Chronicle of the Soviet collective farm

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

Ukrainian settlers who settled in Kazakhstan in 1912 chose a place for a village in the floodplain of a small river, between the hills and named the village Kholmogorovka. The free steppes, full of tulips in early spring, gave way to a bright scarlet color, stretching beyond the horizon, fields of red poppies. In 1918, the red color appeared in the buttonholes of the provincial authorities in the city of Verny. For two more years, troops under different banners marched across the steppe of the Semirechye region in waves. Everyone, under whatever banners the cavalry flew by, needed barley for the horses and ready-made bread for the soldiers.

Not all units left receipts for fodder and foodstuffs, which the villagers used to report to the authorities arriving with checks. The only thing they learned by heart was that the land now belongs to them, there is no need to pay taxes from every tithe, and every owner did not refuse to share the harvest as a tax. Fortunately, the generous land of Semirechye has always brought good, abundant grain.

The winter of 1927 turned out to be with little snow, the winds dried up the soil. It seemed that the sky was testing the strength of the villagers. And the carts stretched to the mountains, where the last spring rains gave rise to forbs. Livestock haystacks filled the gorges and foothills of the Dzungarian Ala-Tau. The villagers took turns stirring up the cut grass and guarding the haystacks from accidental fires. It was then that the idea was born among the villagers to unite and create a collective farm.

Since 1929, the new collective farm named after Stalin began to supply grain to the state and dairy products to the town of Verny. Collective farm incomes increased as follows: in 1934 the gross income was equal to 641,803 rubles, in 1937 - over 1 million rubles, in 1939 - 1,402,764 rubles. The entire livestock population was replaced by the breeding stock. The grain crops of the collective farm exceeded 2 thousand hectares, and the yield exceeded 14 centners per hectare.

By the end of the first year, a bakery with a capacity of 500 kg of bread per day was already operating in Kholmogorovka, and after a while the whole village was electrified. The collective farmers built a 13.5 kW hydroelectric power plant on their own. Looking at the rapid, huge transformations of the village, indigenous local residents began to join the collective farm. They also acquired a small household farm, and rendered great assistance in the creation of pasture animal husbandry.

Two huge grain warehouses were built, where the collective farmers also kept their grain, received for workdays, a garage for cars, 3 brigade yards, 8 stationary premises (sheepskins) on distant pastures, for horses, cows, sheep, a pigsty and a farm for milking cows, which were electrified. Collective farmers received so much grain for a workday that many left it for storage in collective farm warehouses. The collective farmers' yards were enriched with livestock and poultry. So, for example, the family of the collective farmer Makagon, consisting of seven people, had two thoroughbred cows, several pigs, 3 sheep and 3 rams, and dozens of chickens in their farmstead. Almost every yard was in no less quantity of living creatures.

In the center of the village, a beautiful building of the House of Culture has grown, which has a bright, comfortable reading room, a hall for 300 seats, several thousand books for the library, a stationary cinema and other sports and cultural equipment have been purchased. It also housed the board of the collective farm, the party committee, and the village council. Not far from the House of Culture, in the garden, a large building of the orphanage was built. Here, in the garden, there was a maternity hospital. There was a collective farm outpatient clinic, a veterinary and bacteriological laboratory, a veterinary station, and an artificial insemination station.

Nobody's permission was required, there were no approvals, by the decision of the general meeting, they chose a place for construction, taking into account the accessibility and comfort for the villagers, ordered a project, agreed on an estimate from the board, and, built, on their own or invited craftsmen from the city, everything was taken into account.

Instead of adobe and earthen huts, white two-room houses with premises for livestock appeared. By the decision of the general meeting of collective farmers, 28 three-room mansion houses of an improved type were built for the leading people of the collective farm. In the picturesque spurs of the Dzungarian Ala-Tau on the slope of a high hill, the collective farm has built its own rest house. An extensive apiary and utility rooms for processing products and personnel were also established here.

Two stores did not have time to serve the rapidly growing needs of collective farmers. Everything, starting with bicycles, gramophones, furniture, ending with expensive wines and sweets, was sold out in great demand. They demanded the best quality goods from the head of the rural consumer society. “The car barely had time to deliver the goods to the store, when everything was sold out immediately,” recalled Comrade Petrov. The collective farm has acquired a good brass band. The club hosted competitions for choral and drama amateur circles, which were organized at each brigade, at each farm. In the summer, cultural work was carried out in the field camps and in the pasture. In the autumn-winter time, the House of Culture was daily crowded with collective farmers: films were shown, at least two or three times a week there were performances, amateur concerts were organized, artists from Alma-Ata often came.

