Skip to content

← Home

Forced Resettlement of Entire Collective Farms and Demolition of Villages (1951–1953)

An administrative and organizational tactic of the Soviet government in 1951–1953, which consisted of the forced transfer to Crimea Oblast of entire agricultural collectives (kolkhozes, brigades), the liquidation of mainland villages, and the physical dismantling of their buildings to anchor settlers in their new location.

Overview

In the early 1950s, the Soviet leadership faced mass escapes of Ukrainian settlers from Crimea due to inadequate living conditions, lack of housing, and absence of drinking water. To prevent the unauthorized return of peasants to their native homes, government decrees in 1951 (Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1849 of June 1, 1951, and Decree of the Council of Ministers of the UkrSSR No. 1406 of June 13, 1951) changed the approach: instead of individual families, it was permitted and required to resettle peasants exclusively as entire collective farms (kolkhozes) and brigades. To anchor settlers, group (collective) responsibility for state loans was introduced, and houses and outbuildings in Ukraine were ordered to be completely dismantled and transported by rail to Crimea.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Organizational and Financial Mechanism:
  • Provision of interest-free loans for 10 years (from 16,000 to 20,000 rubles per family), of which 40% was covered by the state.
  • Advance dispatch of construction brigades composed of the settlers themselves to Crimea to construct housing.
  • Introduction of brigade and kolkhoz collective responsibility for loan non-repayment and retaining people.
  • Example of the Dzerzhinsky Collective Farm (village of Ryzhiv, Zhytomyr Region): At a general meeting with the participation of a Crimean agitator from the Kirov Kolkhoz (Zuia District) and NKVD officers, under administrative pressure, a decision was adopted to liquidate the farm and transport the entire kolkhoz to Crimea (out of 146 collective farmers, 96 voted "for", 50 — "against"). The fate of the land and the village of Ryzhiv itself was not discussed.
  • Practice of Dismantling Villages (Rozvazhiv District, Kyiv Region): By decision of the Kyiv Oblast Council of December 5, 1951, it was ordered to completely dismantle residential and outbuildings of a brigade of the Petrovsky Kolkhoz in Rozvazhiv District, mark the components, and send them by rail cars to Bilohirsk District of Crimea ("Shliakh Komunizmu" ["Path of Communism"] kolkhoz). Livestock was ordered to be driven on foot in the midst of severe winter (by December 15).
  • Requirement of the Crimean Oblast Executive Committee (Dmytro Polyansky): Chairman of the Oblast Executive Committee D. Polyansky, in a letter to the Chairman of the UkrSSR Council of Ministers Demyan Korotchenko, noted that only collective resettlement by entire brigades was effective. Due to the lack of opportunity to resettle 1,400 Transcarpathian families as complete kolkhozes, the Crimean authorities refused to accept them, transferring the obligation to Chernihiv, Sumy, and Vinnytsia Oblasts.