Li Chun Ho (Alvin Li) History Revision: Collectivisation past papers.

November 2003 (a) What were the advantages of collective farming?[5] Collective farming involved merging many small peasant farms into a bigger, more effective farming area. Because of this, it would be easier for the government to collect grain and other farm products and transport them into towns and cities, therefore increase efficiency and output. Because of this, there would be higher profits, allowing them to purchase better technology, such as modern tractors to improve the yield of their farm. This was essential because during that time period Russia was described as many years behind other western powers. This allowed Russia to improve its technology standards. Communists liked collective farming because it allowed Stalin to have control over the peasants; they were forced to work at certain times and at certain days set by the government. In addition, this meant that it would prevent some farmers selling off their grain and earning personal profit. This will further secure the fundamentals of communism, as they believed that this was the correct socialistic way of living. In addition, they built schools and had crches in the farms so their children can be taken care of them the parents go farming. (b) Why was collectivisation opposed by many peasants?[7] Many peasants had staged demonstrations, and armed protests have been carried out between the peasants and the government because they felt it was unfair. Lazy and hard-working peasants got the same amount of pay. They were forced to work when the government told them to do so, and they did not like being ordered to do so. Before, they could rest when they knew that they had enough food for their family, and work when they wanted to, but now they were controlled by the government over the aspect of their working habits and time periods; they hated that. Peasants disliked collectivisation as it meant that they would have to give up all of their farming machinery, their livestock, their land and every other asset they owned now belonged to the government. They believed this was unfair. Furthermore, some peasants were left starving because the government had taken too much food and farming products away from them. In addition, they did not like the brutality in which the Kulaks (rich peasants) were being treated because there was no clear criteria on who was a kulak and who wasnt. A person with one more cow than other fellow peasants would be seen as a kulak, and they hated the brutal treatment and the process of deKulakisation, as they were either shot are deported to Siberia. In addition, collective farms had mad the food crisis of 1932 worse. Because the peasants killed their resources rather than hand over to the government, this caused a greater food famine; 13 million peasants died of starvation. In 1941, the output of agriculture finally reached the statistics of 1914; big changes. June 2004 (b) Explain why Stalin introduced collectivisation. [7] Stalin introduced collectivisation because during that time period in 1932 there was an extreme food famine in Russia. He aimed to reduce the effects of the famine by using collective farming methods as he believed this would improve efficiency, as the government need not to go around everywhere to collect the farm products; they would only go to one main collective farming area to

Li Chun Ho (Alvin Li) History Revision: Collectivisation past papers. collect the food and then transport them to the towns and cities. In addition, he believed by introducing collective farming methods this will protect and cherish the values of communism as some farmers earned personal profit by selling them privately to other people. By using collective farming methods, everyone would be equal. He would also gain control of the peasants via the collective farming scheme. Stalin also aimed to use collective farming methods to improve the technology of Russia. By being more efficient, they will get more output, leading to more profit for the government. This amount of profit can be used to purchase technology to improve Russias standing in the modern world, such as harvesters, tractors, other farming equipment, etc.