Laperdin Vyacheslav B.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
“Purge” in Collective Farms of West Siberian Region’s Northern Parts in 1936
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2019-1-4
At the beginning of 1936, central authorities adopted a project of agricultural development of the northern regions developed by West Siberian authorities. In addition to economic measures, the project included socio-political measures, in particular, “purges” in collective farms in order to identify and eliminate “anti-Soviet elements”. The objective reason for this was the fact that the state’s agrarian policy was opposed by leaders and rank-and-file members of the newly created collective farms that had not undergone the “purge” of the first half of the 1930s. By eliminating all “anti-Soviet elements” and gaining the support of pro-Soviet collective farmers, state authorities hoped to break the peasant resistance, putting agricultural artels under strict control. Implementation of the project led to the “purge” campaign in collective farm management personnel in the spring of 1936. Despite prescriptions developed by the regional center, the regional authorities allowed numerous “excesses”. However, in general, their behavior fit into the framework permitted by the regional leadership. Simultaneously with the “purge”, in the largest agricultural artels the post of party organizers was established. Their main goal was to carryout organizational and propaganda work, identify and exclude the rank-and-file collective farmers who criticized the state policy. “Purge” commissions had to deal with various forms of peasant resistance. Nevertheless, authorities managed to use contradictions between the social groups within the collective farms in order to identify “anti-Soviet elements”. This campaign received noticeable response in collective farms. “Purge” of 1936 was the most striking episode during implementation of the project of agrarian development in northern parts of West Siberian region.
Publishing: 26/02/2019
How to cite: Laperdin V.B. “Purge” in Collective Farms of West Siberian Region’s Northern Parts in 1936 // Historical Courier, 2019, # 1 (3). Article 4. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2019/ISTKURIER-2019-1-04.pdf
Links: Issue 1 2019
Keywords: state agrarian policy; repression; peasantry; Siberia; “Purge” in collective farms