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[chapter nine]
How farming is done in Russia
The Peasant Farmer
The population of Russia today (seventy-five to eighty per cent of it) is of the peasant class. Old Russia was primarily an agricultural nation and is so even today. However, it is the aim of the Soviet government and the Communist Party to convert the country from an agricultural to an industrial nation. This is the purpose of the First and Second Five Year Plans-to industrialize the country. The First Five Year Plan is to care for the ma j or or "heavy industries" whereas the Second Five Year Plan calls for the furtherance of the First F. Y. P. work and secondary industries sometimes called "light industries." The reference to the "light industries" is to textiles, canning, rubber and leather goods, household products, chemicals, and various other commodities. Of course both plans include improvements for the farming industry such as machinery of all kinds, fertilizer, and scientific instruction.
Because of Russia's past life being chiefly an agrarian one there existed then and even now three types of peasants, the "kulak," rich peasant; the "seredniak," middle class peasant; and the "byedniak," the poor peasant. The latter two frequently worked for the first. These, then, merited the greatest favors of the new government. But even with all this consideration they are the most frequent complainers, due to their ignorance of the purpose of the State.
Every effort is used to encourage the peasant to lighten his labor by using machinery which the government does not tax. After the revolution every peasant family was .given a piece of land. If the family was a large one it was compelled to pay a larger tax and vice versa. The peasants, the poor ones which includes the middle class, are invited to join the co-operatives in their districts and by doing so each is granted credits. This enables them to purchase machinery, seeds, and other things needed for farming, through the government.
The Bolshevik Revolution meant the nationalization of all private property. The land given the peasant by the government could not be legally bought or sold. This, however, caused some dissatisfaction among the poor and middle class peasants as most of them were under the impression that after the revolution they could really own their own land. Being farmers all their lives and coming from a class whose ambitions were to own their own land they could not quite conceive the socialization of land idea.They thought this to be their opportunity to get what the rich peasant possessed. The government, however, did grant the peasant the right to lease land from one peasant to another for a period of, several years. The customary form, which is practiced in other countries, in regard to renting land, is just the converse in Russia where, it is the rich peasant who has to rent from the poor peasant in most cases.
A Collective Farm
To adequately cover the complete farming situation of Russia would take a whole volume in itself. And for that matter one could write a book or two on the Collective farms or the State farms alone, the former being organized by the peasants themselves with aid of the government agronomists. It is the Soviet's idea to work and produce in groups rather than as individuals, and pool the gains. The government, as I have already mentioned, furnishes liberal aid to members of collectives. Rather than force peasants to join the collectives at the point of a bayonet the sane method of winning them over by pointing out the advantage to them of government assistance is used. The State farms are managed and, controlled directly by the government.
The day I selected to visit a collective farm nearMoscow I was crowded, in the only bus available, with some tourists who had come to Moscow the night before. Upon our arrival at the farm we were met by one of the members of the farm board who escorted us to a grassy field where we all sat down, picnic fashion, to hear what he had to say.
Our lecturer told us that there are three kinds of collective farms in the Soviet Union. The first is where everything is socialized, meaning publicly owned; the second, where just the land is socialized, but the horses not; and third, where just the cows and horses are socialized, or only the means of production socialized.
The size of our farm was 460 hectares (1,150 acres) made up of a combination of 209 individual farms with nearly every member owning a radio. Originally this collective was a great deal larger than it was at the time of my visit, some of the land having been annexed by the city of Moscow. A great number of the members of the farm are factory workers who are employed in the Moscow factories, devoting some of their time to farm work after factory hours and on off-days. Some of the members' wives work on the farm while they labor in the city. And a social nursery on the farm cared for the infants and children while the mother worked.
Formerly the land was used for grain production, but now, because of its proximity to the city, it is chiefly devoted to the raising of vegetables. All over the land ' were little green houses (20,000 of them) which are used chiefly for the raising of mushrooms. This is said to give the farmers employment in the winter time.
The entire collective is managed by a special board composed of farmers and workers who are members. Each member is responsible for the production of his own plot of ground. Everything is recorded pertaining to the property the farmer has when he becomes a member and each is credited with his horses, cows, and other things. But if he should decide to drop his membership, he is paid in cash for these instead of receiving the actual property again.
