The Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe

Comparison and Entanglements

Description
Table of contents
Reviews

This book explores the interrelated campaigns of agricultural collectivization in the USSR and in the communist dictatorships established in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. Despite the profound, long-term societal impact of collectivization, the subject has remained relatively underresearched.

The volume combines detailed studies of collectivization in individual Eastern European states with issueoriented comparative perspectives at regional level. Based on novel primary
sources, it proposes a reappraisal of the theoretical underpinnings and research agenda of studies on collectivization in Eastern Europe.The contributions provide up-to-date overviews of recent research in the field and promote new approaches to the topic, combining historical comparisons with studies of transnational transfers and entanglements.

Introduction

ARND BAUERKÄMPER and CONSTANTIN IORDACHI
The Collectivization of Agriculture in Eastern Europe: Comparisons and Cross-Border Entanglements

I. The Soviet Interwar Model and its Application in Post-1945 Soviet Union

LYNNE VIOLA
Collectivization in the Soviet Union: Specificities and Modalities

DAVID FEEST
The Collectivization of Agriculture in the Baltic Soviet Republics, 1944–1953

II. Land Collectivization in East Central Europe

DARIUSZ JAROSZ
The Collectivization of Agriculture in Poland: Causes of Defeat

JENS SCHÖNE
Ideology and Asymmetrical Entanglements: Collectivization in the German Democratic Republic

JAN RYCHLIK
Collectivization in Czechoslovakia in Comparative Perspective, 1949–1960

JÓZSEF Ö. KOVÁCS
The Forced Collectivization of Agriculture in Hungary, 1948–1961

III. Land Collectivization in Southeastern Europe

CONSTANTIN IORDACHI and DORIN DOBRINCU
The Collectivization of Agriculture in Romania, 1949–1962

MELISSA K. BOKOVOY
Collectivization in Yugoslavia: Rethinking Regional and National Interests

MIHAIL GRUEV
Collectivization and Social Change in Bulgaria, 1940s–1950s

ÖRJAN SJÖBERG
“Any other road leads only to the Restoration of Capitalism in the Countryside”: Land Collectivization in Albania

IV. Axes of Differentiation: Social Conflicts, Center and Periphery, “Class Struggle,” Social and Ethnic Cleavages

ARND BAUERKÄMPER
Collectivization as Social Practice: Historical Narratives and Competing Memories as Sources of Agency in the Collectivization Campaign in the GDR

ZSUZSANNA VARGA
The Appropriation and Modification of the “Soviet Model” of Collectivization: The Case of Hungary

GREGORY R. WITKOWSKI
Collectivization at the Grass Roots Level: State Planning and Popular Reactions in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and the GDR, 1948–1960

NIGEL SWAIN
Eastern European Collectivization Campaigns Compared, 1945–1962

V. Appendix
About the Authors
Index

Choice, Current Reviews for Academic Libraries

"The volume helps to patch the hole in contemporary examinations of the change of systems that often overlook a legacy of rural transformation, and opens the way for additional anthropological and sociological studies. References and copious footnotes make for a comprehensive bibliography of the agrarian question under communism. Summing up: recommended."

Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas

"The publication of The Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe by two main editors, Constantin Iordachi and Arnd Bauerkämper, is the result of a highly ambitious project with clearly defined goals and methodology. While the collectivization of agriculture is a subject that has been under research in many Central and Eastern European countries, existing studies are written mostly just from the perspective of individual states and nations and most authors just aim at presenting a critical assessment of these countries' communist past. Methodological problems such as the social or environmental impact of collectivization thus tend to remain overshadowed by political history. Constantin Iordachi and Arnd Bauerkämper try to escape this stereotypical view of collectivization in Central and Eastern Europe and successfully."

Revue d'histoire moderne & contemporaine

"Dans une perspective historiographique élargie et renouvelée, l’ouvrage entend « transcender le paradigme national » en étudiant le transfert d’un modèle collectiviste formé dans le contexte du projet stalinien et appliqué, deux décennies plus tard, à d’autres réalités politiques et sociales. Sous l’égide de l’histoire croisée, les auteurs veulent éclairer la complexité des interactions qui relient les diverses expériences nationales de transposition de la version soviétique du collectivisme en agriculture. Conduites selon des formes similaires de recours à la coercition économique, à la terreur politique, à la violence de la « dékoulakisation », les campagnes de collectivisation progressent selon un tempo qui varie d’un pays à l’autre. L’exploitation de nouveaux matériaux d’archives autorise l’établissement d’une chronologie plus fine de la préparation et de la mise en oeuvre des opérations, rythmées par des avancées accélérées, des reculs tactiques, puis des reprises plus... more