How Far Is It Accurate to Describe Stalin's Policy of Collectivisation as a Failure?

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How far is it accurate to describe Stalin's policy of collectivisation as a failure? Collectivisation was enforced in 1929 under Stalin's agricultural reform policies, who aimed to merge small farms into 'collective farms'. He did this with the intention of: producing a grain surplus, creating more food production for the population, producing a surplus of man power in the countryside, which could be used in urban areas, and to create a rural working class. It is argued by many historians that the outcomes of collectivisation was largely negative, and describe it as a failure. However whether or not this is true is still a debated area of discussion today. Collectivisation aimed to modernise Russia during the second revolution, with the motives of confirming Stalin's authority as a leader, and to enable the Soviet union to catch up with the economies of the Western world. Perhaps the main factor to take into account to support the claim that collectivisation was a failure, was the overwhelming impact it had on the people, predominantly the peasantry. The majority of the peasantry were against the concept of collectivisation, which resulted in them becoming very uncaring and withdrawn as a class. For example, they did not work to their full ability, and sabotaged themselves, by burning down their own crops and slaughtering livestock in acts of strong resistance to the collectivisation scheme. Peasants even went to the extremes of eating their own livestock. For example, as quoted from Sholokov's, 'Virgin Soil Upturned' book, peasants 'suffered from greasy mouths' and both the 'young and old suffered from indigestion'. Peasants did this with the hope it would prevent their livestock being handed over to the collective, but this was a short term thought, as it ultimately prevented reproduction. However, it is a good example in demonstrating the extremes
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