Lost Paradise: The phenomenon of ‘Soviet Korean Advanced Kolkhozes’ in Central Asia (Part 2)
Feb 10 2025Kim Chang Jin. Lost Paradise: The phenomenon of ‘Soviet Korean Advanced Kolkhozes’ in Central Asia (Part 2) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №4. P. 159-177.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-4-159-177
Annotation
In the history of Soviet kolkhoz (collective-farm) research, the ‘advanced kolkhoz (millionaire) phenomenon’ remains almost unexplored, although it was a notable social-economic phenomenon. Members of the Korean advanced kolkhozes in Central Asia, which operated since the late 1930s to the 1980s, at first adapted to the kolkhoz system through hard work, but later became very active in creating social-cultural institutions within the kolkhoz system for common benefit (not only ethnic Koreans but also natives). Regionally, the overwhelming majority of Korean advanced kolkhozes, including the legendary ‘Polar Star’ and ‘Politotdel’, were active in Uzbekistan, followed by Kazakhstan. Perhaps, Korean advanced kolkhozes in Central Asia reached the peak of the Soviet-style socialist agricultural civilization in the 1960s — 1970s. These well-to-do Korean kolkhozes in Central Asia developed a strong social infrastructure in their community as a basis for the contemporary living culture. Local common assets were formed from their own abundant undivided funds, consumption and cultural funds. However, what is more important is that Korean kolkhozes-millionaires not only built an excellent material and technical foundation in the villages based on their high economic performance, but also created harmonious multiethnic communities while enjoying various social benefits similar to city life.
Keywords
Soviet Korean advanced kolkhoz, Central Asia, community-wealth building, competent dedicated leader, efficient labor organization, kolkhoz garden city, multiethnic community.
About the author
Kim Chang Jin, Dsc (Political Science), Professor, SungKongHoe University. 320 Yeon Dongro, Guro Gu, Seoul, Korea; Visiting Researcher, Institute of Asian Studies, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 Al-Farabi Avenue, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
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Chairmen of collective farms in Western Siberia in the 1930s: Practices of co-adaptation and maladaptation
Feb 10 2025Laperdin V. B. Chairmen of collective farms in Western Siberia in the 1930s: Practices of co-adaptation and maladaptation // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №4. P. 144-158.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-4-144-158
Annotation
The article considers the role of the collective-farm chairman in the rural society. As the central figure of the collective farm, the chairman largely determined the degree of collective-farmers’ consolidation. At the same time, the head of the collective farm was “created” by social environment, and his behavior often reflected the collective-farm atmosphere. After becoming the head of the collective farm, the chairman realized its community’s opportunities. In a friendly atmosphere, the head acted effectively for the benefit of all. In case of conflict relations, he could more easily pursue his own interests. The peasantry adapted to the collective farm society within its communities, and successful adaptation depended on the relations between villagers and their head. At the same time, coadaptation of chairmen and collective farm collectives was also determined by social environment. In a favorable environment, both peasants and collective farm chairmen successfully adapted to new living conditions. On the contrary, conflict relations led to the maladaptation of the chairman and disintegration of the labor collective which lost its ability to economic activity and social interaction. The data presented in the article proves the key role of chairmen in collective farm collectives and describes their interaction as reflected at the economic level, in peasants’ attitude to the collective farm and in the nature of work and interpersonal communication of collective farmers.
Keywords
Agrarian history, collective farms, peasantry, collective farm society, chairman, adaptation, Siberia.
