Why people were not paid salaries in Soviet collective farms

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the Soviet Union, until the second half of the sixties of the last century, collective farmers did not receive a salary. Instead, they were given workdays - payment in kind, mostly in grain. What kind of system was it and why was it abandoned over time?

This option for the development and raising of agriculture was convenient, but from an economic point of view, it was absolutely ineffective. As a result, the state leadership nevertheless decided to motivate the collective farmers financially by assigning them a certain salary. Despite everything, after the collapse of the USSR, collective farms and state farms have become a thing of the past. But first things first.

1. Workdays system

After collectivization, a special resolution of the Council of People's Commissars in the form of wages to collective farmers was assigned workdays. The system operated until the mid-sixties of the last century. The workday, by definition, had to be a share of the collective farm income. It was distributed according to what kind of participation in labor activity each of the workers took.

During the entire existence of this system, reforms have been carried out more than once, but the scheme has not become less confusing because of this.

In most cases, it did not depend on the efficiency of production, but it made it possible to distribute income from donated livestock or crops differentially in accordance with the contribution made by a particular employee.

Provided that the workday rate was not worked out, the person could incur criminal liability. He could be assigned correctional labor on his own collective farm. At the same time, the fourth part of the workdays was retained.

They usually paid with the villagers with grain. During the Second World War, less than half a kilogram of grain was given per workday. In the post-war period, the harvest was poor and people were starving en masse.

Naturally, the collective farmers protested and tried to move to the cities. To prevent the mass movement of people from the villages, a passport regime was introduced in 1932, which made the villagers practically serfs.

That is, a person could leave the village only if he was allowed by the chairman of the village council or collective farm.

Rural children did not have much prospects. They were destined for the fate of their parents - work on a collective farm. The chairman decided whether to release a graduate to study in the city after graduation. In this regard, after serving in the army, the guys tried to settle in the city so as not to return home.

There was also no opportunity to sell something from your garden, as there was a large tax on the land and what grew on it. Collective farmers were paid either very little pensions or not paid at all.

2. How it ended

Since the collective farmers had no material interest, their productivity was also low. Therefore, the government of the state revised its earlier decision and in 1966, in May, issued a decree regarding the payment of wages to people in money.

But this did not affect the passport regime, the workers were still left without documents. They received them only if there was a personal order from the chairman. Certification of citizens was completed only by 1981. Even then, villagers, especially young people, tried to leave the villages for the cities en masse.