An Omitted Intellectual Tradition: The Chaianov School on Collective Farming

Abstract

The Chaianov school’s intellectual legacy is usually associated with the study of the peasant economy and its cooperative development. Chaianov’s so-called “neopopulist ideology” of the development of small-sized family farming is accordingly seen in juxtaposition with the Marxist vision of large-scale collective farming. However, this interpretation misses the original and valuable contribution to the study of collective and large-scale farming made by the members of this school. This article provides a new view on the intellectual heritage of Chaianov and his colleagues by analysing how their writings conceptualized collective farming between 1913 and the mid-1960s. It will argue that the Chaianov school made a profound contribution to the study of both peasant and kolkhoz farming. Therefore, it is necessary to re-evaluate the intellectual legacy of this school.