Soviet propaganda poster: "Comrade, come join the kolkhoz!"

A kolkhoz (Russian: колхо́з (help·info), Russian pronunciation: [kɐlˈxos]), plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms (sovkhoz). Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Collective farming is an organization of agricultural production in which the holdings of several farmers are run as a joint enterprise The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 A farm is an area of land including various structures devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food ( Produce, Grains, or Livestock A sovkhoz ( Russian language: Совхоз, Советское хозяйство, Sovetskoye khozyaystvo, "soviet Farm " The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective farm. "

In a kolkhoz, a member, called kolkhoznik (колхо́зник, feminine колхо́зница), was paid a share of the farm’s product and profit according to the number of workdays, while a sovkhoz employed salaried workers. In addition the kolkhoz was required to sell their crop to the State which fixed prices for the grain. These were set very low and the difference between what the State paid the farm and what the State charged consumers represented a major source of income for the Soviet government. In 1948 the Soviet government charged wholesalers 335 rubles for 100 kilograms of rye, but paid the kolkhoz roughly 8 rubles. Rye ( Secale cereale) is a grass grown extensively as a grain and forage crop ^[1] Nor did such prices change much to keep up with inflation. Prices paid by the Soviet government hardly changed at all between 1929 and 1953 meaning that the State did not pay one half or even one third of the cost of production. ^[2]

Members of kolkhoz were allowed to hold a small area of private land and some animals. The size of the private plot varied over the Soviet period but was usually about an acre. The acre is a unit of Area in a number of different systems including the imperial and U Before the Russian Revolution of 1917 a peasant with less than 13. See also Russian Revolution (1905 The Russian Revolution of 1916 refers to a series of popular revolutions in Russia, and the events surrounding them 5 acres was considered too poor to maintain a family. ^[3] However, the productivity of such plots is reflected in the fact that in 1938 3. 9 percent of total sown land was in the form of private plots, but in 1937 those plots produced 21. 5 percent of gross agriculture output. ^[4]

Members of the kolkhoz were required to do a minimum number of days work per year on both the kolkhoz and on other government work such as road building. In one kolkhoz the requirements were a minimum of 130 days a year for each able-bodied adult and 50 days per boy aged between 12 and 16. That was distributed around the year according to the agricultural cycle. ^[5] If kolkhoz members did not perform the required minimum of work, the penalties could involve confiscation of the farmer's private plot, a trial in front of a People's Court that could result in three to eight months of hard labour on the kolkhoz, or up to one year in a corrective labor camp. A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in Penal labor. ^[6]

In both the kolkhoz and sovkhoz, a system of internal passports prevented movement from rural areas to urban areas. Until 1969 all children born on a collective farm were forced by law to work there as adults unless they were specifically given permission to leave. ^[7][8] In effect, farmers became tied to their sovkhoz or kolkhoz in what is often described as a system of "neo-serfdom". ^[9]

See collectivisation in the USSR and agriculture in the Soviet Union for general discussion of Soviet agriculture. Collectivization in the Soviet Union was a policy pursued under Stalin, between 1928 and 1940(much later for areas further away from capital to consolidate individual Agriculture in the Soviet Union was organized into a system of state and collective farms known as Sovkhozes and Kolkhozes respectively

Other countries

• Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft, LPG - GDR
• Rolnicza Spółdzielnia Produkcyjna, RSP - Poland

See also

• Zveno (Soviet collective farming) - working subunit of the brigade

Notes