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The process of establishing collective farms is called collectivization. The Soviet Union undertook the world's first campaign of mass collectivization in 1929- 1933. Soviet peasants in collective farms received a type of dividend after compulsory deliveries were made to the state. However, this was an example of forced collectivization, and should not be confused with voluntary collectivization, such as the one that takes place in a Kibbutz.
Main article: Collectivisation in the USSR.
In the Soviet Union, collectivization was introduced in the late 1920s as a scheme to boost agricultural production through the organization of land and labor into collectives called collective farms ( kolkhozes) and state farms ( sovkhozes). At the same time, it was argued that collectivization would free poor peasants from economic servitude under the kulaks. It was hoped that the goals of collectivization could be achieved voluntarily, but when the new farms failed to attract the number of peasants hoped, the government blamed the oppression of the kulaks and resorted to forceful implementation of the plan.
Due to unreasonably high government quotas, farmers often got far less for their labor than they did before collectivization, and some refused to work. In many cases, the immediate effect of collectivization was to reduce grain output and almost halve livestock, thus producing major famines in 1932- 33.1 In one extreme episode, several million peasants, mainly in the UkraineUkraine Ukrayina in Ukrainian; in Russian) is a republic in eastern Europe which borders the Black Sea to the south, the Russian Federation to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west and Romania and Moldova to the west and, died in a famineA famine is a situation in which a certain country or area does not have enough food to feed its population. As a result, many affected by the famine are undernourished and others die of starvation. Famine was so well known in the ancient world that Famin during the drought of 1932- 1933 after Stalin forced the peasants into the collectives (this famine is known in Ukraine as Holodomor). It was not until 1940Events January-February January 5 FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time. January 6 World War II: Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the Poznan, Warthegau. January 12 World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland. February 2 F that agricultural production finally surpassed its pre-collectivization levels.
Collective farming has been implemented in nearly all communist states, with varying degrees of success.
In theory, economies of scale plus a hearty community spirit can result in much greater harvests than privately-owned farms. For example, in the first half of the 1980s, Hungary, with largely collectivised agriculture, exported more agricultural products than France from an agricultural area little more than a quarter of the French.2 But usually, such cases were the exception rather than the rule.