About the author
Vyacheslav B. Laperdin, PhD (History), Researcher, Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Nikolaeva St., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
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Troshina T. I., Morozova O. M. “NEP crisis” in the northern village, or peasant “proletarianization” as a specific form of “de-peasantization” in non-agricultural regions in the interests of industrialization // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №4. P. 122-143.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-4-122-143
Annotation
Issues of industrialization and collectivization in the northern regions of Soviet Russia have been well studied, with an emphasis on both positive and negative consequences. The article provides grounds for another discussion — of alternative forms of social, economic and political development of the country on the example of a particular territory. The authors focus on the role of the “NEP crises” in the final transition to the “forced industrialization”. There were two major crises — “crisis of sales” (1923– 1924) and “crisis of grain procurement” (1927–1928), which to a greater or lesser extent affected the transition to the planned economy. “Labor crisis” is less known: it broke out in the northern (forest) regions of the European North during the 1925/26 logging season and played a similar role in the industrialization of the Soviet timber industry. The essence of this “crisis” was the competition of logging organizations, which contributed to the peasants’ (loggers and rafters) refusal to conclude contracts, while waiting for more profitable offers. The semi-peasant economy of loggers allowed them to be quite independent from earnings in the forestry sector. Sabotage of loggers and refusal to fulfill already concluded agreements disrupted production plans and, thus, violating export obligations, especially of the “sluggish giants” (state trusts), and created prerequisites for the government measures for the planned organization of the workforce. The same applies to the “colonization” of the region, since the constant shortage of labor significantly increased the cost of export timber. There were increasingly more suggestions about regional specialization and, eventually, “proletarization” of the peasantry engaged in logging. These radical ideas under real problems took over rational economic managers’ minds. Negative results of the semi-state management in the resource territories during the NEP period led to the idea of five-year plans as the most promising and quickest way to solve all problems. Despite the persistent revolutionary enthusiasm with its ideas of freedom, practitioners agreed with the ideas of the 19thcentury entrepreneurs about forced labor. Sending administratively expelled peasants to settlements in forest areas and setting tough logging tasks for the local population, including collective farmers, were seen as the only way out of the crisis that is considered in the article as another “NEP crisis”.
Keywords
North European Russia, northern peasants, non-agricultural activities, “new economic policy”, industrialization, logging, labor shortage, forestry, forms of peasant protest, timber industry.
About the authors
Tatiana I. Troshina, DSc (History), Professor, Department of Social Work and Social Security, Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University; Department of Humanities, Northern State Medical University. 163 002, nab. Severnoy Dviny, 17, Arkhangelsk.
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Olga M. Morozova, DSc (History), Professor, Department of Public Relations, Don State Technical University. 344000, Gagarina sq., 1, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
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Bonfanti A. Reform Communists in the twentieth-century global network: The Italian Communist Party’s agrarian policies in the postwar period // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №4. P. 98-121.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-4-98-121
Annotation
This article aims to explain the main agrarian policies of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in the early postwar period with the analytical category of “reform communism” and the “global network” methodological approach. These tools help to understand the PCI decisions in these years in historical rather than polemical terms. The argument is strengthened by archival materials which include Central Committee meeting minutes, congresses records, internal reports and pamphlets. In the first part, the author introduces the ‘New Party’, which was the evolution of the traditional Communist Party of Italy, to identify its main historical and intellectual coordinates. Then, the article analyzes through those analytical innovations some of the main agrarian policies that the PCI tried, more or less successfully, to implement between 1944 and 1947, i.e. when there existed a series of governments of national unity. These policies were the 1944 Gullo Law, the subsequent organs like Land Committees, and the debates around the Agrarian Reform, which are analyzed respectively in the second, third and fourth parts.
Keywords
Agrarian policies, Italian Communist Party (PCI), reform communism, Italy, global network, asymmetric interdependencies.
About the author
Andrea Bonfanti, PhD (History), Research Associate Professor, School of Marxism, Wuhan University. Wuchang District, 299 Bayi Road, 430072, Wuhan, China.
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Progressive modernisation. The role of peasants in the industrialisation of North-Eastern Italy
Feb 10 2025Celetti D. Progressive modernisation. The role of peasants in the industrialisation of North-Eastern Italy // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №4. P. 68-97.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-4-68-97
Annotation
The process of industrialization of North-Eastern Italy and, in particular the Veneto Region, spread widely outside urban centers, in agrarian territories historically characterised by a specific type of land use based on the harmonious coexistence of different cultures within individual smallholdings. This article focuses on the key shifts that allowed the wide spread of productive activities in rural areas and the active participation of the rural population in industrial production in the absence of significant migration flows in the direction of large industrial centers. The article is organized as follows: the first section analyses the scientific interpretation of the special path of regional modernization. Section 2 presents the main features of the traditional rural economy of North-Eastern Italy. Section 3 examines the changes in the sectoral structure of the regional economy during the period of industrialization. Conclusions summarize results and ongoing transformation of the Veneto regional economy, society and landscape.
Keywords
Economic development, north-eastern Italy, peasant family, traditional agriculture, industrialization, urbanization processes, industrial clusters.
About the author
David Celetti, PhD of Economics, Professor of Economic History, Department of Historical, Geographical Sciences and of the Ancient World, University of Padua, 30131 Padova, Via Vescovado 30.