Held happy weddings. When Peter Dutov married at the end of the 30s, he and his bride Tanya earned over 1000 workdays, for which more than 100 centners of one grain were due - 10 tons, not counting the rest of the production.

All the collective farmers, - wrote enthusiastic correspondents, - old men and young girls, women and adolescents, when they recall the life of the collective farm before the war, their faces light up with a soft smile, their eyes brighten. “We felt,” say the collective farmers, “how a prosperous collective farm life is flourishing, how every year it is getting better and better to live, we felt that even greater prosperity and happiness await us ahead.”

The life of Kazakhs on the collective farm has changed especially noticeably. A hungry, beggarly, semi-nomadic lot, with the brutal exploitation of beys and manaps, who took away the last crumbs of a miserable harvest of millet, or the last ram, was replaced by an abundant, cultured and happy collective farm life. In the place where Kazakhs lived in old wretched yurts, among the bare hills, beautiful houses appeared, beautiful orchards grew, rich vegetable gardens were spread out. Kholmogorovka became enchantingly beautiful surrounded by greenery of gardens and vegetable gardens, fields with fat golden wheat.

Many remarkable collective farm workers have emerged from among the Kazakhs. If the Ukrainians taught the Kazakhs to grow wheat, plant orchards and vegetable gardens, then the Kazakhs, old and experienced cattle breeders, played an important role in the development of the collective farm's animal husbandry. On the sheep of the flock of Kazakh Sarsenov, wool is always high and even, of the first grade. She trimmed it reaches a record figure in the republic: 4.7 kg per sheep instead of 3 kg according to the plan. For 7 years of work in sheep flocks, Sarsenov did not die a single lamb. The selfless labor of comrade Sarsenov Abdukhalyak was highly noted by the government: he was awarded the medal "For Labor Valor".

The shepherd Kottubay Ainabekov enjoys a well-deserved authority, who in 1941 received 118 lambs for every 100 ewes and who sheared about 4 kg of wool from a sheep. Alilia Sakpayeva is the leading pig at the pig farm: she has the best weight gain and the largest number of reared pigs. An exemplary worker Sakpayeva was awarded the medal "For Labor Distinction". Before the collective farm, Alilya Sakpayeva lived with her son in an old hut, and they spent the winter here. On the collective farm, she got a good house, got good clothes, healed well and happily. For this life, given to her by the collective farm, her son selflessly fought at the front.

When the war broke out in 1941, the collective farm had 1,138 able-bodied collective farmers, 310 farms, 6, 5 thousand head of cattle, 15 thousand hectares of land, 1.5 million people.rubles of income. In the very first days of the war, 190 people from the collective farm were drafted into the army. All of them were sent to the 316th Infantry Division, which was being formed in Alma-Ata. At a general collective farm meeting, the call-ups swore to fight cruelly with the enemy and asked the rest of them about one thing: "Not to violate the wealth of the collective farm." Women and old people solemnly promised: "We will not break it." After the meeting with an orchestra and songs, they were escorted away 10 kilometers away. While they were loading at the Sary-Ozek railway station (75 km from the collective farm), a gift was brought to them from the collective farm: two cars with honey, vegetables, and fruits.

At the first time after the mobilization had left, many collective farmers, especially collective farmers, became depressed, fearing that they would not be able to cope with the work. Indeed, among the 196 people drafted into the army, there were the best people of the collective farm: Fedor Timofeevich Zhitnik, deputy chairman of the collective farm and the best foreman of the field brigade, awarded the Order of Lenin for outstanding services in agriculture; Stepan Vasilievich Rariy, secretary of the party organization, also awarded the Order of Lenin; Nikolay Oleinikov, builder of a power plant and radio center; Pyotr Dutov, one of the best accountants of the field-crop brigade; Yakov Aleksandrovich Bondarenko, for 5 years the permanent foreman of the field brigade. In general, over 50 of the most active workers left. Of the 45 members of the Party organization, 36 people went to the army in the first days of the war.

