What percent of peasants was collectivized in Soviet Russia?

Question by Garrett H: What percent of peasants was collectivized in Soviet Russia?
Were entire villages forcefully cleaned out and deserted or were select peasants taken, such as the kulaks? And for that matter, who were the kulaks? While we’re at it, how widespread was the collectivization in Western Russia vs. Eastern Russia? Are there reliable figures available for total numbers and percentages? Thanks.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Joseph
All peasants were forced to join the collective farms, or work for state farms.

The collective farms pooled the peasants’ livestock and land and, theoretically, they shared the profits from selling their products. The problem was, everyone shared equally, if you worked the skin off your hands, or the village drunk who didn’t work.

The state farms belonged to, say a mine or a factory. It supplied the food to that factory’s workers. The peasants working the fields were also employees of that factory, and received a salary.

Some peasants lived better than the other villagers, usually because they worked a little harder, didn’t get drunk, or knew another trade, such as carpentry, or blacksmithing that could supplement their income from farming. They would loose out if they had to pool their property with that of others. Naturally, they were opposed to collectivization.

Person who opposed the collectivization was called a kulak or fist, as in tightfisted. They and their whole family was subject to arrest and internal exile. However, things got way out of hand. The NKVD (National Commissariat of Internal Affairs) headquarters sent out guidance on who should be considered a kulak. People who had a tin roof on their house, owned a mill, a smithy, had more that two horses, used hired labor, etc. were rounded up.

There were actually quotas on how many kulaks were to be arrested every month. Ambitious NKVD men then tried to exceed those quotas, and rounded up people they simply didn’t like. If they didn’t meet the quota, they themselves would be punished.

While the entire villages were not cleaned out, collectivization got rid of the most productive peasants, the ones with the most useful skills.

Collectivization was applied in both European and Siberian parts of the Soviet Union but, since there is more arable land in the European part, its effects were more widespread there.

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