Scholarly and poignant account of conditions in Russia's collective
farms in the 30's. In an attempt to obtain ever higher grain quotas
and stamp out private enterprise, Stalin forced millions of
peasants into the collective farm (kolkhoz) system - with
catastrophic effects in both human and economic terms. Drawing on
recently opened Soviet archives, including reports of the secret
police, and her own vast reading of the newspapers of rural Russia,
Fitzpatrick pieces together the picture of how collectivization
worked in the lives of local communities and individuals. We learn
the various ways in which people reacted to the closing of the
churches and the liquidation of the more prosperous peasant class
(the kulaks), how peasants were cajoled into the kolkhoz and the
effects of expulsion from it, how the officials behaved, how the
roles of women varied, how local handicrafts came to be replaced by
factory products, and much more. We meet heroes of Soviet labor
(udarniks and stakhaovites) like Sasha Angelina, who promised
Stalin she would plough 1,200 hectares with her tractor, and
combine operator Maria Demchenko, whose photograph with Stalin in
1936 entitled "The Flowering Soviet Ukraine" became one of the
notable icons of the period. The author describes the almost
religious cult of Stalin and the idealized "Potemkin Village," but
she shows that in reality the peasants hated Stalin and considered
collectivization a second serfdom: those who could not depart for
the cities hoped for deliverance by a counter-revolution or even
foreign invasion. Fitzpatrick makes her account vivid with
quotations of first-person experiences, but she resists the
temptation to oversimplify the issues. A glossary explains Soviet
terms and acronyms. Highly detailed - a must for students of
Soviet, or social, history. (Kirkus Reviews)
Fitzpatrick's book is the first in Western or Soviet literature to explore the dramatic transformation of peasant life caused by the collectivization of the 1930s. Mass departures, arrests, deportations, exile, famine and show trials left bitter resentment, fear, and suspicion among the peasant populace. The author incorporates a wealth of new research on the individual human experience of collectivization. The book, innovative in approach, promises to be a major contribution to our understanding of life in Stalin's Russia.
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