Collective farmers unanimously took up the challenge of the agricultural artel "Red Mountain Eagles", Urdzhar district, Semipalatinsk region: "In response to Stalin's call on July 3, 1941, everyone should stand on the great Stalinist watch, consider themselves mobilized until the end of the war." To speed up the harvest, they pledged to work from dawn to dawn, and on sophisticated machines around the clock; use all the possibilities, up to manual cleaning with scythes and sickles; to contribute to the USSR Defense Fund 500 centners of bread, 30 centners of meat, 100 kg of butter. 50 sheepskins, 25 pairs of pims.

Women, adolescents, old people became the main labor force of the collective farm. Instead of the men who had gone to the front, a woman was nominated for managerial work on the collective farm: M. Okruzhko - head of dairy farm No. 2 and O. Mezhenskaya - head of dairy farm No. I, pig-breeder Skorokhodova - head of a pig-breeding farm, a young girl Dreeva - a clerk 4th field brigade; 8 more clerks were nominated by the Komsomol organization.

At first, some of the nominees feared the responsibility and complexity of the new job. “When I was nominated to manage a dairy farm,” Olga Mezhenskaya said, “I got scared: you have to answer for every head of cattle, for feed - there are a lot to be held accountable for. It became scary: can I cope? But I was told: "Who will work if you, a member of the Komsomol, refuse?" And I took it. I cope no worse than the former head Kravchenko, and my fear has long passed."

Old activists and especially the collective farm chairman comrade. Seroshtan spent a lot of work helping the newly nominated workers to quickly master the task entrusted to them. The role of the elderly has especially increased. Such as Fedot Petrovich Makagon (77 years old). Alexander Ivanovich Bondarenko (66 years old), blacksmith Livansky, Ivan Korobeinik, Nikolai Afanasyevich Ternovoy (each of them is over 65 years old), and many others were the reliable support of the collective farm chairman.

From dawn to dawn, and if necessary, the carpenter of the collective farm F. P. Makagon works at night. He, not only produces all the necessary number of wheels for a collective farm, a yoke, a rake, but learned during the war to make all the wooden parts for any, even the most complex machine, including a combine. Not one machine belonging to the collective farm, abandoned as junk, repaired and put into operation, comrade. Macagon together with the blacksmith Dikansky.

When the collective farm needed spinning wheels (the collective farm organized its own production of ropes and burlap from wild kendyr), Comrade. Macagon began to make spinning wheels. In his work book for each year of the war, more than 500 workdays are listed. From his family, 8 people are fighting: 3 sons-in-law and 5 grandchildren. Comrade Macagon generously, from the bottom of his heart, helps the state not only with selfless labor: he donated 7 centners of bread to the defense fund, signed up for a loan in 1942 for 50 thousand rubles.

The second remarkable old man on the collective farm is A. I. Bondarenko, father of Hero of the Soviet Union Ya. A. Bondarenko, a participant in the great feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen. A. I. Bondarenko - foreman - volovnik and at the same time assistant foreman of the field brigade in all matters. When in the fall of 1941 the absence of ropes and sacks threatened the timely delivery of grain to the state, the old people suggested that the collective farm organize the production of ropes and sacking. Comrade Bondarenko, at the head of 25 people, went to the mountains and, in difficult autumn conditions, successfully carried out the collection and primary processing of the kendyr. (Herb yielding good quality hemp-like fiber.) The old women remembered the old craft: they spun, twisted, weaved. 600 kg of ropes were produced and 400 sacks of burlap were woven. When, instead of 1.5 - 2 kg, the mill began to "spray" 7 kg per centner of grain, comrade. Bondarenko was appointed head of the mill, and order was restored there.

Bondarenko said: “In the first days of the war, the new brigadiers were inexperienced. But we have large brigades, for example, in the 4th field-crop brigade there are 150 workers, 25 horses, 70 bulls. - The farm is considerable. We, the old people, tried to help with all our might. In the evening, it used to be, you would sing a song, and with the song you would tell and show how to work. You will cheer you up with a joke so that your heads are not hung, and again you will show how to work. Bondarenko himself generates more than 400 workdays a year, and with schoolchildren - members of his family - for 900. The elders, 5 Bondarenko's sons are in the Red Army.

Already in September, the first families of those evacuated from the Lithuanian, Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSR arrived at the collective farm. The number of evacuees on the collective farm was 413 people. The board and the party organization of the collective farm allocated a special commission to receive them. The collective farm provided the evacuees with food, gave out warm underwear, pimas and other things to those in need, placed them in apartments, provided them with fuel, and then the newcomers themselves joined the working life of the collective farm.

