The Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe

Comparison and Entanglements

Constantin Iordachi editor Arnd Bauerkämper editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Central European University Press

Published:20th Feb '14

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe cover

Despite its profound, long-term socio-political implications, the collectivization of agriculture in Eastern Europe after the Second World War has remained a relatively under-researched field. In order to understand the post-communist transformation of Eastern European societies, scholars need to pay attention to the status and evolution of the peasantry and to employ a historical perspective, by exploring the communist agricultural policies and their enduring economic and social implications. To contribute to this analytical effort, the volume explores the inter-related campaigns of collectivization of the agriculture in USSR in the interwar and post-war periods and in the communist dictatorships established in the Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe after World War II. Although the contributors to this volume focus on various case studies, they address a unitary set of analytical issues, relating to: 1) the Soviet "model" and its emulation in Eastern Europe; 2) spatial differences in the collectivization campaigns, particularly with regard to the relationship between centre and peripheral regions; 3) the dynamics of collectivization in rural societies; and 4) types of collectivization and socialist agricultural systems.

"The volume helps to patch the hole in contemporary examinations of the change of systems that often overlook a legacy of rural transformation, and opens the way for additional anthropological and sociological studies. References and copious footnotes make for a comprehensive bibliography of the agrarian question under communism. Summing up: recommended." * Choice *
"The publication of The Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe by two main editors, Constantin Iordachi and Arnd Bauerkämper, is the result of a highly ambitious project with clearly defined goals and methodology. While the collectivization of agriculture is a subject that has been under research in many Central and Eastern European countries, existing studies are written mostly just from the perspective of individual states and nations and most authors just aim at presenting a critical assessment of these countries' communist past. Methodological problems such as the social or environmental impact of collectivization thus tend to remain overshadowed by political history. Constantin Iordachi and Arnd Bauerkämper try to escape this stereotypical view of collectivization in Central and Eastern Europe and successfully." * Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas *
"Dans une perspective historiographique élargie et renouvelée, l’ouvrage entend « transcender le paradigme national » en étudiant le transfert d’un modèle collectiviste formé dans le contexte du projet stalinien et appliqué, deux décennies plus tard, à d’autres réalités politiques et sociales. Sous l’égide de l’histoire croisée, les auteurs veulent éclairer la complexité des interactions qui relient les diverses expériences nationales de transposition de la version soviétique du collectivisme en agriculture. Conduites selon des formes similaires de recours à la coercition économique, à la terreur politique, à la violence de la « dékoulakisation », les campagnes de collectivisation progressent selon un tempo qui varie d’un pays à l’autre. L’exploitation de nouveaux matériaux d’archives autorise l’établissement d’une chronologie plus fine de la préparation et de la mise en oeuvre des opérations, rythmées par des avancées accélérées, des reculs tactiques, puis des reprises plus soucieuses de pragmatisme. Le rappel de l’enchaînement des transformations – la réforme agraire de l’immédiat après-guerre, la nationalisation des biens fonciers, les étapes de la collectivisation – est sans aucun doute utile et pertinent. Ces données permettent de mieux appréhender les contextes politiques et institutionnels des phases d’accélération (1929-1935, 1945-1947, 1948-1965) et de répit (1935-1945, 1953-1956), et de cerner les raisons du succès et de l’échec des méthodes employées pour collectiviser des paysanneries majoritairement réticentes mais dont certaines composantes ont été manipulées au nom de la lutte des classes." * Revue d'histoire moderne & contemporaine *

ISBN: 9786155225635

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 962g

570 pages