The worst thing is when someone has a wrong opinion, and is unwilling to listen to the other side. They form a conclusion having heard of only one side of the story.
The worst is in the end it comes down to faith. They will say, "well pro Soviet sources are biased, lies, and propaganda." And of course, we think the same of these "western" sources. So where does that leave us? Guess, I can only show them how much I suffered/suffer from western imperialism. But then they say,"...well it would be far worse under communism" Sad
The worst thing is trying to justify mass murder in the name of a death cult ideology. Even though it's proven itself over and over and over to result in the same thing.
@@ernstthalmann4306 You forgot the R and the I: RUSSIA: Reborn United Socialist States of Islamic America Just wanted to add the I because of shifting demographic and religious trends in the US.
Amazing video on a difficult and multifaceted topic. Also something that I've noticed many times across most socialist experiments is a willingness to admit to their governments excesses and failures.
Exactly! I just received a book that's a compilation of speeches and studies from the equality of women in the USSR conference from 1956 and when asked difficult questions about where they want to be with their equality they're very honest about where they're failing and what they are trying to achieve. It's never malicious or filled with lies, it's always very realistic.
@@rimaq_ I'd argue that capitalist nations cannot admit to their failures because if they do the illusion of capitalism being the only system that works would come crumbling down like the house of cards it is.
Thanks for this information! I had a heated discussion with my brother about this topic just the other day -- I wish, I had had this detailed information back then... 😅
Great video! I’m a descendent of kulaks from Ukraine (mennonites). Mennonites have done a pretty good job of portraying themselves as innocent victims of a tyrannical SU but the more research I do, the more I discover that wasn’t the case. Thanks for adding to the conversation!
Another Mennonite! This history is deeply painful and nearly taboo in a lot of our families. I appreciate this video for helping create a more full picture.
Wow show easy it make belive in intrment camps. I would never make a video, about same culture schools norway good. How nice just hope that ussr was sealing grain on internasjonale marker will there was no hunger. And blaming people that force in doing new stuff. Just russ today blame 600 russ solder. Die beacuse force putin speech.
Now Just So We Are Not "Biased", Lets See What Non-Bolsheviks had to say about kulaks "Peasant life from the time of the abolition of serfdom to the present day has been characterized by the flourishing of the kulaks, who have taken over the entire peasant economy. Rescuing the peasant in need, lending him money or goods in difficult times, the kulak makes him pay godlessly dear for his services and absorbs himself the lion's share of the benefit derived by the peasant from the loan granted to him. Despite this, he adopts an arrogant and imperious tone of address, demands slavish obedience, allows himself the most outrageous mockery and knows no limits to his tyranny. All public affairs at the gathering are decided in the way that pleases him and is beneficial, and no one dares to utter a word against his plans, although everyone understands perfectly well how unprofitable such an influence is reflected on the economy. This is not the place to describe in detail the activities and methods of kulaks. They are too well known and sufficiently developed in the literature. Ivan Koshko 1899 - "Small public credit as a powerful means of combating the impoverishment of our peasant" "In close connection with the question of collecting state, zemstvo, and public taxes that fall on the peasant population, and, one might say, mainly on the basis of these penalties, a terrible ulcer of our rural life has developed, which, at the end of it, corrupts and takes away the people's well-being - this is the so-called kulaks and usury. Once indebted to such a usurer, the peasant can almost never get out of the noose with which he entangles him and which for the most part leads him to complete ruin. Quite often the peasant already plows and sows and gathers grain only for the kulak." Alexey Ermolov 1892 - "Harvest failure and public disaster" "Of all the "Happy Corner" only in the village of B. there is a real kulak. This one loves neither land, nor farming, nor labor, this one loves only money. Everything with a kulak is based not on farming, not on labor, but on capital, on which he trades, which lends out at interest. His idol is money, the increase of which he only thinks. He inherited the capital, obtained by unknown means, but by some unclean means." Alexander Engelgardt "Letters from the Village 1872-1887"
Interesting, to learn how the kulaks were felt with. The information I had come across previously focused on the failure to quickly and efficiently divide up the land among the peasants. I've heard much about how the revolution, and later the Soviet Union, fell short of many of their ideal goals. It is refreshing to learn about what was achieved. 😊
i started 'dicatorship and democracy' on my plane ride yesterday! what a happy coincidence, i feel like i accidentally did the correct reading for class
Want more and more of Anna Louise Strong's works every time I watch one of your videos! Her writing is so accessible and she was and still is a perfect voice for open-minded westerners. Having returned to socialism after decades of lost conviction after the USSR collapsed in '91, I'm now doing all the historical research and theory brush-up that I didn't do when I was a radical red flag waving teen (I probably wouldn't have drifted away back then if I'd had a firm grasp of theory and more understanding of the forces involved in the end of the USSR - instead I ended up falling for the western cold war propaganda!)
