Kolkhoz

Kolkhoz was an abbreviation of the Russian kollektivnoye khozyaystvo, meaning “collective farm”. Various forms of cooperative farming existed during the 1920s, but the kolkhoz became a central institution of Soviet agriculture when the mass collectivisation campaign began under Joseph Stalin in 1929. The campaign replaced most individual farms and much of the traditional peasant commune with large collective and state farms, while kulaks were subjected to expropriation and repression.

In law, a kolkhoz was cooperative property and its management was formally elected by its members. In practice, its leadership and production were closely supervised by the Soviet state and Communist Party. Members, known as kolkhozniki, were initially compensated from the farm’s remaining produce and income according to labour-day units (trudodni) rather than receiving the fixed wages paid on a state farm. Households were also permitted small private plots on which they could grow food and raise livestock for their own use or for sale in collective-farm markets.

After the Second World War, many kolkhozy were consolidated into larger agricultural units. Machine-Tractor Stations, through which the state had supplied and controlled much heavy machinery, were abolished in 1958 and their equipment was sold to collective farms. The system changed over time, but state planning, procurement requirements and regulated prices continued to shape production. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, many kolkhozy were reorganised as corporate, cooperative or individual agricultural holdings, although some continued in modified forms.