A. P. Varopai, honored teacher from the city of Stalino (Donbass - from where she was evacuated), order bearer, says: “In addition to working at school, I worked with my children in the field. We got 700 kg of wheat, 500 kg of potatoes, straw for the winter. The collective farm provided dung for heating. We fed 2 pigs, raised 50 chickens. I have a well-fed, prosperous life with my children. Varopai speaks with deep gratitude about FK Seroshtan, who organized the reception of the evacuees and surrounded them with care.

Having overcome the "hitch" during the first months of the war, the collective farm successfully coped with the tasks of the agricultural year in 1941. The total number of livestock increased by 112 heads (from 6606 to 6718), despite the fact that the collective farm donated 160 good horses to the army. The increase in the herd from 954 to 1106 heads was mainly due to cattle. The milk yield of cows has risen to 1880 liters on average, instead of 1650 liters per cow according to the plan. The collective farm handed over to the state 322 centners of milk in excess of the plan. In addition to the plan for grain supplies and payment in kind to the machine and tractor stations, the collective farm sold 90 centners of wheat to the state and donated more than 1,000 centners of wheat to the fund of the Red Army. Hay commissioned 3805 centners instead of 3692 centners according to the plan.

On a workday, the collective farmers had 5200 g of grain, 5 rubles. money, not counting honey, vegetables, straw, etc. For the best harvesting work - 106 collective farmers were awarded. The glorious labor deeds of the collective farmers echoed the military exploits of their sons, husbands and brothers who defended Moscow.

November 22, 1941 was a joyful day for the collective farmers. A representative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Kazakhstan reported at a collective-farm meeting about the heroic deeds of the 316th division and about renaming it into the 8th Guards Order-Bearing Division named after Major General Panfilov. The meeting was attended by over 600 people. Old man F. Macagon spoke: "My sons are there, and I will work even harder and help." 75-year-old old woman Mashkina immediately brought in a blanket, gloves and 6 pairs of woolen socks; collective farm chairman comrade Seroshtan said: “They kept their promises to fight brutally with the enemy. We are obliged to help even more. " Many more old men and women also performed. The rally caused a huge upsurge, many collective farmers handed over 200 kg of wheat each, a sheep each, for gifts to the Panfilov guardsmen.

The patriotic feelings of the collective farmers were expressed in an appeal to all collective farmers, to all working people of the Kazakh Republic, which was unanimously adopted at the meeting. In this address, the collective farmer wrote:

In addition, the collective farmers undertook to create on the collective farm a grain fund for the needs of the Red Army in the amount of at least 3 thousand poods, to winterize livestock in an exemplary manner, to prepare, as required, women - combine workers and tractor drivers, and gave the workers' word of honor that we will continue to work selflessly provide mighty help to their relatives, famous fellow countrymen. For 1941 and for the 24th anniversary of the Red Army, collective farmers sent 346 individual and brigade parcels, with a total weight of 5113 kg, on average about a pound in each parcel.

Among the 28 Panfilov guardsmen who guarded the Dubosekovo patrol and took an unequal battle with 50 German tanks, there were two members of the collective farm: PD Dutov and Ya. A. Bondarenko. The Party organization and the collective farm board convened a meeting dedicated to the memory of their fellow countrymen - Heroes of the Soviet Union. The first to speak at the rally was a Stakhanovite from the collective farm, the hero's father, A. I. Bondarenko, and gave his word to work as long as he could. Speaker E. V. Dutova, 56 years old, the mother of another hero, “My son died,” she said, “4 more sons, besides him, are fighting at the front. My heart is always with them. I will help the collective farm and them as much as I can”. And then she brought in pimas, a hat, gloves and other warm things.

Portraits of Panfilov's heroes Bondarenko and Dutov hang in the club, in the board, in the room of the secretary of the party organization. Often in conversations, at meetings, the names of Bondarenko and Dutov are pronounced, they are set as an example, others are equal to them.

When at the end of November 1941 the wife of Major General I. V. Panfilov, Maria Ivanovna Panfilova, came to the collective farm, comrade. Seroshtan said at a rally at which she was present that 300 people from the Stalin collective farm are already fighting at the front, and among them 30 people have been awarded orders and medals for military valor. Joyful messages about the defeat of the Germans near Moscow, the military exploits of fellow countrymen raised the labor impulse of the collective farmers even higher.

