Figure 1.--This photograph was taken in 1945 after the War. The children come from a collective farm in Belorussia which were liberated in 1944. Soviet officials described them as slave laborers whose growth was stunted by lack of food. The boy on the left said that he was 15 years old. We think that what was meant was that their parents were used as slave labor because the younger children are clearly not old enough to perform much useful labor. We do not know how their parents fared. Source: UPI press photo.

Stalin forecably collectivized Soviet agriculture in the late-1920s and 30s. Peasants who resisted were foribly dealt with. The great resistance was in the Ukraine where there was also a strong nationalist movement. Stalin's response was to engineer the Great Famine, a repression so severe that many Ukranians now lavel it as an act of genocide. Peasants who resisted were laveled Kulaks. Some were deported, others including whole families were simply forced off their farms, even in the Winter. No one was allowed to assist them or offer shelter. Soviet agriculture never recovered. The collectives which Stalin put in place is what the Germans found when they invaded the Soviet Union. And agricultural land and production was one of the primary goals of Barbarossa. We are not entirely sure what happened on the collective farms. The Soviets pursued a scorched earth policy, but the German advance was so rapid that many farms were captured in good shape. Here we do not yet have details. We would welcome any information readers may have. The NAZI Commisar order involved shooting Party Commisars in the Red Army. This may have also meant the leadership of collectives. Here we are also unsure. We do not know just how the Germans administered agriculture. We do not know to what extent the collectives were involved in the resistance movement. They held large areas of the Ulraine (1941-43) and other areas of the Baltics and Bylorussi where the collectives were less well established (1941-44). We believe that the collectives erxperienced more damage when the Germans were forced to withdraw. The Germans not only destroyed the physucal plant, but in some cases murdered the collective members. Here we also do not yet have details. Large numbers of Ukranians were deported to the Reich for slave labor. This may have been primarily city residents, but as the Red Army approached this may have included collective members.

Soviet Collectivization (late-1920s-early-30s)

Stalin forecably collectivized Soviet agriculture in the late-1920s and 30s. This was fart of his overall assault on the oeasantry to finabce industrialization. He also saw it as necessary to gain control of the last economic sector outside of his complete control. Peasants who resisted were foribly dealt with. The great resistance was in the Ukraine where there was also a strong nationalist movement. Stalin's response was to engineer the Great Famine, a repression so severe that many Ukranians now lavel it as an act of genocide. Peasants who resisted were laveled Kulaks. Some were deported, others including whole families were simply forced off their farms, even in the Winter. No one was allowed to assist them or offer shelter. Soviet agriculture never recovered, both because of the inefficencies of the collective farm and because Stalin in effect murdered many if the bsr=t farmers in the country.

Operation Barbarossa (June 1941)

Hitler in late 1940 began shifting the Wehrmacht eastward to face the enemy that he had longed to fight from the onset--Soviet Russia. The nature of the War changed decisevely in the second half of 1941. The Germans invaded Russia in June 1941, launching the most sweeping military campaign in history. It is estimated that on the eve of battle, 6.25 million men faced each other in the East. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. Stalin ignored warnings from the British who as a result of Ultra had details on the German preparations. Stalin was convinced that they were trying to draw him into the War and until the actual attack could not believe that Hitler would attack him. The attack was an enormous tactical success. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. The Soviet Air Force was destoyed, largely on the ground. The Germans captured 3.8 million Soviet soldiers in the first few months of the campaign. No not knowing the true size of the Red Army, they thought they had essentally won the War. German columns seized the major cities of western Russia and drove toward Leningrad and Moscow. But here the Soviets held. The Japanese decission to strike America, allowed the Sovierts to shift Siberian reserves and in December 1941 launch a winter offensive stopping the Whermacht at the gates of Moscow--inflicting irreplaceable losses. The army that invaded the Soviet Union had by January 1942 lost a quarter of its strength. Hitler on December 11 declared war on America--the only country he ever formally declared war on. In an impassioned speech, he complained of a long list of violations of neutality and actual acts of war. [Domarus, pp. 1804-08.] The list was actually fairly accurate. His conclusion, however, that actual American entry into the War would make little difference proved to a diasterous miscalculation. The Germans who months before had faced only a battered, but unbowed Britain now was locked into mortal combat with the two most powerful nations of the world. The British now had the allies that made a German and Japanese victory virtually impossible. After the Russian offensive of December 1941 and apauling German losses--skeptics began to appear and were give the derisory term " Gröfaz ".