Always fantastic to see this topic dealt with and examined, unfortunately lacking in many other Leftist RUclips channels who don't seem to cover this topic with the analysis it deserves!
Just found your channel and im so grateful I did! As a sociology and geopolitics nerd your content is like candy to me. Humanizing the caricatured image of the soviet union that most of us grew up understanding as reality is super important work.
1:20 Isn't it interesting how anytime one reads an online encyclopedia, they feel the need to mention that the source is Soviet and therefore "might be ideologically biased." Yet they often don't feel the need to say the same when a source is from any of the myriad anti-communist, Robert Conquest-esque sources which are often used when describing almost anything having to do with Communism. An interesting video as always, comrade. ✊🏼
I had a Grandparent who was a veteran in the Greco-Italian war, and after he was wounded he spent most of Axis Occupation in the hospital, including the famine period. All of his fellow ex-fighters in the hospital were organised in EAM-ELAS, supposedly except him. One day, the Security Battalions came for the Veterans, their first crime, including himself. He survived. But after Dekemvriana, after he picked a fight with Organisation X probably, he returned back to his village, allied to the Right-Wing, and became a Greek analogue of a Kulak. He had 11 children (to enslave his 15-year-old wife with reproduction probably, she was also a terrible person and was disseminating rumours the Quisling government and the Nazis did, including blood libel) and was obsessed with accumulating property. He had one of those state-granted certificates of Anticommunism (πιστοποιητικά εθνικοφροσύνης) so that he was given the right to open a shop with knick-knacks, he had a local monopoly in cigarettes for example. He even denounced a son of his for fighting against the CIA-backed Military Junta in the Polytechnic Uprising as a student, he was a top one. End result? His other children, who he taught nothing about the workd but being obsessed with working and accumulating property, maybe some humanist rhetoric here and there, had values so twisted, that some of them support the ideology of the people that invaded Greece back in the day, the ideology of the death squads that came for him. He would die a second time if he knew how many of his children, even Grandchildren are "Golden Dawn" losers or sympathetic to them. With the garbage narratives they listened at as children, it makes sense. Moral of the story is, don't become a f*cking Kulak, it's stupid, also it makes you and your spawn evil. 😅
My nonno was drafted into the Kings Imperial Army during ww2 in Italy but when the kind abdicated he refused to be sent with most of the rest of those soldiers to join Mussolini's army/hitlers war effort so him and 800,000 other italian soldiers got chucked in concentration camps as italian military internees. When the camp was liberated because he was italian the French or soviets I think didn't fully understand why the italian detainees were there (neither did the italians back in italy many assumed people like him volunteered to work for germans even when many of the civilians actually were collaborators) so he got kept in another camp afterwards and then was like fuck europe. Also because Italy was basically liberated by the resistance then ruined by the Americans too
@@LadyIzdihar Ok, so i just checked the video. It's... certainly something. You clarify that you use sources from the Soviet perspective and Soviet friendly sources and the thing is that it does just that, you show us the official and highly favorable view of the collectivization process. You cite the official definition of what a Kulak is, meaning a rural bourgeois that engaged in exploitative actions in the countryside, amassing large fortunes. And this is presented contrary to Marxism-Leninism, but it doesn't really tell you the rationale or the motives behind collectivization beyond "capitalism bad, therefore we must collectivize". After their victory in the Russian Civil War and the failure to bring the revolution to Germany, the Bolsheviks had a completely devasted country, where the peasants were totally distrustful and resentful of the authorities after centuries of oppression because of serfdom from the Tsar and the confiscations of grain by both Whites and Reds and were basically ungovernable, which was a problem in a mostly agrarian country. In the cities there was widespread unrest because of the shortages of food, the breakdown of industry and the authoritarianism of the party meant that the Bolsheviks were on very thin with their core base unhappy and the majority of the country hostile to them. So to appease the peasantry they stopped the requisitions and introduced a tax (first in kind and later in money), and then they legalized private trade and ownership in small and medium sizes. This basically meant a concession to the peasants to let them be in exchange for grain and a pacification of the majority of the country. Now, in the countryside the social classes of the rural village (mir) weren't really as in the city were you could see a bourgeois class and a proletarian class. In the village the social composition was more uniform, with the peasants having a strong communal sense and being generally very protective of their customs and way of life. So when the Communists talked about the Kulaks oppressing poor peasants, they didn't really saw any of it and