So the collective farm joined in 1942.

Already in January 1942, intensive preparations for the first military spring sowing began on the collective farm. The Kazakh Republic was faced with the task of increasing the cultivated area in order to make up for the losses incurred by the country as a result of the capture of Ukraine by the Germans. The collective farms of Kazakhstan had to withstand a serious test: with a reduced labor force, significantly increase the cultivated area.

The general meeting of collective farmers made a decision: women and adolescents should replace men. The decisive question was the question of studying at courses for evacuees, in teams for training to work on seeders, plows, on teaching adolescents to work with ladles and grooms. Intensively preparing for the spring sowing, the collective farmers do not forget about the liberated collective farms, ruined by the German invaders. They donated 15 cows, 70 rams, 50 quintals of wheat, 10 sows to the fund to help the liberated regions. 15 thousand rubles. money. The children who suffered from the invasion of the Nazis were given 335 workdays, and for the collective farmers of the Leningrad Region, 365 centners of wheat and 27 centners of barley were collected from their personal stocks. 30 centners of millet, 41 kg of butter and lard, 2170 eggs, 22 poods of flour, 5850 rubles. money.

Spring sowing on the collective farm was carried out in 9 working days. To speed up the sowing, the old men, led by F. P. Macagon, carried out manual sowing from a basket. As a result, the sowing plan was fulfilled with an excess of 187 hectares. Before the war, the Stalin collective farm was among the leading livestock collective farms of the Kazakh Republic. During the war, he initiated an all-Union competition for livestock breeders. At a general collective farm meeting, an appeal was adopted with great enthusiasm to all workers of collective farm animal husbandry to organize an all-Union competition in animal husbandry.

When addressing an appeal to all workers in collective farm animal husbandry, the collective farmers wrote: “Comrades, collective farmers and collective farmers! We will organize in a front-line, military-style procurement of fodder … We will put things in order at all our farms, at all barnyards, pigsties, in all sheds, stables, poultry …, wool of excellent purity, excellent quality hides."

The whole country was burned by the flames of fierce battles at Stalingrad. The first part of the great Stalingrad epic was unfolding, when the whole country tensed in a single impulse: not to let the enemy pass a step further. The Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Kazakhstan announced a front-line harvesting day. And by October 20, the Stalin collective farm reported to the Stalingraders, sending simultaneously several dozen parcels that the haymaking was over; all the grain was compressed, mowed and stacked, the youth worked especially well, on whom most of the heavy harvesting work was entrusted. Tractor driver Tisenko, who only took the wheel of a tractor in wartime, fulfilled the plan by 113%, saved 456 kg of fuel. Plugari Zenkin, Makhnichev fulfilled the plan by 120-123%, etc.

The livestock breeders of the collective farm did not lag behind. The best milkmaids of the collective farm Ulyana Seroshtan, Maria Pluzhnik, Anna Ponomareva, Anna Dikikh and others achieved an average milk yield for the collective farm of 2141 liters per cow instead of the undertaken obligation of 2 thousand liters, with a planned milk yield of 1600 liters. All calves were saved. The average weight gain of calves was 750 g per day instead of 450 g according to the plan. On a commercial pig-breeding farm, a pig-runner comrade. Blashkova instead of 78 piglets according to the plan (13 piglets per sow) raised 88 piglets. 8 piglets were raised in excess of the plan. Kozlov and Mashchenko.

The number of horses on the collective farm in 1942 was brought to 395 instead of 335 in 1941. On a commercial sheep farm, the collective farm received an average of 3760 g of wool per sheep instead of 3 kg according to the plan, brought the number of sheep to 6469 instead of 6266 according to the state plan and 4809 - in 1941, and this despite the fact that the collective farm's meat supplies doubled - from 242 centners in 1941 to 470 centners in 1942.

In 1942, the collective farm transferred 3,500 sheep, 200 horses, and 500 head of cattle to distant pasture cattle breeding. The wintering of the cattle was successful; the condition of the cattle was good. The collective farm saved tens of thousands of poods of fodder. The state procurement plan was fulfilled ahead of schedule and with a large excess. 7106 poods of grain were donated to the fund of the Red Army. Milk was delivered for 630 centners, hay for 1526 centners, 6474 eggs more than in 1941. In addition, the collective farmers sold 426 quintals of wheat from their personal reserves to the state.

