Sovkhoz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A sovkhoz listen (help·info) (Russian language: Совхоз, Советское хозяйство, sovetskoe khoziaistvo, "soviet household"), typically translated as state farm, is a Soviet state-owned farm, in contrast with kolkhoz, which is a collective-owned farm. Unlike "kolkhozniks", the workers of a sovkhoz were officially called "sovkhoz workers" "работники совхозов" and rarely (and colloquially) sovkhozniki.

Under Stalin's collectivization in the USSR campaign, most farmers were forced into either a sovkhoz or a kolkhoz. A sovkhoz would be organized by the state with workers who would be paid regulated wages, while in a kolkhoz the system of payment was different.

Initially, sovkhoz farms were the ones which were created by the state confiscating large estates, while kolkhozes were typically created by combining smaller farms together.

The sovkhoz was organized in a fashion similar to an industrial enterprise. The farm was headed by a state-appointed director, and the connection between labor force and sovkhoz resembled the structure of the industrial enterprise. Most important, capital investment for the sovkhoz was funded by the state budget. Thus, although prices paid by the state for sovkhoz produce were lower than for compulsory deliveries from collective farms, state farms were in a financially much better position. This was a major reason for the subsequent conversion of weak collective farms into state farms in the post - World War II years, a process enhanced by the Soviet policy of agro-industrial integration and the ultimate development of the agroindustrial complex comprising collective and state farms and industrial processing capacity.

The role of state farms in Soviet agriculture grew steadily during the Soviet era. The number of state farms grew from less than 1,500 in 1929 to just over 23,000 by the end of the Gorbachev era in the late 1980s. This expansion resulted partly from state policy - the amalgamation and conversion of collective farms to state farms - and partly from the use of state farms in special programs expanding the area under cultivation, such as the Virgin Lands Program. State farms were large. During the 1930s, for example, state farms were on average roughly 6,000 acres of sown area. By the 1980s, they averaged more than 11,000 acres of sown area per farm.

There were considerable differences in the output patterns between collective and state farms, and state farms were viewed as more productive and more profitable than collective farms. Generally speaking, the role of the state farms increased over time from modest proportions in the early 1930s. The sovkhoz came to be important in the production of grain, vegetables and eggs, less important for meat products.

In 1990, the Soviet Union had 25,500 farms, 45% of them being sovkhoz and 55% kolkhoz. The average size of a sovkhoz was 153 km², more than twice the average kolkhoz. Sovkhoz farms were more dominant in the Asian part of Soviet Union.

During the transition era of the 1990s, state farms were reorganized using joint stock arrangements, although the development of land markets remained constrained by opposition to private ownership of land.