The question was asked, "What will happen if he leaves?" Ans. "He will be employed by one of the factories in addition to being paid off."
Sometimes government agronomists, who usually are members, are managers of these farms. The collective, by the aid of the government, advances the money to be used by the members. Then the returns are divided at the end of the economic year. Each collective farm is charged taxes by the government according to the income per hectare. Meadows, however, when used at first by new members are not taxed, also the poor farms are tax free.
In the farming season ten hours usually makes up the work-day. Before there were collectives the work-day was much longer because there was little or no machinery. Now, those who became members of the collectives work many hours less per day because they have more and better machinery and because all members work as collectivists.
No "kulaks" are taken into the collectives because no one trusts them, but if the son is a soldier in the Red Army or the daughter a teacher in the community, the parents, if recommended by their children, are accepted as members. Of course these sons and daughters have a right to become members. As for the middle class farmer, he is treated just as the poor farmer in regard to membership, the latter being encouraged and helped the most by the government as it is the policy of the Soviet regime to raise the standard of the most humble first.
From my observations, this collective produced a fairly good quality of vegetables, but also in my opinion-though I do not profess to know much about farming-it was not up to our American standard. Quite a number of sections were not in cultivation and in some places it looked as though some of the members were neglecting their duties since the plots were overgrown with weeds. This might have been due to the change from a grain farmto a suburban, and to its not being entirely organized in the vegetable line as yet. The collective manager informed us this collective was still in the experimental stages and the weather was against them that season.
When I was traveling through the Ukraine I had the opportunity of seeing neater and better kept collectives which had a neutralizing effect on my mental condemnation of what I had seen in the Moscow district.
A State Farm
About a two and a half hour drive from the city of Rostov on Don brought me to the Verbliud, ("Camel") State Farm. This farm is the second largest in the Soviet Union, the Gigant being the first, but it has the largest experimental station. Located on this farm is a community center which was still under construction at the time of my visit. The Verbliud was organized in the year 1929 for large scale production, experimental purposes, and to train workers for this as well as other state farms in the Union.
At first this farm contained 46,000 hectares (115,000 acres) and now 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres), all subdivided into eight divisions. The ground was originally used for cattle grazing, belonging formerly to the Cossacks. At the time of my visit there were 123 tractors in use, twenty of which were assigned to the experimental station and several others to the school. Fifty of these were of the caterpillar type. In addition to these there were eighty-one combines in use. During the plowing season it is not uncommon for several tractors to pull six or more gang-plows joined in a straight line by special arrangement.
The farm is divided into five departments, agricultural technic, mass work, machinery, special study for grain, and organization. The production, compared to individual farms, was more than double. Because of the production being done on a larger scale and the application of scientific methods, the state farms have proven to be much more efficient than the individual farms.
The Verbliud State Farm produces three grades of wheat and has 65,000 hectares (162,500 acres) under cultivation at the present time. The entire farm is operated as a separate unit of the State Farm system and the supervisors are responsible for its operation. The maintenance expenses paid the government come from a portion of the production which is set aside for that purpose, and the expenses of the experimental station are derived from a special budget.
The community in which the farmers, technicians, and others live has a population of 12,000. More streets and. apartments are still under construction and the, communal kitchen serves daily 3,000 of this population. The farm hands receive eighty rubles per month and the mechanics ninety. They are allowed rent, light, heat, furniture, and clothing for work, free. Those who dine in the communal kitchen get three meals each day for seventy kopecks thirtyfive cents). I had my noon day meal in this same kitchen with many of the workers of the community. It was simple but good.
Experiments on machinery and tractors used on this farm are conducted at the station for that purpose. Different tests proved the caterpillar tractor to be the best suited for the land. A school for the workers is a part of the community. Each worker contracts for free technical education for the season if he wants it. People from all walks of life are employed here. They include those of the peasant class, skilled workers, some of them foreigners, and old and new intelligentsia. All managers employed at the State farms receive their training while working.
Russia, because of her climate has an advantage over western Europe. Her long severe winters and short but hot summers produces a hardy grain whichripens in a very short time. Nature shows favoritism toward Russia by doing the job of ripening grain in the same number of weeks it takes western Europe months.