The resolution of the "rope problem" in the fall of 1941 was a lesson for the collective farm: not to ask the state bodies, but to eliminate difficulties by their own means. There was a need for salt. They found salt 150 km from the collective farm and began to collect it. Far away in the mountains, from 500 to 600 cubic meters of forest have been harvested. We organized our own production of tiles, lime kilning.

Construction work on the collective farm did not stop during the war. A nine-year school has been completed, 24 new residential buildings have been built, major repairs have been made in 12 buildings. For distant pasture cattle breeding in the remote Karachek tract, three bases have been built for a sheep-breeding commercial farm. 5 houses for shepherds and shepherds, a stable for 10 heads (in case the queens foal prematurely). A new building was rebuilt for a commercial pig farm and a commercial dairy farm. The growing herd of the collective farm is provided with good premises.

The talented self-taught builder E. D. Mashkin tells how the tile production was “overpowered”: “We started before the war, they fought for two years - it was impossible. Some of the collective farmers have already chuckled. Finally I managed to pick up the clay. We have learned to thoroughly care for the production. Now we have made 12 thousand pieces of good quality tiles."

In 1942, a pottery production was organized on the collective farm. We made 5 thousand mugs, bowls, jugs. Satisfied the collective farmers' need for dishes. We switched the pottery production to the production of clay pipes. They installed a water supply to the 1st field brigade in order to water the cattle, and to the construction brigade.

Comrade Mashkin built a bathtub for bathing sheep after shearing. The capacity of the bath is 3 flocks of sheep per day, while with the manual method of bathing it took 2 - 3 days to wash one flock. In addition, the bath provides incomparably better absorption of creolin than with the manual method, During the days of collecting warm clothes for the Red Army, a pimokatny workshop was organized on the collective farm. From the beginning of the war until December 1942, 200 pairs of pimas were made there for the Red Army, as well as pimas for shepherds and shepherds.

To increase the bread and fodder balance, the workers of the dairy farm and the commercial pig farm have seriously taken up the processing of farm plots. Under the leadership of the collective farm field grower Fyodor Korsakov, a participant in the Finnish campaign, a former shepherd, and now a good agronomist-practitioner, they increased the area of fodder beet to 30 hectares instead of 18 hectares in 1942. For the first time on a collective farm in 1943, beets were grown by irrigation. Under the leadership of E. D. Mashkin, three irrigation canals were built for irrigation of fodder beets.

We collected all the iron and scrap, organized our own production of buckets and tanks. No farm has a need for industrial utensils. So, in the conditions of war, overcoming difficulties, the economy of the collective farm develops. Elderly collective farmers involuntarily recall the wars - tsarist Russia, when they fought, and their individual farms became impoverished and collapsed.

The families of the Red Army soldiers who receive help from the collective farm all the time feel the advantages of the collective farm system. A. I. Bondarenko says: “The collective farmers are strong in spirit and will stand firm until victory. And how not to be strong, because we have not a single old man and a child is missing! If it were not for the collective farm, many would have starved long ago, like my family, when I fought with the Germans back in 1914, and now everyone is full."

And from the front, the collective farm chairman receives the following letters: “Thank you in battle, comrade. Seroshtan, for caring and helping my family and for the letter written to me. I am very pleased with you and your attitude towards the families of the Red Army men and towards the Red Army men themselves. This raises the spirit to undertake new exploits, to the complete extermination of the fascist animals. Recently, I have exterminated twenty fascist bastards who will never raise their dirty hands against our heroic Soviet people. With militant greetings from Rastportsov."

As soon as the first radio news about F. Golovatov's contribution and about the fundraising for a tank convoy that had begun in the Kazakh SSR flew to Kholmogorovka, a party meeting was held together with the activists. There were 92 people present. The next day, another collective farm meeting was called, at which a subscription to the tank column "Kolkhoznik of Kazakhstan" was launched.

A few days later, a telegram was sent to Comrade Stalin in Moscow, in which the collective farmers reported that, having fulfilled the obligations of the all-Union competition in animal husbandry, having fulfilled all state deliveries ahead of schedule and with a desire to help the Red Army more quickly defeat the enemy, the collective farm donated additionally to the Red Army fund and payment in kind to the machine and tractor stations 50 thousand poods of grain, the collective farmers collected 550 thousand rubles for the tank column "Kolkhoznik of Kazakhstan". and donated 2 thousand poods of grain from personal reserves to the fund of the Red Army.

