The War Against the Peasantry, 1927-1930: The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside, Volume one (Annals of Communism Series)

454 Pages·2005·1.73 MB·English

by  Lynne Viola

annals of communism
Each volume in the series Annals of Communism will publish selected and
previously inaccessible documents from former Soviet state and party archives
in a narrative that develops a particular topic in the history of Soviet and in-
ternational communism. Separate English and Russian editions will be pre-
pared. Russian and Western scholars work together to prepare the documents
for each volume. Documents are chosen not for their support of any single in-
terpretation but for their particular historical importance or their general
value in deepening understanding and facilitating discussion. The volumes are
designed to be useful to students, scholars, and interested general readers.
executive editor of the annals of communism series
Jonathan Brent, Yale University Press
project manager
Vadim A. Staklo
american editorial committee
Ivo Banac, Yale University Robert L. Jackson, Yale University
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Czeslaw Milosz, University of Califor-
Strategic and International Studies nia, Berkeley
William Chase, University of Pitts- Norman Naimark, Stanford University
burgh Gen. William Odom, Hudson Institute
Victor Erlich, Yale University and Yale University
Friedrich I. Firsov, former head of the Daniel Orlovsky, Southern Methodist
Comintern research group at University
RGASPI Mark Steinberg, University of Illinois,
Sheila Fitzpatrick, University of Chicago Urbana-Champaign
Gregory Freeze, Brandeis University Strobe Talbott, Brookings Institution
John L. Gaddis, Yale University Mark Von Hagen, Columbia Univer-
J. Arch Getty, University of California, sity
Los Angeles Piotr Wandycz, Yale University
Jonathan Haslam, Cambridge Univer-
sity
russian editorial committee
K. M. Anderson, director, Russian N. S. Lebedeva, Russian Academy of
State Archive of Social and Political Sciences
History (RGASPI) S. V. Mironenko, director, State
N. N. Bolkhovitinov, Russian Acad- Archive of the Russian Federation
emy of Sciences (GARF)
A. O. Chubaryan, Russian Academy of O. V. Naumov, assistant director,
Sciences RGASPI
V. P. Danilov, Russian Academy of Sci- E. O. Pivovar, Moscow State Univer-
ences sity
A. A. Fursenko, secretary, Department V. V. Shelokhaev, president, Associa-
of History, Russian Academy of Sci- tion ROSSPEN
ences (head of the Russian Editorial Ye. A. Tyurina, director, Russian State
Committee) Archive of the Economy (RGAE)
V. P. Kozlov, director, Rosarkhiv
The War Against the
Peasantry, 1927–1930
The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside
Edited by
Lynne Viola, V. P. Danilov, N. A. Ivnitskii, and
Denis Kozlov
Translated by Steven Shabad
Yale University Press
New Haven & London
This is the first volume in The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside, 1927–1939,
edited by V. P. Danilov, R. T. Manning, and L. Viola.
A subseries of the Annals of Communism Series.
This book is also in the Yale Agrarian Studies Series, James C. Scott, series editor.
Copyright © 2005by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107and 108of the U.S. Copyright Law and
except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Designed by James J. Johnson and set in Sabon Roman type by
The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America by Vail-Ballou Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The war against the peasantry, 1927–1930/ edited by Lynne Viola . . . et al. ;
translated by Steven Shabad.
p. cm. — (Annals of Communism. Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside, 1927–1939)
(Yale Agrarian Studies Series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-300-10612-2(cloth : alk. paper)
1. Collectivization of agriculture—Soviet Union—History—Sources. 2. Peasantry—
Soviet Union—History—Sources. 3. Soviet Union—Politics and government—
1917–1936—Sources. I. Viola, Lynne. II. Series.
HD1492.S65W37 2005
3 8.7(cid:2)63(cid:2)094709041—dc23 2004058893
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Yale University Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support
given for this publication by the John M. Olin Foundation, the
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Roger Milliken, Lloyd H.
Smith, Keith Young, Jeremiah Milbank, the David Woods Kemper
Memorial Foundation, the Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Foundation,
and the Milton V. Brown Foundation.
The documents reproduced in this book are from the following
archives and are used with the permission of these archives:
State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF)
Russian State Archive of the Economy (RGAE)
Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI)
Central Archive of the Federal Security Services (TsA FSB)
Russian State Military Archive (RGVA)
State Archive of Novosibirsk Oblast (GANO)
Funding for The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside, 1927–1939
has been provided by:
National Endowment for the Humanities
Social Science Research Council
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
International Research and Exchange Program
Australian Research Council
Boston College
Stalin-Era Research and Archive Project of the Centre for Russian and East
European Studies at the University of Toronto
University of Birmingham
University of Melbourne
Seoul National University
Amsterdam University
Praxis International
Foreign Ministry of South Korea
Contents
Editor’s Acknowledgments ix
Translator’s Note xii
Note on Transliteration xiii
A Note on the Documents xiv
Glossary of Russian Terms and Abbreviations xvi
Introduction 1
part i. The Grain Procurement Crisis 7
chapter 1.The Crisis of NEP: 7May 1927–14
January 1928 9
chapter 2.Extraordinary Measures and the Right
Opposition: 18January 1928–23April 1929 57
chapter 3.The Great Turn: 4May 1929–15
November 1929 118
part ii. Collectivization and Dekulakization 169
chapter 4.The December Politburo Commission:
5December 1929–5January 1930 171
viii Contents
chapter 5.The Campaign Against the Kulak:
5January 1930–1March 1930 205
chapter 6.Dizzy with Success: 2March 1930–1July 1930 264
chapter 7.Epilogue 319
Biographical Notes 371
Index of Documents 379
Notes 385
Index 411
Editor’s Acknowledgments
This project (The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside) began in 1993on
a shoestring budget at a time when the Russian economy was collaps-
ing. V. P. Danilov approached Roberta Manning and me, inviting us to
participate in what at the time sounded like a far too grandiose re-
search project that could very well outlive us all. Professor Danilov
proposed the compilation of a five-volume documentary history of the
Soviet countryside from 1927 to 1939. The documentary history
would be based on research in the newly opening central archives of
Moscow, research that would take years of scouring the archives and
negotiating with complex bureaucracies. We were joined by a team of
more than forty highly dedicated Russian historians and archivists
who gave generously of their time and expertise. Over the next few
years, several non-Russian historians joined the project: Kim Chang
Jin, R. W. Davies, Michael Ellman, J. Arch Getty, H. Jeong-Sook, and
Stephen Wheatcroft, contributing both expertise and funding. In
2001, Jonathan Brent of Yale University Press agreed to publish a con-
densed version of the Russian-language series in English in the Annals
of Communism series, and Steven Shabad joined the project as our
translator.
We have had many generous benefactors, and it is a pleasure to take
this opportunity to thank them. The National Endowment for the
Humanities has sponsored this project with a series of Collaborative
Project Grants, providing roughly two-thirds of our funding. We are
ix