingdon, Oxon |pages=205 |oclc=956466048}}</ref>

During 1954-19551954–1955, farmers in many areas began pooling their land, capital resources, and labor into beginning-level agricultural producers' cooperatives (''chuji nongye hezuoshe'').<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=109}} In the complex system of beginning-level agricultural producers' cooperatives, farmers received a share of the harvest based on a combination of how much labor and how much land they contributed to the cooperative.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|pages=109-110109–110}}

By June 1956, over 60% of rural households had been collectivized into higher-level agricultural producers' cooperatives (''gaoji nongye hezuoshe''), a structure that was similar to Soviet collective farmering via ''kolkhozy''.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=110}} In these cooperatives, tens of households pooled land and draft animals.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=110}} Adult members of the cooperative were credited with work points based on how much labor they had provided at which tasks.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=110}} At the end of the year, the collective deducted taxes and fixed-price sales to the state, and the cooperative retained seed for the next year as well as some investment and welfare funds.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=110}} The collective then distributed to the households the remainder of the harvest and some of the money received from sales to the state.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=110}} The distribution was based partly on work points accrued by the adult members of a household, and partly at a standard rate by age and sex.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=110}} These cooperatives also lent small amounts of land back to households individually on which the households could grow crops to consume directly or sell at market.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|pages=110-111110–111}} Apart from the large-scale communization during the Great Leap Forward, higher-level agricultural producers' collective were generally the dominant form of rural collectivization in China.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=111}}

During [[The Great Leap Forward]], the [[Mao Zedong]]-led Communist Party rapidly convert the [[Economy of China|Chinese economy]] to a socialist society through rapid industrialization and large scale collectivization.<ref>[https://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/mao-and-great-leap-forwardf] {{Dead link|date=July 2019|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Later, the country was hit by massive floods and droughts. This, combined with the usage of severely flawed policies of [[Lysenkoism]] and the [[Four Pests Campaign]], caused "[[The Great Chinese Famine]] of 1959," where nearly 30 million people died of hunger. The party officially blamed floods and droughts for the famine; however, it was clear to the party members at the party meetings that famine was caused mostly by their own policies.<ref>Sue Williams "China: A Century of Revolution. Part 2", 1994</ref> Recent studies also demonstrate that it was career incentives within the politburo system as well as political radicalism that led to the great famine.<ref>Kung, James Kai-Sing, and Shuo Chen. "The tragedy of the nomenklatura: Career incentives and political radicalism during China's Great Leap famine.". American Political Science Review 105, no. 1 (2011): 27-45.</ref>

After the [[death of Mao Zedong]], [[Deng Xiaoping]] reformed the collective farming method. From this time, nearly all Chinese crops began to blossom, not just grain. The reform included the removal of land from rich land owners for use of agricultural land for peasants, but not ownership. This policy increased production and helped reverse the effects of The Great Leap Forward. The two main reasons why China succeeded was because 1) the government chose to make gradual changes, which kept the monopoly of the [[Chinese Communist Party]] and 2) because the reform process began from the bottom and later expanded to the top. Throughout the reform process, the Communist Party reacted positively to the bottom-up reform initiatives that emerged from the rural population. Deng Xiaoping described the reform process as, "fording the river by feeling for the stones"." This statement refers to the Chinese people who called for the reforms they wanted, by "placing the stones at his feet" and he would then just approve the reforms the people wanted. The peasants started their own "household responsibility system" apart from the government. After Chinese trade was privately deemed successful, all Deng had to do was approve its legalization. This increased competition between farmers domestically and internationally, meaning the low wage working class began to be known worldwide, increasing the Chinese FDI.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hoover.org/research/how-china-won-and-russia-lost?_sm_au_=iVVk5Rjq7ZW33QN6|title=How China Won and Russia Lost|website=hoover.org|access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref>

In the [[European Union]], collective farming is fairly common and [[Agriculturalagricultural cooperative|agricultural cooperatives]]s hold a 40% market share among the [[Member state of the European Union|27 member states]]. In the [[Netherlands]], cooperative agriculture holds a market share of approximately 70%, second only to [[Finland]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/79188675.pdf |title=Agricultural Cooperatives in the Netherlands: Key Success Factors |last=Bijman |first=Jos |date=2016 |publisher=International Summit of Cooperatives Quebec 2016 |access-date=16 March 2021 }}</ref> In [[France]], cooperative agriculture represents 40% of the national food industry's production and nearly 90 Billion € in gross revenue, covering one out of three food brands in the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lacooperationagricole.coop/une-reussite-economique-et-sociale|title=La coopération agricole, un modèle entreprenarial|website=lacooperationagricole.coop|access-date=27 March 2018|archive-date=9 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209182229/https://www.lacooperationagricole.coop/une-reussite-economique-et-sociale|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latribune.fr/actualites/economie/france/20140927trib98472bab5/les-grandes-cooperatives-agricoles-ces-entreprises-francaises-en-plein-boom.html|title=Les grandes coopératives agricoles, ces entreprises françaises en plein boom|website=La Tribune|date=27 September 2014 |access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref>

The 1929 Soviet film ''[[The General Line]]'' features Martha and a group of peasants organizing a kolkhoz. The film began production as a promotion of the [[Trotskyism|TrotskyiteTrotskyist]] [[Left Opposition]] viewpoint on collectivization. After the [[rise of Joseph Stalin]] and expulsion of his rival [[Leon Trotsky]], it was heavily re-edited into the pro-[[Stalinism|Stalinist]] film ''The Old and the New''.

* McHenry, Dean E., Jr. (December 1977)"Peasant Participation in Communal Farming: The Tanzanian Experience" in ''African Studies Review'', Vol. 20, No. 3, Peasants in Africa, pp.&nbsp;43–63.