All collective farmers remember the day when a reply was received to their telegram from Comrade Stalin. Those gathered, long and enthusiastically greeted their beloved leader. Comrade Petrova read to the meeting: “I thank the collective farmers and collective farmers who collected 550 thousand rubles. for the construction of a tank column "Kolkhoznik of Kazakhstan" and those who donated bread to the fund of the Red Army, and you personally, Fyodor Kuzmich, for your concern for the Red Army. Please accept my greetings and gratitude to the Red Army. I. Stalin ".

On the collective farm, they often receive such letters from the front: “Good afternoon or evening, dear wife Agafya Ilyinichna!.. I want to thank you for not forgetting me and writing letters very well. I received your letters, 9 of which I see that you and your son take care of everything … I gave your letters to my political instructor to read, he chose some of these letters and wrote them on a combat sheet, on a red board … it's a joy for me that my wife got on the red board several thousand kilometers away. But this, of course, is not all; it is necessary to work like this until the end of the defeat of the Germans … Ba sh Bondarenko."

Despite the fact that 513 people left the collective farm for the army, the collective farm's economy is so powerful that the collective farm is able to receive monthly 150-200 wounded and sick Red Army soldiers on the mend. The wounded soldiers are provided with apartments, care, food at state prices and, as they recuperate, are involved in the working life of the collective farm.

In 1943 the collective farm restored the work of the collective farm rest house for the wounded and sick Red Army soldiers. For 10 days of stay “in the fresh mountain air, with enhanced nutrition, vacationers gain 4 - 6 kg in weight. The front-line soldiers are proud of their collective farm, the heroic work of the patriotic collective farmers. For them, the native collective farm personifies the homeland for which they are fighting so steadily: hundreds of guardsmen and 45 order bearers left the collective farm named after Stalin.

Dozens of letters are received by the collective farm chairman, comrade. Seroshtan from the army. Here are some of these exciting, sincere letters. P. Ya. Osipov writes (teaching staff 69644 "V"): "Frontline greetings to my friend and teacher Fyodor Kuzmich! While at the front, I often think about you, about my own collective farm …

And here is a letter from the "chief electrician" of the collective farm Nikolai Oleinikov (PPS 993857): "Greetings from the Panfilov guardsman! It was with great joy that I read your letter, which pinches my heart, reminds us of many things … about our life, the life that we have built, and personally under your leadership we have achieved a lot in our collective farm. This is a big deal, and a happy, prosperous, rich life is your work … I remember construction on our collective farm … And I think to be honest and loyal to you - to everyone … This is not just me telling you, but from the bottom of my heart. Although I lived a little, I had no such attachment to anyone as to you. I remember the days of your military service and often in difficult times I say: Fyodor Kuzmich is right!"

But what comrade writes. Sakhno (PPS 1974): “Comrade. Seroshtan! Father of our collective farm! I assure you that I will achieve to become such a hero in the Patriotic War as you are in our socialist agriculture!"

There are also requests in the letters, for example: “Good afternoon, Fyodor Kuzmich! Warm Red Army greetings from Ivan Filippovich Simonov. I want to beat the Germans only with a communist, so I ask you, Fyodor Kuzmich, to send me a recommendation to join the party. Having worked with you for 6 years, I think that you know me well …"

The Red Army soldier Gruzdov writes to his wife: “Today is an unexpected joy for me! After supper we went to the cinema. Painting is the 10th collection, and suddenly I read on the screen: the collective farm named after Stalin, Alma-Ata region, and I look: an electric shearing of a ram, the senior shepherd Sarsenov, then the 1st MTF, milkmaids, all my friends, Anna Ponomareva is especially prominent, then show STF. The pigs of Kozlova, Skorokhodova and others are bathing the pigs, Seroshtan is coming to them … As if I was at home … How much joy for me when I look at my homes, the roads I walked … I was surrounded by almost the whole company … they asked a lot of questions from the life of the collective farm, collective farmers … They talked for two hours."

The described cases of the Stalin collective farm are similar to those of thousands of other collective farms in the USSR. The listed names of the collective farmers are real persons, their children and grandchildren have already left for the vast country. Although some still live in the former village of Kholmogorovka, now Shagan.

Additional materials:

Who left Kholmogorovka united in classmates:

Incomes of collective farmers in the USSR in 1935