Stalin Begins Collectivizing Agriculture in the U.S.S.R.

Stalin, pronounced STAH lihn, Joseph, was dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) from 1929 until 1953. He rose from bitter poverty to become ruler of a country that covered about a sixth of the world's land area. Stalin was born on Dec. 21, 1879, in Gori, a town near Tbilisi in Georgia, a mountainous area in what was the southwestern part of the Russian empire. His real name was Iosif Vissarionovich Djugashvili. In 1913, he adopted the name Stalin from a Russian word that means man of steel. The five-year plan. In 1928, Stalin started the first of the Soviet Union's five-year plans for economic development. The government began to eliminate private businesses. Production of industrial machinery and farm equipment became more important, and production of clothing and household goods was neglected. In 1929, Stalin began to collectivize Soviet agriculture. He ended private farming and transferred the control of farms, farm equipment, and livestock to the government. But the farmers resisted his order and destroyed about half of the U.S.S.R.'s livestock and much of its produce. As punishment, Stalin sent about a million families into exile. The destruction of livestock and grain caused widespread starvation. The economy moved forward, but at the cost of millions of lives. Workers construct a grain-storage hanger near Tambov. Before the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia was the world's largest grain exporter. If the country were to regain that status, says Samir Suleymanov of the World Bank, it would significantly relieve strained commodity markets, reduce prices and potentially reduce malnutrition and starvation. Photo: James Hill for The New York Times Mr. Orloff says that many people scoffed at his plans to consolidate collective farms into even larger enterprises. "They said I was crazy for going into agriculture," he said. "Now, they all envy us." Photo: James Hill for The New York Times RELATED

Much of the reform in Russia is being led by private companies, like Agro-Invest, which owns this 50,000 acre farm outside of Stanovoye, a town near Russia's border with Ukraine.

Photo: James Hill for The New York Times