The Structure of the Kolkhoz

Abstract

Like the mir, the typical small kolkhoz of the 1920s was a self-governing association both legally and to a large extent in practice. According to successive model Statutes, in all three types of kolkhoz the supreme organ was the general meeting of members—equivalent to the skhod. In the kolkhoz, unlike the mir, the model Statutes usually provided that the general meeting should elect a small executive council (sovet) or board (pravlenie) to run its affairs, but for many of the small kolkhozy in the 1920s such boards were hardly necessary, and they were often not established. In nearly all kolkhozy, as in mirs, the general meeting elected one of its members as its head. The head of the kolkhoz—at first known as the ‘elder (starosta)’ as in the mir, and later as the ‘chairman’—in practice shared power with the general assembly. He (it was almost invariably a man and not a woman) sometimes possessed great powers. An authoritative textbook of the mid-1920s stated that ‘he alone is in charge in the farm, allocates labour and manages the work’.¹ Model internal rules for artels adopted in 1929 also made the chairman responsible for all executive work, including the allocation of labour.² But he could always be replaced by the decision of the general meeting.