The collectivization of agriculture in 1928-1930 (based on materials from the Ulyanovsk District)
The relevance of the problem lies in the fact that at the present time, when the government of the Russian Federation is forced, in the realities of systematically increasing sanctions pressure from a number of European states, to make efforts and develop a programmatic course of reforms that can give an intensive impetus to the development of the agricultural sector, it is undoubtedly important to analyze the accumulated experience of the Soviet government in the implementation of the agrarian course of reforms during the collectivization period. In addition, the relevance is enhanced by the inadequacy of the development of problems in the modern domestic research field. The purpose of the article is to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the events and problems of collectivization on the territory of the Ulyanovsk district of the Middle Volga region. The study uses archival documents from the State Archive of Contemporary History of the Ulyanovsk Region (SACH UR), the State Archives of the Ulyanovsk Region (SAUR), as well as literature and scientific publications of researchers on this topic. The article was formed on the basis of principles and methods accepted in modern historical science. The principles of objectivity and historicism became fundamental. When writing the work, specific methods were also applied: problem-chronological, historical-comparative, historical-systemic, statistical. The process of organizing collective farms in the period of collectivization, the role of local party structures in building collective farms and eliminating the kulaks as a class are shown. Along with this, the methods of socializing land ownership were studied, the categories of peasants who participated in the creation of the collective farm system were identified: the poor, middle peasants and wealthy peasants. It is concluded that as a result of collectivization through the socialization of the property of individual farms and the enlargement of collective farms, local power structures managed to achieve in the period from 1928 to 1930 significant successes: firstly, the multiple expansion of sown areas; secondly, an increase in the rate of development of cattle breeding; and thirdly, the implementation of a large-scale inventory. However, at the same time, due to the implementation of the collectivization campaign by tough measures, as well as the mass dispossession of kulaks, the peasants lost the motivation to work.