The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-11-08
SOCIALIZED FARMING ON 18th
ANNIVERSARY OF PROLE-
TARTAN REVOLUTION
BY JAMES BARNETT.

IN the 18th Anniversary of the November
" Revolution, the tremendous advance of agri-
culture and the conditions Of the peasants in
the Soviet Union stand in bold relief against
the former lot Of the peasants and the deep
crisis of agriculture in capitalist countries.
The Revolution brought many advantages to
the Russian peasants-land, freedom and
higher standard of living Still his lot was
hard, his tools and methods were primitive, the
hours of work for himself and his family were
long and firing. the crops were poor and his COW,
horse or pigs, If he was fortunate enough to
have them were il-kept.
Under such conditions 1t was impossible for
these poor and middle class peasants to main
tain poor living for themselves and raise
enough grain and food to supply the workers
IN the city The city had to depend, to a large
degree upon the grasping capitalist Kulak (rich
peasant, who harshly exploited some Of the
poorest peasants) for their grain.
Here was knotty problem for the workers to
solve, the problem of raising the peasants out
of their hard conditions and of freeing the citys
grain supply from the control Of the capitalist
Kulak The enemies of the Soviet Union were
gleefully prophesying that the agricultural prob
lem would be the insurmountable stumbling
block over which socialism would be tripped up,
In the Soviet Union.
The great wave of poor and middle peasants
into collective farms which began with the fall
of 1929, has given decisive answer to these
enemies. Socialism is being built in the country
on the farms. In the first programs for indus
trial reconstruction, important plans were laid
for the manufacture of tractors, farm machinery
and other necessities for the peasants. The sue
cess of reconstruction and the first years Of the
Five Year Plan have made possible great ad-
vance in Soviet farming. In order to abolish
nj he rfc IN Yiti1
new methods and machinery efficiently, it was
necessary to have much larger farms than the
small strips which the peasants used to farm.
Monstrous state farms were started by the gov
eminent and the peasants beginning to realize
the great advantages Of large scale farming
started combining their plots of ground into big
collective farms which are cultivated coopera-
lively. Whole communities began to combine.
The aim of the Soviet workers is to turn agri-
culture into great industries, great grain FAC
tories" cotton growing works. ETC.. where the
peasants are to become like the city workers
working on great collective and state farms
Like the factories these great farms are owned
and controlled by the workers, they will re-
ceive the same cultural benefits, social insur-
ance, the same control Of the products of their
labor as the city workers have under socialism
Now on the 18th Anniversary the farms or
gained by the state possess an area Of 91a mil
Ion acres next year they will expand to 20
million acres. The Five Year Plan calling for
1914 million acres will be accomplished in three
years The collective farms. organized by the
poor and middle peasants joining together, con-
trolled this year 80 million acres The Ffve-Year
Plan calling for the collectivization of so million
acres has been far more than carried out in two
years Twenty-three per cent of the peasants
farms have been collectivized for the whole So
wet Union, but in the great grain producing
sections of the Ukraine and the North Caucasus,
30 to 81 per cent were collectivized at the time
OF the fall harvest. The present movement into
the collectives has no doubt raised these figures
considerably. In the spring sowing this year
over IA million more acres were cultivated Be-
hides, such crops as cotton, sugar beets clover,
soya beans, sunfowers, tobacco kenaf, vegetables.
etc. have greatly increased.
So great is the success of collectivization that
the Kulak the last stronghold Of capitalistic
elements, can be done away with. In 1929 the
government received its grain from the follow
ing sources: