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Household or private plots were very important in both Tsarust and Soviet agriculture. It was a legally defined agricultural unit in the Soviet Union. It refers to a small plot of land (usually less than 0.5 hectares) adjacent to residences on collective farms. The collective workers were not allowed to take part of the collective farm crop. During the Stalinist period the law was very strict on this. The private household plot, however, could be cultivated for family susistance. The purpose was the same as in Tsarist times, to provide food for the collective farm families. Surplus products from the household plot could be sold or traded with neighbors and relatives. And there were farmer markets in nearby towns where it could be sold. These household plots were the only form of private enterprise allowed farmers during the Soviet era. Notably these plots constituted a miniscule part of the farm land of the Soviet Union, but a substantial part of the fruits nd vegetables produced as well as as some poultry. And all of this without any of the inputs lavished on the collective sector. One might have thought that over the decades that this would have clued Soviet officals into the apauling inefficency of collectivization. It did not, or at least no one dare suggest privitization. And this continued even after Stalin died (1953). The Soviets tried everything to improve agricultural production. The situation was so bad that regulations had to be issued to keep farm workers from moving into the city and seeking factory and other jobs. This of course was a situation shockingly simmilar to serfdom. There was no shortage of programs and ideas--all of which failed miserably. But only at the very end of the Soviet Union were small independent family farms authorized for larger areas of agricultural land, plots 10-50 hectares (1990).
Household or private plots were very important in Tsarust agriculture. These household plots were used for family gardens that provided food for the serfs and emncipted serfs. The land owner did not have to feed his workers. The household plot (usad'ba) was normally adjacent to the peasant dwealings. Here the serfs what they chose, normally vegetables, hemp (used for oil and livestock feed). Some might cultivate a few fruit trees. This was limited because shade from the trees would limit the vegetable harvest. These garden plots during Tra=rist times varied in size. Some could be an full hectar. Most were smaller. [Hoch, pp.48-49.] The plot was normally in the hereditary tenure of the household, and not subject to repartition (unlike the peasants' holdings in the open fields). Tsarist Rusia lagged behinf Western Europe in industrialization, but gradually industrialization began to change Russia (late-19th century). Cities began to grow and the middle-class and industrial proletariat expanded. Earlier Russians grew their own food, but with the growth of cities this was no longer possible. This had an impact on agriculture, especialy in western Russia near the growing industrial cities. We see the development of market gardening and truck farming where once there had been only grain crops. With World War I and the Revolution (1910s), an important garden economy was developing.
Stalin's draconian Collectivization Decree (January 1930) omitted any mention of garden plots. And as a result, many local Communist authorities abolished them along with private land holdings. Stalin must have had second thoughts along with the chaos he created with collectivization and resistance. He decided to recognize the rightvto smll garden plots as long as the vast share of farm land was collectivized. No maximum area was assigned to the plots at the time. It was all a work in progress. This was not worked out until the kolkhoz model charter was issued (February 1935). It is at this time that the area was set at one-quarter to one-half hectare. This was usually smaller thn the area allocated durng Tsarist times. There were some up to 1 hectare. but only in special districts. The legislation estblished individual peasants as the holders, but in practice plots were continued to be household tenure.
It was a legally defined agricultural unit in the Soviet Union. It refers to a small plot of land (usually less than 0.5 hectares) adjacent to residences on collective farms.
The collective workers were not allowed to take part of the collective farm crops even of they were hungary. During the Stalinist period the law was very strict on this. Solzhenitsyn describes the crime of 'snipping ers', referring ears of corn or taking other grains. This was not a problem in Soviet times. Landowners did not begrudge his workers taking what wasneeded or ubsistence rom the fields, not so Stalin and the Soviet state. Thousands of collective peasant farmers were arrested. Often it was the children, boys nd girls, sent out into the fields at night to snip when they had no food and none was provided by the collective where they were laboring. the collective managers had to meet unrelistic quotas. If they failed, they faced arrest. Soviet courts convicted the snippers sentences of 10 years for what they saw as a serious theft of socialist property. [Solzhenitsyn, p. 58.] People were arrested for 'takinf a stak of grain, a cucumber, twosmall potatoes, a chip of wood, a spool of thread--all of whom got ten years. Normally Soviets courts did not blanch at such severe sentences for such minor infractions. In the spool of thread case, the court describes it as '200 meters of sewing material'. [Solzhenitsyn, p. 88.] And the law could be used to sweep even more people into the Gulag. If a litte boy or girl sent into the field by parents to snip a few ears took along two friends or if children went after cucumbers and apples, under Soviet law this amounted to an 'organized gang'. This made them eligible for 25 year sentences. [Solzhenitsyn, p. 89.]
