Soviet Agricultural Reform and the Future of the Collective Farms

Abstract

THE poorly working Soviet agriculture, Achilles' heel of Soviet Communism, has been of great concern to that country's leaders in the past. Recently, however, the Soviet Premier and the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita S. Khrushchev, announced his regime's commitment to overtake the United States in a few years in the per-capita output of meat, milk, and butter. In order to increase agricultural production and to achieve a victory on the economic front (which could then be exploited for political and propaganda purposes), a reform was launched in the Soviet collective farms with the view of (a) providing incentives to the collective farm peasantry; (b) making possible the fulfillment of the Seven Year Plan by producing raw materials for light industries; (c) giving the Soviet peoples the promised consumer goods; and (d) bringing closer the ultimate objective of achieving Communism by drawing together state and cooperative property. More specifically, the reform calls for amalgamation of collective farms; reorganization of the Machine and Tractor Stations into Repair and Technical Stations, and the transfer of machinery and technical equipment from the MTS to the collective farms; changing the system of procurement of agricultural products, the abolition of compulsory deliveries to the state and the introduction of one unified procurement price system; reduction of the size of private plots with the ultimate objective of abolishing them altogether; changing the system of remuneration of labor through workdays by introduction of advance