Problems of collective farms development during the New Economic Policy

Importance. Based on historiography modern achievements and with the involvement of new archival materials, scientific knowledge on this topic is systematized and expanded. Special attention has been paid to exploring ways to improve the collective farms efficiency in the 1920s. The purpose of the research is to study the key problems of the collective farms development during the New Economic Policy period.

Materials and Methods. During the research, both general scientific and special historical methods are used. In particular, comparative-historical, historical-systemic methods are used. Modernization theory is used. Materials from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and the State Archive of the Lipetsk Region are used.

Results and Discussion. Modern historiography on the collective farms development during the New Economic Policy period is represented by a wide range of studies, including regional works. The generalization of published scientific works and the expansion of the topic under study through new archival materials made it possible to more deeply study the collective farms formation issue, based on their development difficulties that stood in their way.

Conclusion. During the new economic policy, collective farms retained a whole range of problems along their formation way, which limited their development potential. At the same time, in the Russian countryside, the number of productive partnerships for joint cultivation of land, communes, and artels, including exemplary ones, gradually increased. A special place in the rationalization of production was occupied by the introduction of innovations, mechanization of labor, effective land management, and deepening the division there. Along with the objective economic factors of the economic revival of collective farms, their development is influenced by sociopolitical and economic stabilization after the civil war end.

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