|
When forced collectivization was first introduced many peasants killed their livestock rather than hand it over to a kolkhoz. The number of farm animals, including horses used for drawing machinery, fell by at least half between 1929 and 1933.
The human effects of the collectivization policy were twofold. Firstly, a terrible famine 1932-1933 killed an estimated five million people. Secondly, Stalin's aim of squeezing out the capitalist elements in the rural districts, in other words the kulaks, was ruthlessly carried out. Two and a half million people simply disappeared. Some were shot, some were starved to death, others were deported to labour camps in the remote parts of the USSR. The policy of eliminating the kulaks as a class had succeeded.
|
The collective farms proved generally to be inefficient. The peasants were used to farming their own plot of land for their food, and selling any surplus to make a profit. But all the surplus from the collective farms was taken by the government and was used to feed the urban workers. So the peasants did not directly benefit from their work.