The private household plot, however, could be cultivated for family subsistence. The purpose was the same as in Tsarist times, to provide food for the collective farm families. Surplus products from the household plot could be sold or traded with neighbors and relatives. And there were farmer markets in nearby towns where it could be sold.
These household plots were the only form of private enterprise allowed farmers during the Soviet era. Notably these plots constituted a miniscule part of the farm land of the Soviet Union, but a substantial part of the fruits nd vegetables produced as well as a small production of poultry and even hogs. And all of this without any of the inputs lavished on the collective sector. The private garden plots were responsible for a stunning fraction of Soviet agricultural production. They provided Soviet collective workers with a substantial part of of both their food and income. Despite the minisule area of the hprivate garden plots they acconted for
over 20 percent of agricultural produce (1938) . Soviet authoritis estimate that the average peasant household earned something like twice as much from marketings their private plot produce as from their work on the collective farms. This is based on Soviet data and they would be unlikely to exagerate private production, in fact just the opposite. Market gardening (meaning primarily the housegold plots) was coming to dominate agriculture in the Black-Sea hinterland and the truck-gardening areas around big cities (such as Moscow and Leningrad). This was not what Stalin wanted and in fact was ndoing the whole purpose of collctivization. He saw it as nothing more than the 'resurgence of private capitalism'. New laws were passed to restrict its frther growth (1939). The impact was primarily to limit the output of Soviet farmers and supplies to the domestic market. Even so, the private market plots continued to play an important role in Soviet Union until the country was disolved (1991). [Nove, Fitzpatrick, pp.130-31, and Conquest, pp.34-35.]
One might have thought that over the decades that this would have clued Soviet officals into the apauling inefficency of collectivization. It dd not, or at least no one dare suggest privitizzation. To privuize agricukture would undrmine the Communist doctrine on which the Societ conomy nd society were built. And this continued even after Stalin died (1953). The Soviets tried everything to improve agricultural production. The situation was so bad that regulations had to be issued to keep farm workers from moving into the city and seeking factory and other jobs. The Soviets saw the private garden plots as creeping capitalism. There collectivization effort and the draconian policies neeed to maintain it, was a situation shockingly simmilar to serfdom. There was no shortage of programs and ideas --all of which failed miserably. But only at the very end of the Soviet Union were small independent family farms authorized for larger areas of agricultural land, plots 10-50 hectares (1990).
Conquest, Robert, ed. Agricultural Workers in the USSR (Bodley Head: 1968). Soviet Studies series.
Danilov, V.P.. Rural Russia Under the New Regime (Hutchinson: 1988) (translation of Sovetskaya dokolkhoznaya derevnya: naselenie, zemlepol'zovanie, khozyaistvo [Moscow, 1977]), p.286.
Figes, Orlando. Peasant Russia, Civil War: The Volga Countryside in Revolution (1917 - 1921) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, corrected paperback edn. 1991).
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village After Collectivization (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
Hoch, Stefan. Serfdom and Social Control in Russia: Petrovskoe, a Village in Tambov (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1986).
Nove, Alec. An Economic History of the USSR (Penguin, 1969).
Solzhenitsyn, Alexsanddr I. Trans, Thomas P. Wjitney. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-56: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Harper & Row: New York, 1973), 660p. The NKVD use the law of August 7, 1932 for these proecutions (p. 58). And the criminal code allowed for the procecution for not reporting individuals commiting crimes such as snipping (p. 67). .
Worobec, Christine D. Peasant Russia: Family and Community in the Post-Emancipation Period (Princeton University Press: 1991).
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