generally closed ranks against party agitators and any attempts from the state to disrupt and change their ways. However, the independence of the peasantry from the party made most the Soviet leaders uncomfortable, with the scissor crisis (the prices of industrial goods rised and the price of grain decreased) that peasants saw few reasons to sell grain and instead started to hoard it to make grain prices raise again. It also didn't help the communists that the peasants, probably for their first time in existence, had the luxury of finally be able to eat a lot more so they consumed a lot of their food. Fewer grain in the cities meant more hungry workers, and hungry workers were angry workers with the government. It also meant that they had fewer grain to export, the only means to acquire foreign currency from a very hostile capitalist world. So the situation (apart from the obvious ideological reasons) became very egregious to the party leaders, aka Stalin who had outmaneuvered the Leftist and later United Opposition. The collectivization sparked controversy between Stalin and the Right Opposition that advocated a more gradual approach to socialism in the countryside. Stalin in the end won the debate and collectivization went ahead, however the process was very messy and violent and the definitions of what a Kulak was often now clear and fluid meaning that a poor peasant of yesterday was the kulak of today. And more often than not most of the comittees of peasants that formed quickly transformed to vicious attacks on other peasanst. Collectivization was created and implement with the intent of bringing the peasantry under the control of the state and get the grain they need without the need of negotiations.
@@tudoraragornofgreyscot8482Mass production in agriculture was always going to happen in both the capitalist and socialist world. It's more efficient and any interest group that wants more production will push for that. Either the farmers are bankrupted to get their land or the local labor is reorganized and that's what happened on most of the planet. Small concerns only remain in mixed economies like India, which is inefficient but represents the interests of the small holders and some of their labor. Look at the mass protest movement in India, 200mil.
My great uncle worked in deporting the kulaks in the Karelian ASSR. He never understood, he never approved. He came the USSR only because his wife wanted to go there and when he was asked to give his passport, he left to Finland. He kept sending packages to his family that continued to live in Karelia and elsewhere. Karelia was poor, the farms were small and there were no kulaks to speak of.
First time I've ever been recommended a good Marxist-Leninist channel by RUclips. Well done, comrade, and I look forward to viewing more of your videos and hopefully supporting the channel.
Thank you for an excellent and accessible video that tackles one of the most challenging parts of Soviet history. I must look up those pamphlets and have a read.
Thank you for this video. It is so refreshing to hear a perspective that actually tries to understand the context these people were faced with, and why they took the actions they did.
ACCELERATED INDUSTRIALIZATION, increased appropriation of grain from the peasants, forced collectivization, liquidation of the kulaks, production declines, and hunger are the main links in a chain of events that led to the famine of 1932- 33 in the Soviet Union and to millions of deaths.
well, i wonder what would happen in 1940s, if it wasn't for a decade long accelerated industrialisation and collectivisation... oh, i know - we would speak of polish, ukrainian, russian, baltic and hundreds of more peoples as we speak of native americans today - colonised, exterminated, forgotten. USSR fought speedy and forced collectivisation in the early years of its existence, however in ten years of the rise and rearmament of the 3 reich, they were forced to either build a defense, or perish
@@ulyanov17 Given how the first year of the war went and how many Soviets died because of the catastrophic mismanagement of the military it might be hard to think about how it could have been worse. The USSR came out by the skin of its teeth. Germany came closer than any other European power ever did to actually taking out the Russian Empire.
This video has been very helpful with getting rid of the obfuscation of the nature of kulaks. I've read many comrades misconstrue what they did and what went on. Giving the detractors leeway
I am not a "fellow comrade," but I find you to be so enjoyable and informative to listen to. You have a gift for conveying your knowledge. It would be lovely to hear you have a debate and or open discussion with an opposing view by someone who is as much a good actor as yourself. This is what we need these days.
The phenomenon of "kulaks" is quite typical. It started as an middleman between the land owner/market and the rural community and ended as an owner who lives at the expense of the community. The Bolsheviks didn't have to explain in their articles and speeches: what is the phenomenon of "kulakism" and what is wrong with it. This was a well-known knowledge for contemporaries. Now, bourgeois propaganda is trying to present them as "pioneer entrepreneurs", "hard workers", "victims of dictatorship violence"; although their essence was no different from the criminal essence of those who were engaged in the primary accumulation of capital. They just managed to stop them, unlike someone like Rockefeller.