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Labor behavior of collective farmers in Siberia under the state agrarian policy in 1953–1964
Oct 25 2024Andreenkov S. N. Labor behavior of collective farmers in Siberia under the state agrarian policy in 1953–1964 // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №3. P. 185-203.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-3-185-203
Annotation
The article considers the labor behavior of collective farmers in Siberia under the agrarian measures of the supreme power during Khrushchev’s thaw. The author identifies factors that influenced the labor behavior of collective farmers, its forms and role in the state agrarian policy, emphasizing contradictory tendencies in the functioning of collective farms. Thus, financial incentives were used more widely, but the state did not abandon mobilization methods for solving economic problems. Therefore, the production and technological discipline in collective farms remained at a low level; many villagers avoided working in the public economy. Personal subsidiary farms had a significant impact on the labor behavior of collective farmers, since the public economy provided main resources for their personal subsidiary plots. Increased wages at the collective farm allowed peasants to strengthen the feed base for their livestock. Collective farmers acquired means for personal subsidiary farming through petty thefts at the collective farm. The peasantry retained many of its past features manifested primarily in the labor behavior of women, who tended to pay more attention to their household than to the collective farm. To reduce the villagers’ labor costs in the private sector of the agrarian economy, the state periodically conducted campaigns to limit the size of personal subsidiary plots.
Keywords
Labor behavior, collective farms, collective farmers, machine-tractor stations, machine operators, personal subsidiary farms, state agrarian policy, agriculture.
About the author
Andreenkov Sergey N., PhD (History), Senior Researcher, Sector of Agrarian and Demographic History, Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Akademika Nikolaeva St., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090.
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Sharapov S. V. Peasantry of collective farms: Subsistence ethics during the Great Patriotic War (based on the materials from the Novosibirsk Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №3. P. 169-184.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-3-169-184
Annotation
The article considers the social-economic behavior of the collective-farm peasantry during the Great Patriotic War. Under the strengthening mobilization pressure, the imperative of survival still determined the peasant attitude to work, economy, close social circle and higher authorities. The situation in collective farms differed, since their economy depended on the labor supply of lands as subject to taxes in kind, which determined differences in the peasant attitude to work on the collective farm. In the most unfavorable circumstances, participation in the artel work promised the peasant nothing else than super-intensive work without sufficient payment. Although peasants’ behavior could be considered adaptive in general, unbearable conditions in economically unpromising collective farms forced peasants to practice passive resistance (from poor work and missing deadlines to illegal actions). The limits of tolerance towards peasant disobedience kept changing in the 1930s — 1940s; however, their weak supervision in the countryside did not allow the authorities to further reduce these limits during the war. The peasant community morally justified illegal actions as often helping to save themselves from hunger. The persistent peasant violations of the boundaries of legality greatly reduced the authorities’ ability to control the collective farm economy.
Keywords
Collective-farm peasantry, subsistence ethics, Great Patriotic War, agrarian policy.
About the author
Sharapov Sergey V., PhD (History), Researcher, Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Nikolaeva St., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090.
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Villages of the “Ket Ridge” in the 17th — 18th centuries: Prospects for an archaeological-historical study
Oct 25 2024Barsukov E. V., Idimeshev A. A. Villages of the “Ket Ridge” in the 17th – 18th centuries: Prospects for an archaeological-historical study // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №3. P. 149-168.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-3-149-168
Annotation
The article considers the initial stage of the Russian development of the Narym Region (northern part of the present-day Tomsk Region). This vast territory is known for its harsh natural-geographical and climatic conditions, primarily a high degree of swampiness (today this area is considered the Far North). However, already in the second half of the 17th century, there was a network of Russian settlements, the inhabitants of which were engaged in farming. These settlements formed small districts such as the “Ket Ridge” along the lower reaches of the Ket River. In the geomorphological perspective, this is part of the well-drained high terraces above the floodplain and watershed plain, standing out in the completely swampy Narym Region. In the first half of the 17th century, the Ket fort was moved here as an administrative center of the district of the same name and became the center of attraction for the agricultural population. Since the second half of the 17th century, a network of Russian small settlements and villages and first arable lands appeared in its vicinity. Harsh natural conditions contributed to the formation of a distinctive agricultural center. The article identifies Russian rural settlements founded at the initial stage of the Ket Ridge development — in the second half of the 17th — early 18th centuries. The authors use historical cartographic materials and the data of travelers and explorers of the 17th — 18th centuries to identify locations associated with the first Russian settlements to conduct an archaeological-historical study of the rural culture in the north of Western Siberia.
