Collectivisation: Political Philosophy and Stable Income Essay

?How accurate is it to say that the most important result of the collectivisation of agriculture was that it imposed communist control of the countryside? The result of collectivisation of agriculture was that it had imposed communist control as it meant that all farmers got an equal and fair rate exchange from their produce. However some areas were capitalist such as the use of NEP, the idea that the more you work the more you gain and that peasants eventually gained land for their own increasing each individual profit which is not along the lines of communist views. It is accurate to a strong extent that collectivisation of agriculture was that it imposed communist control as Stalin removed capitalist ideas eventually such as the NEP, but by allowing farmers to own their own land meant that communist ideas had to be altered in order for Stalin to keep the support of the people. The political ideas of Stalin were by far to impose communist control. Stalin’s position meant that he could alter existing ideas in order to make them fit in with communist ones and therefore allowing him to take control of areas that before hadn’t followed communist ideas. This is seen when Stalin eliminated the NEP. By doing this he eliminated capitalist ideas as peasants were forced to hand over any land they owned and work on communal farms creating equality and communist control. The collectivisation of these farms meant that all farmers earned the same amount imposing communist control as there wasn’t certain members that earned more and so could cheat the government by selling on products in secret and earning more than others. However, over time more farmers began selling produce to kulaks that would make more money and therefore not following communist ideas. In order to stop this Stalin had to allow a small amount of land to be owned by each farmer, which meant that some capitalist ideas had to be used in order to keep farmers content. This shows how one of the most important results of collectivisation was that it imposed communist control but as people were not happy with this it meant some other ideas had to be brought in to allow a widespread acceptance. The ideology of Stalin was to communise peasants and therefore the government would have a stable income of grain to export and get income from. By collectivising peasants it meant that the government could control the production of grain by having a fixed amount of grain going to the government. This meant that the government could export this grain for a stable income. This had a positive effect for a short period of time before peasants wanted more of a share of grain and so the government had to allow this. This is also an economic advantage from collectivisation as the stable income allowed income for Russia that could go back into the country and therefore improve it. The collectivisation imposed communist control as without it the government wouldn’t have got such a stable income from exports that boosted the economy. Socially controlling the people by keeping them consent was very important. When peasants starting to act against the government by breaking machinery and killing off animals rather then hand them over to the government this mean that the government needed to take action. In order to solve this problem Stalin bought in a scheme that allowed each peasant to own a small piece of land in which they could work on and keep all the harvest from that land for themselves. This created a widespread acceptance for peasants and meant that people would accept Stalin’s policies and the communist control. This shows that the collectivisation had some problems that the government had to deal with that meant communist control wasn’t successful and so other capitalist ideas were needed to keep farmers happy. In conclusion, the most important result of collectivisation was that it imposed communist control as it meant that the government had control of the people socially, by allowing them to have their own land, and politically. It also meant that the government had a stable income from exports of grain allowing Russia to use that income to improve other areas. Without this control the government wouldn’t of been able to have the economic boost.