Soviet Scorched Earth Policy (1941)

The Soviets pursued a scorched earth policy, but the German advance was so rapid that many farms were captured in good shape. This probably dependned largely on wghre the collective was located. The collectives in the western Eurkraine wee probably taken in good order. Those further east where the Soviets had more time to react probaly suffered more damage as well as the collective members had time to flee east. There were also surely individual variations reflecting the collective leadership.

German Administration of the Collectives (1941-44)

As result of Operation Barbarossa, the Gern Wehrmacht occupied large areas of the western Soviet Union. Even with the Red Army Winter Offensive (December 1941), the Germans were left in control the Baltics, eastern Poland, Beylorussia, and even areas of western Russia, and the Ukraine. The Soviets pursued ascorced earth policy, but the German advance was so rapid that many farms were captured in good shape. Here we do not yet have details. WE do know that the collective farms were less established in the Baltics. We would welcome any information readers may have. The NAZI Commisar order involved shooting Party Commisars in the Red Army. This may have also meant the leadership of collectives. Here we are also unsure. Hitler assigned Alfred Rosenberg the task of Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. The collectives which Stalin put in place is what the Germans found when they invaded the Soviet Union. Rosenberg aannounced the termination of Soviet collectivization. The Collective farms (kolkhozes) were to be broken up. It is unclear to what extent Hitler gave Rosenberg instructions or the two discussed plans for the collective farms. Rosenberg issued an Agrarian Law (February 1942). This annulled all Soviet legislation on farming, and restored family farms for those willing to collaborate with the occupiers. Decollectivization conflicted, however, with German war goals. And agricultural land and production was one of the primary goals of Barbarossa.Hitler's vision of the War was that with the resources of the East he would have all the resources Germany blacked to wage war. Grain and other foods was one of those vital resources that Germany needed. And it was soon appararent that the collective farm structure were needed to control gain and food production and endsure what was harvested went to German hands. Reich Marshal Hermann Göring understood this. He demanded that the coersive collective farm structure, albeit with a new name. Hitler whatever he may have felt earlier, denounced what he saw as the redistribution of land as Rosenberg was suggesting as 'stupid.' [Grenkevich, pp. 169–71.] Rosenberg had the title of Minister, but he had armed force to enforce his rulings. What transpired was that German occupation authorities retained most of the collectives and simply gave then the new name of 'community farms' (Общинные хозяйства). This was the traditional Russian name for commune. German propaganda spun this as a preparatory step toward the future dissolution of the collective farms into private farms. The land would be granted to peasants who had loyally delivered the compulsory quotas of grain and farm produce assigned by the Germans. The Germans of course had no intention of turning over land to farm workers. Their plan was to kill the Soviert and other Eastern populations by the tens of millions--Generalplan Ost. The Germans by the time that the Red Army began to advance after Stalingrad had converted some 30 percent of the collective farms into German-controlled 'agricultural cooperatives'. No one hectar was turned over to 'loyal' farm workers. [Wieczynski, pp. 161–62 and Brandt, Schiller and Anlgrimm, pp.92ff.]

Resistance Movement

We do not know to what extent the collectives were involved in the resistance movement.