Keywords
Western Siberia, Tomsk Region, Narym Region, Ket River, Ket fort, Russian development of Siberia, agricultural colonization, farming, small settlements, Russian archeology of Siberia.
About the authors
Evgeny V. Barsukov, Researcher, Laboratory of Bio-Geo-Chemical and Remote Methods of Environmental Monitoring, Biological Institute, Tomsk State University; Researcher, Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Lenina St., 36, Tomsk, 634050.
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Asap A. Idimeshev, Junior Researcher, APSACA Laboratory, National Center of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan; Senior Lecturer, Tomsk State Pedagogical University. Mirzo Ulugbek St., 81, Tashkent, 100060, Uzbekistan.
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Lost Paradise: The phenomenon of ‘Soviet Korean Advanced Kolkhozes’ in Central Asia (Part 1)
Jul 20 2024Kim Chang Jin. Lost Paradise: The phenomenon of ‘Soviet Korean Advanced Kolkhozes’ in Central Asia (Part 1) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 109-138.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-109-138
Annotation
In the history of Soviet kolkhoz (collective-farm) research, the ‘advanced kolkhoz (millionaire) phenomenon’ remains almost unexplored, although it was a notable social-economic phenomenon. Members of the Korean advanced kolkhozes in Central Asia, which operated from the late 1930s to the 1980s, at first adapted to the kolkhoz system through hard work, but later became very active in creating social-cultural institutions within the kolkhoz system for common benefit (not only ethnic Koreans but also natives). Regionally, the overwhelming majority of Korean advanced kolkhozes, including the legendary ‘Polar Star’ and ‘Politotdel’, were active in Uzbekistan, followed by Kazakhstan. Perhaps, Korean advanced kolkhozes in Central Asia reached the peak of the Soviet-style socialist agricultural development in the 1960s — 1970s. These wellto-do Korean kolkhozes in Central Asia developed a strong social infrastructure in their community as a basis for the contemporary living culture. Local common assets were formed from their own abundant undivided funds, consumption and cultural funds. However, what is more important is that Korean kolkhozes-millionaires not only built an excellent material and technical foundation in the village based on their high economic performance, but also created harmonious multiethnic communities while enjoying various social benefits similar to city life.
Keywords
Soviet Korean advanced kolkhoz, Central Asia, community-wealth building, competent dedicated leader, efficient labor organization, kolkhoz garden city, multiethnic community.
About the author
Kim Chang Jin, Dsc (Political Science), Professor, SungKongHoe University. 320 Yeon Dongro, Guro Gu, Seoul, Korea; Visiting Researcher, Institute of Asian Studies, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 Al-Farabi Avenue, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
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Timkin Yu. N. “Face of the village”: Activities of the Vyatka Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) to revitalize rural and volost organizations in 1924–1926 // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 89-108.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-89-108
Annotation
The author considers the litsom k derevne (‘turning to the village’) policy implemented by the ruling party in 1924–1926. The article is based on the materials of the Central State Archive of the Kirov Region and on the principles of historicism, objectivity and historical institutionalism. The author focuses on the activities of the commission for work in the village of the Vyatka Provincial Committee and its practical measures to create a non-party activist group, attract peasants and strengthen the lower Soviet level. The study of the peasant everyday life in one volost of the province, in particular of the communist peasants’ farms, showed that many members of rural and volost party organizations were not much different from the so-called “well-off village elite” and were closely connected with it. By joining the ruling party, young active peasants got a good chance to improve their social status and make a career. The provincial committee aimed at encouraging poor peasants, hired farm workers, peasants who served in the Red Army, Komsomol members and activists of delegate women’s meetings to join the party by promoting them to various paid positions in the Soviet and party apparatus and cooperation. The author argues that the litsom k derevne policy allowed the party elite to organize the rural poor and farm workers, thus, creating “rural proletariat”, splitting the village, and “making” a “class” of kulaks as its main enemy in the village.
Keywords
Vyatka Province, provincial committee, commission, volost organizations of the RCP(B), communists, peasants, poor people, kulaks.
About the author
Timkin Yuri N., PhD (History), Associate Professor, Department of Theory and History of State and Law, Vyatka State University. Moskovskaya St., 36, Kirov, 610000, Russia.
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Russian Peasant Studies. Scientific journal
Center for Agrarian studies of the Russian Presidental Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)
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