Sergey Valerievich Sharapov,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
State, Collective Farms and Shadow Economy during the Great Patriotic War (Based on Materials from Novosibirsk Oblast)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-4-7
This article is devoted to the problems of functioning of the USSR collective farm agrarian economy during the Great Patriotic War. Collective farms experienced the burden of mobilization policy minimizing the possibilities for peasants to receive an income sufficient for survival. The exclusion of personal economic interest and its replacement by administrative coercion had a negative effect on the productivity of collective farms. The kolkhoz peasantry, giving their labor in exchange for the right to use the private households, often showed indifference to the preservation of artel property. The labor, which became forced, was equally unproductive. Widespread were the practices of imitation of economic activity, evasion of artisanal work, and “barbaric” treatment of crops and livestock. Another negative consequence of the policy of total mobilization of collective farm resources was the transfer of peasant activity into the shadow economy. Emptying collective farm barns, the state itself provoked theft and the sale of artisanal products “on the side”. Nevertheless, the shadow economy, in part, compensated for failures of state supply by giving collective farms access to badly needed industrial goods, and to urban enterprises and institutions to food and land. The collective farms, however, were in an unequal position. The advantageous position was enjoyed by suburban agrarian farms, which had the opportunity to establish close contacts with the city. The most vulnerable were big collective farms in remote areas, which, above all, were subjected to hunger.
Publishing: 28/08/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 21/04/2023
How to cite: Sharapov S.V. State, Collective Farms and Shadow Economy during the Great Patriotic War (Based on Materials from Novosibirsk Oblast) // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 4 (30), pp. 92–105. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-4-07.pdf]
The article was made on the topic of the state assignment “Dynamics of the Economic and Social Development of Asian Russia in the Context of Geostrategic Challenges of the Late 19th – Early 21st Centuries” (FWZM-2021-0003).
Links: Issue 4 2023
Keywords: The Great Patriotic War; agrarian policy of the state; collective farms; mobilization; shadow economy