Laperdin V. B. The phenomenon of marginality among kolkhoz chairmen in the Western Siberian Region in the 1930s // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2026. V.11. №2. P. 67-80.
EDN: JTBVSF
Annotation
The article considers an understudied aspect of the social history of the Soviet countryside — the marginal position of kolkhoz (collective-farm) chairmen. Despite their high rank in the kolkhoz hierarchy, two categories of leaders had marginal positions in social structure. The first category consisted of “professionals” appointed by Soviet organizations — successful managers, who had proven their competence on other farms, joined district activists and were sent to rural areas; for them, work in kolkhoz was either a career dead end or a temporary decline in status. The second category consisted of the politically “unreliable” elected by the peasantry and considered by the authorities as alien elements; their career advancement attracted unnecessary attention and often resulted in social failure. The author emphasizes the opposite trajectories of social mobility of these two categories — downward and upward; however, despite different origins of their marginality, both groups shared a marginal position and uncertain status. Although their social trajectories were opposite, both categories faced similar challenges, primarily of external control. The study shows that in the 1930s the kolkhoz chairman position could serve not as a social elevator but as a social trap and reveals a paradox of social mobility in the Soviet countryside — when a formally high kolkhoz status exacerbated marginality rather than facilitated integration into Soviet society.
Keywords
Agrarian history, kolkhozes (collective farms), peasantry, kolkhoz society, adaptation, marginalization, Siberia.
About the author
Vyacheslav B. Laperdin, PhD (History), Senior Researcher, Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Nikolaeva St., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
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