Russian Peasants and Soviet Power: A Study of Collectivization PDF
Preview Russian Peasants and Soviet Power: A Study of Collectivization
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 ■ 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
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