Collective farming in the early Soviet period was voluntary and meant to be an exemplary project, convincing the mass of poor peasants and agricultural laborers of its advantages. The fact that many of those who volunteered had never farmed before was only one of number of difficulties faced.

‘Congress on Collective Farming’ from Soviet Russia (New York). Vol. 4 No. 18. April 20, 1921.

The Second National Congress on Collective Farming took place in Moscow during February 18-19. There were 300 delegates at the congress, consisting of peasants and communist organizers, representing over 40 provinces of Soviet Russia. The task of the congress was to solve a number of practical questions dealing with the control of agriculture by the State and with the general promotion of farming in Russia.

Comrade Ossinsky, who gave a report in the name of the Land Commissariat, defined the immediate aims of the collective farms. He asserted that Russian agriculture began to decline with the outbreak of the world war, and continued its course of destruction as a consequence of most diverse causes. The task of raising agriculture to its former level is now being accomplished in two ways: by means of State aid to the peasantry and by the initiative of the agricultural producers. The latter aim is being served by the promotion of collective farms. They are formed on the basis of voluntary combination by individual producers, prompted by the shortage of means and tools on their own farms. The role of these collective farms is of still greater importance, in that they demonstrate the advantages of collectivism in practice, and attract the rest of the peasant masses to collective work on the soil. The State therefore regards the collective farms as a mainstay in introducing its plan of regulating agriculture. The supply of the needs of the collective farms, is given first place by the Government, but on the other hand, the demands made upon them are higher; the sowing plan for them is more complicated, and is based on the rotation of crops and on special crops; they must help the neigh- boring peasantry with their collective stock and workshops, organize the peasantry, combat illiteracy, and so forth.

In view of all the above the congress resolved not to strive in the future towards the numerical increase of collective farms, but to attain their organization on a more rational basis. Here the chief thing is to raise the productivity of these farms and centralize them in the interests of a successful realization of the Single Economic Plan.

The congress established the fact of the steady growth of collective farms all over the Republic. In dividing the whole cultivating area into districts we would get the following:

1st District: provinces of Petrograd, Novgorod and Pskov. This district has 82 communes, 815 collective farms, with an area of 57,000 dessiatins of lnd.

2nd District: provinces of Yaroslav, Tver, Vladimir, Ivano-Voznessensk and Moscow, having 364 communes and 2136 collective farms with an area of 208,000 dessiatins. Special attention has been paid to the cultivation of flax.

3rd District: provinces of Vitebsk, Smolensk and Gomel, with 493 communes, 1159 collective farms. having an area of 101,000 dessiatins. The cultivation of flax has been extended.

4th District: provinces of Tambov, Voronezh, Kursk, Orel, having 27 communes, 1,000 collective farms, with an area of 88,000 dessiatins.

5th District: provinces of Nizhni-Novgorod, Kazan, Penza, Simbirsk, Saratov, and the German colony on the Volga, with 518 communes, 876 collective farms, having an area of 170,000 dessiatins.

6th District: Astrakhan and Tsaritsin.

7th District: provinces of Orenburg, Cheliabinsk, Ufa, Ekaterinburg and Tiumen.

8th District: provinces of Kostroma, Viatka, Perm, with 859 collective farms and an area of 75,000 dessiatins. Special cultivation of flax.

9th District: provinces of Archangel, Olonets, Cherepovets, Vologda, and North Dvina.

It is estimated that all the collective farms of the nine districts will give 14,700,000 poods of com, 35,000,000 poods of root crops, 25 million poods of fodder, 12 million poods of vegetables, 17 million poods of hay, 725,000 poods of flax, 50,000 poods of hemp, 91,000 poods of sun-flower seeds, 36,000 poods of mustard seed, 1,400,000 poods of beet-root After the needs of the collective farms have been supplied, the surplus will be 3 million poods of com, 21 million poods of root-crops, 6 million poods of vegetables and all the flax crop. The collective farms have sufficient labor power, and are more or less provided with working stock, having one horse for every 6.14 dessiatins of land. A number of collective farms have been set up in a “stock” group and were supplied with all the live stock and implements they need. The work that was begun on the organization of the collective farms will have been accomplished during the coming summer. For the purpose of supplying land to the full needs of the existing combines 696 dessiatins of land have been assigned in 41 provinces; the task of rationally distributing this has been entrusted to 363 land surveyors. Certain collective farms have already provided themselves with communal buildings.

The congress resolved to organize a National Industrial Union of Farm Workers, it worked out plans for the successful realization of the single economic plan in the country, and discussed the principles of organization within the collective farms. It was further resolved: to organize in each county not less than two workshops for manufacturing and repairing agricultural machines and implements and other articles pertaining to farm needs; to level up the work of raising the peasant handicraft industry and institute not less than two handicraft schools in each province.

The congress ended in a healthy and business-like spirit The peasantry understood the aims of the Soviet Government and avowed its ardent desire to help to realize them.

—Russian Press Review, March 15, 1921

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