1. LO: To assess the impact of agricultural Initiatives on the Peasantry
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson you will be able to…
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*

2. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*
Task: Once you have written
Your title and date…
Fact Test!
You have 10 minutes!

3. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*
Emancipation of the Serfs
- Before edict peasants were property of landowners or state
- Lived and worked under a system called serfdom. Labour and military service
Provided in return for food and shelter.
All privately owned serfs were freed. Able to own property, run commercial
Enterprise and marry who they wished
Nobles had to hand over a portion of land to peasants as assess by officials.
Landowners compensated at way above market level.
Peasants had to pay for compensation through redemption payments over
49 years at 6 per cent interest. Legal rights to land only after last payment made.
Peasants alternatively had to work so many days a year for lord as compensation.
Redemption administration handled by village elders
in the Mir.
Generally Peasants were allocated poorer quality land.
Many struggled to earn enough to afford redemptions,
rural poll taxes an issue.
Peasants still had to answer to the Mir, which ran fields,
so not totally free.
Continued reliance on subsistence farming, with little
incentive to improve.
Nobility had struggled to maintain land anyway,
by % reduction in land.

4. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*
Peasants Land Bank 1883
- Unused or poorly utilised land made available to the Bank.
Forward looking peasants could buy the land on favourable terms.
Limited by lack of funds, nobles land bank had better rates of interest.
Had 9 branches in 1884, 39 by 1891.
Stolypin expands in 1906 after “Wager on the Strong”.
Many peasants still believed best land held back by the Tsar.
War Communism 1917
Forceful taking of grain from peasants who had
supposedly been hoarding surpluses.
Lenin identified three types of peasant; the poor,
the middling and Kulak.
Kulaks blamed for shortages and had corn and
property confiscated.
Bolsheviks viewed peasants as backwards, ignorant.
NEP 1921
Change in attitude to Kulaks, seen as more cultured and educated.
In 1925 a Kulak was a peasant who owned 3 cows, by 1928 it was 6.
Kulaks still had higher taxes and refused entry to state schools.
Many Kulaks still respected by peasant society for voicing their concerns.

5. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*
Collectivisation
Refers to the process of bringing a number of small farm units together to
Form bigger farms. Peasants then meant to collaborate.
Based upon idea that shortages were due to surpluses being held back by
Peasants waiting for higher market rates. Stalin saw this as bourgeois.
Peasants resisted the farms, only 3% collectivised by 1924.
famine leads to “socialism in the countryside” (mass collectivisation).
Went hand in hand with class war against Kulaks.
Principles of collectivisation introduced to villagers at meetings, Komsomols and
Poorer peasants denounced Kulaks creating climate of fear.
Incentives included new tractors and combine harvesters.
Two types “Kolkhozy” (pure collectives) and “sovkhozy” (state collectives)
Stalin claimed 58% collectivised in 1930, this was an exaggeration.
Bransk-oblast Komsomols chased away by peasants. Kazakhs moved to China
Dropping population there by 75% in a few years.
Stalin blamed overexcited officials who were “intoxicated by success”.
% of farms collectivised, but peasants allowed to keep small plots.
Blocks of 40 farms organised through motor-tractor stations. MTS would loan
Heavy equipment, seed and payment and collection of grain.
Peasants still valued traditional ways, collectives deprive ability to make a
Surplus, restricted freedom to farm, famine of proved failure to many.

6. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*
Virgin Lands Scheme 1954
- Khrushchev much more interested in agriculture, saw himself as an expert! - Abolition of the MTS.
- Aim of Virgin Lands Scheme was to increase the amount of land cultivated.
By 1964 land given over to wheat gone from 96m acres to 165m acres.
Urban dwellers found food more plentiful and easy to access.
Land overused with little crop rotation, led to reduction in soil fertility.
Soil erosion a massive issue, particularly in windy Asian desert.
Desire for speed meant he cut corners, long term production and productivity
Fell.
- Virgin Land Scheme blamed for his downfall in 1964.

7. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*
Lets see if we can find a more memorable way of representing this
Task: You need to create a 3 picture slideshow representing
the initiative you have been given. This needs to demonstrate
the key features as well as be memorable!
Success Criteria
Key features of initiative
Evidence of judgement upon
Its success.
How different groups were
Effected.
At least one key fact or
Statistic!
Remember focus is on impact
Upon peasantry and agriculture

8. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*
What examples would you put under the following key headings?
Use of peasantry to finance industrialisation.
Changes to agriculture in order to consolidate power.
Famine and hardship experienced regardless of regime.
Short term, temporary glimpses of reform.
Enrichment of certain peasant classes
Increased levels of control over lives.

9. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*

10. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*

11. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*

12. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*

13. LO: To assess the impact of Agricultural Initiatives
Describe key initiatives E-D
Explain how far they effected change C-B
Judge the most significant event A-A*