Russian Peasants and Soviet Power: A Study of Collectivization

552 Pages·1968·22.084 MB·English

by  Moshe Lewin

ewin
Toward the end of 1927, the curious economic-social
compromise known in the USSR as NEP entered a
period of acute crisis. The state sector was still small and
it faced a vast, though fragmented, private sector which
dominated agriculture. Lenin had expected this com¬
promise to last a long time, Bukharin believed that it
could and should continue, but Stalin decided to end it.
However, at the outset he had no alternative policy, and
he searched feverishly for a solution during two critical
years of growing tension, finally deciding at the end of
1929 in favor of the policy of total collectivization and
extremely rapid industrialization.
It is this dramatic and decisive period that forms the
subject of this book. For the first time in the history of
Western literature, these years are examined in depth.
The study centers around two focal points: the Soviet
regime and the peasantry. The complex interrelationship
between those two vital factors was a principal concern
of Soviet politics from the first days of the revolution.
The work analyzes the social, political, economic, and
ideological problems of a society in the throes of a great
transformation, and every effort is made to see these
questions not only from the urban, or politician’s,
point of view, but also from the standpoint of the
peasant. This is not easy since the peasant leaves few
written documents for historians to study; such
materials are usually the work of townsmen and officials.
Dr. Lewin, however, was able to supplement his exten¬
sive studies by his own personal experience. He lived in
the USSR from 1940 to 1946, working in many collect¬
ive farms and elsewhere alongside hundreds of peasants,
a mere dozen or so years after the events described
which adds greatly to the value of his presentation.
This work should interest not only the Russian specia¬
list, but also anyone who wants to understand the great
events of contemporary history.
Dr. Moshe Lewin, during his stay in Russia, worked
n kolkhozy, iron-ore mines, and metallurgic plants in
the Urals, and also served in the Soviet army. After the
Second World War he lived in Poland, France, and
Israel. He studied economics at the Tel-Aviv High
School of Economics, and philosophy, history, and
literature at Tel-Aviv University. He took his doctorate
in history at the Sorbonne and was Directeur d'etudes
suppleant at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in
Paris. At present he is Senior Fellow at the Russian
Institute, Columbia University.

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/russianpeasantssOOOOunse

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RUSSIAN PEASANTS AND SOVIET POWER
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Le dernier combat de Lenine,
Paris, Les Editions de Minuit, 1967
The Great Debate: Russia in the twenties,
Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall
RUSSIAN PEASANTS
AND SOVIET POWER
A STUDY OF COLLECTIVIZATION
by M. Lewin
Senior Fellow, Russian Institute, Columbia University
TRANSLATED BY IRENE NOVE
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF JOHN BIGGART
WITH A PREFACE BY
PROFESSOR ALEC NOVE
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Evanston 1968
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1968
This translation © George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1968
The French original
La Paysannerie et le Pouvoir Sovietique
first published in 1966 by Mouton
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-31683
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN