PERSONAL HOUSEHOLD PLOTS OF WORKERS AND EMPLOYEES OF SIBERIA IN THE 1930S: DYNAMICS AND DEVELOPMENT TRENDS

Abstract

Formation of a new model of agrarian system was the result of mass collectivization in the USSR. Collective farms were its organizational and production basis. The second largest sector of agriculture in terms of production potential consisted of personal household plots. They were main producers of potatoes, vegetables and milk, and a significant part of meat products. Soviet and Russian historiography has paid main attention to the study of the personal plots of collective farmers, overlooking the dynamics of personal plots of workers and employees. The author of the article reconstructs factors and trends of development of personal household plots of workers and employees in Siberia in the 1930s. It was found that in the early 1930s the size of personal plots of this category of population was minimal. State farm workers were prohibited from personal farming, and personal household plots of other categories of workers and employees were taxed at the rates of individual farmers. After the 1932–1933 mass famine, several restrictions on the development of personal household plots were canceled. Level of its taxation was decreased. Liberalization of state policy and an increasing part of workers and employees in population of the region led to a rapid growth in production potential of their personal plots. Development rate of workers and employees’ personal plots was higher than that of collective farmers. In the late 1930s a campaign took place to limit the size of personal household plots. Taxation was increased. This led to decline in the personal sector of agricultural economy.