Unoccupied Collective Farms

German Scorched Earth Policy (1943-44)

We believe that the collectives erxperienced more damage when the Germans were forced to withdraw. The Germans not only destroyed the physucal plant, but in some cases murdered the collective members. Here we also do not yet have full details, but a good bit of informsation is available. The first German reverses occurred at the end of Barbarossa. Not only did the Red Army launch an offensive befire Moscow (December 1941), but they also struck in the south. The Germans had reached the Donblas, including Rostov. They were rorced back. The Commander of Army Group South issued a secret memorandum to combat commanders under his command (December 22, 1941). "The following concept of the Führer is to be made known ... to all commanders ... " This included, "Each area that has to be abandoned to the enemy must be made completely unfit for his use. Regardless of its inhabitants every locality must be burned down and destroyed to deprive the enemy of accomodation facilities ... the localities left intact have to be subsequently ruined by the air force." [Kondufor, Doc. 119, p. 172.] The German struck again Their 1942 Summer offensive was limited to the Ukraine because of the losses suffered in the Soviet Winter offensuve (1941-42). The German offensive led to the Stalingrad dissaster (January 1943). Heavy fighting occurred in the Ukrainecas the Red Army drove west, culminating in the decisive Battle of Kursk (July 1943). The Germand returned to their scorced earth policy, but will a terrible viciousness. In some Ukranian villages the Germans rorced the inhabitants into the church and then set it on fire. People managing to escape the burning church were shot. Similar incidents occurred on collective farms. The SS was particularly brutal. SS Commander Heinrich Himmler ordered SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Prutzmann "to leave behind in Ukraine not a single person, no cattle, not a ton of grain, not a railroad track ... The enemy must find a country totally burned and destroyed." (September 7, 1943) [ Dallin p. 364.] It should not be thought that it was only the SS committing appalling attrocities. The Wehrmacht was deeply involved. The Wehrmacht weked havoc throughout the Ukraine. The Wehrmacht focused on the rail infractructure thinking that this would slow the Red Army advance. They destroyed 18,414 miles of rail lines. The Whermacht commanders, however, did not count on the grat mobility that thousands of American Studebaker and other trucks provided by American Lend Lease would give the resurgent Red Army. The Wehrmacht flooded mines, industries were blown up, and wells were poisoned. More than 2 million houses and buildings were burned down or otherwise and destroyed. NAZI Ostland Administrator Erich Koch ordered that "the homes of recalcitrant natives ... are to be burned down; relatives are to be arrested as hostages." The accounting of the destruction are astonishing. The Soviets estimated after the War that in the Ukraine alone that the retreating Germans "razed and burned over 28,000 villages and 714 cities and towns, leaving 10,000,000 people without shelter. More than 16,000 industrial enterprises, more than 200,000 industrial production sites, 27,910 collective and 872 state farms, 1,300 machine and tractor stations, and 32,930 general schools, vocational secondary schools and higher educational institutions of Ukraine had been destroyed. The direct damage to the Ukrainian national economy caused by the fascist occupation came to 285,000,000,000 rubles..." [Bazhan, p. 155.] Large numbers of Ukranians were deported to the Reich for slave labor. This may have been primarily city residents, but as the Red Army approached this may have included collective members.

Sources

Bazhan, M.P. ed. Soviet Ukraine Kiev: Editorial Office of the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969), 569p. Published by the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.

Bezymenski, Lev. The Death of Adolf Hitler (New York: Jove/HBJ, 1978).

Brandt, Karl, Otto Schiller, and Frantz Anlgrimm. Management of Agriculture and Food in the German-Occupied and Other Areas of Fortress Europe (Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1953).

Dallin, Alexander. German Rule in Russia 1941-1945 (London: Macmillan, 1957).

Dallin, Alexander. German Rule in Russia, 1941 – 1945: A Study of Occupation Politics (London, Macmillan, 1957).

Grenkevich, Leonid. The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941–1945: A Critical Historiographical Analysis (Routledge: New York, 1999).

Kondufor, Yuri. ed. History Teaches a Lesson (Kiev: Politvidav Ukraini Publishers, 1986), 254 p. The author has collected many German documents.

Created: 3:25 AM 9/30/2008
Last updated: 10:37 PM 10/15/2019