Progress of Collectivization in The USSR 1927-1940
| Year | Number of collective farms |
Percent of farmsteads in collective farms |
Percent of sown area in collective use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1927 | 14,800 | 0.8 | – |
| 1928 | 33,300 | 1.7 | 2.3 |
| 1929 | 57,000 | 3.9 | 4.9 |
| 1930 | 85,900 | 23.6 | 33.6 |
| 1931 | 211,100 | 52.7 | 67.8 |
| 1932 | 211,100 | 61.5 | 77.7 |
| 1933 | 224,500 | 65.6 | 83.1 |
| 1934 | 233,300 | 71.4 | 87.4 |
| 1935 | 249,400 | 83.2 | 94.1 |
| 1936 | – | 90.5 | 98.2 |
| 1937 | 243,700 | 93.0 | 99.1 |
| 1938 | 242,400 | 93.5 | 99.8 |
| 1939 | 235,300 | 95.6 | – |
| 1940 | 236,900 | 96.9 | 99.8 |
Sources: Sotsialisticheskoe sel'skoe khoziaistvo SSSR, Gosplanizdat, Moscow-Leningrad, 1939 (pp. 42, 43); supplementary numbers for 1927-1935 from Sel'skoe khoziaistvo SSSR 1935, Narkomzem SSSR, Moscow, 1936 (pp. 630, 634, 1347, 1369); 1937 from Great Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 22, Moscow, 1953 (p. 81); 1939 from Narodnoe khoziaistvo SSSR 1917-1987, Moscow, 1987 (pp. 35); 1940 from Narodnoe khoziaistvo SSSR 1922-1972, Moscow, 1972 (pp. 215, 240).
The official numbers for collectivized area (the column with percent of sown area in collective use in the table above) are biased upward by two technical factors. First, these official numbers are calculated as percent of sown area in peasant farmsteads, excluding the area cultivated by sovkhozes and other agricultural users. Estimates based on total sown area (including state farms) reduce the share of collective farms between 1935-1940 to about 80%. Second, the household plots of kolkhoz members (i.e., collectivized farmsteads) are included in the land base of collective farms. Without the household plots, arable land in collective cultivation in 1940 was 96.4% of land in collective farms, and not 99.8% as shown by official statistics. Although there is no arguing with the fact that collectivization was sweeping and total between 1928 and 1940, the table below provides different (more realistic) numbers on the extent of collectivization of sown areas.
Distribution of sown area by land users, 1928 and 1940
| Land users | 1928 | 1940 |
|---|---|---|
| All farms, '000 hectares | 113,000 | 150,600 |
| State farms (sovkhozy) | 1.5% | 8.8% |
| Collective farms (kolkhozy) | 1.2 | 78.2 |
| Household plots (in collective and state farms) |
1.1 | 3.5 |
| Peasant farms and other users | 96.2 | 9.5 |
Source: Narodnoe khoziaistvo SSSR 1922-1972, Moscow, 1972 (p. 240).
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