They are basically calling a property manager who did some hands on work for the two properties he managed for an owner at minimum wage, who the owner bequeaths those properties to them on his death, an exploited worker because he didn't outsource the maintenance he did when he inherited them. To analogise it to today. Kulaks are hardworking peasants like my hypothetical guy is a hardworking worker who made "savvy" investments.
@@illogicalslayer9856 Close, but still a miss. The first iteration of the kulaks, these were former headmen who were literate unlike their fellow villagers and dealt with the documentation of their masters. Then, a little magic happened, and with the reform of the emancipation of the peasants from serfdom they received some of the best land holdings. There was also the option of going out through close contacts to trade grain or other, more valuable goods, but this still led to the scheme of "we had common plots that we allocated to tillage by lot, and now you owe me at 50%.". Also, "I'll probably, well definetly, scam you on of the goods trade". The second iteration was in 1917, when the Bolsheviks distributed allotments according to the "number of eaters in the family". Then primitive genetics worked: you have, for example, 7 surviving children out of 14 born, by the age at which they were fit not only as "little helpers" but also as workers. Of these, 5 were male. And I have five survivors of which 3 are female. Yes, women work just as hard as men if they want to eat, but first, the pressing issue is their marriage, moving in with their husband and dropping out of the production cycle, and second, the physical condition of the average man and the average woman who live in roughly the same conditions and eat the same food. Congratulations: you won the Darwin's lottery and now I'll probably be the one coming to you to borrow grain for planting at the same 50%.
@@Ailasher Yes even in socialism having more wealth meant you had more surviving kids and therefore got the welfare at a greater rate. I am glad my analogy got close though but Kulaks were a very weird case of Tsarist reform.
@@illogicalslayer9856 "Yes even in socialism" C'mon! Really? It was literally during the Civil War and a quote from quotes: the "state capitalism", that is, the NEP. Socialism began with a process of central planning and collectivization, to mechanize the work of rural communities. That's the essence of dialectical materialism: it's not enough to just say "OK, now we have "it", so let's have a party, now!" This is idealism (in the philosophical sense). This should actually be "present" - this is actually the good ol' materialism.
@@Ailasher Yes I was commenting on the lower phases of communism not able to fully overcome the capitalist relations. Not in a this will never work way but as a material reality that need to be continually worked on. It is a transitional state it isn't going to be perfect.
Again, great stuff. I am reminded of the methodology of Domenico Losurdo, who strove to demonstrate the power of the dialectic in his research. Finding out about your offerings has been a real pleasure to someone who has long been interested in the crossroads of communism and Islam, and in paritcular, the complexities of the woman question impacted at that crossroads. Salaam alaikum.
Currently reading through "The Years of Hunger" by Wheatcroft and Davies and I am very much surprised what a "perfect storm" the sowing and harvesting of '31-'32 was. They really had the worst weather for crops and ergot and rust along with insects did a lot more damage. Of course there was damage caused by Kulaks and "Independent Peasants" and that makes the situation all the more difficult. The Soviet government constantly lowered grain requirements, reduced exports and provided seed and grain aid, but the dire situation was discovered too late.
Kulaks were working with the local Communists as the policies were all failing. They were given a ration for themselves which they planted at the right time, the rest was planted at the wrong time as ordered by the government. This gave the impression they were keeping for themselves, causing the shortages and the rest of the crop failing was their fault. Result was break up the Kulaks, split it between peasants, use the money to pay the peasants a subsistence and fund industrialisation with the 'profit'. All failed of course. It's almost like leaving people alone makes things work.
@@ln5747 unfortunately Collectivization led to higher crop yields as opposed to the decentralized independent farming method that preceded it. A case can (and has been) made for the Kulak class to grow, but as the Bukharinite right-wing of the CPSU was the only one to even come close to such a proposal, it is highly unlikely such a policy would have been tolerated by a revolutionary communist party. Robert C. Allen, in his book "Farm to Factory" posits that the Soviet model of a planned economy was "the best" option available to the country at the time and concludes that a swing towards a more market-friendly economy would have slowed growth and possibly cost the USSR the war against Nazi Germany. Which historians' works have you found to be the most resourceful on this topic?
oh so thats why my family had to flee its home and its farmstead the 40s under threat of being deported to siberia - we were bourgeoisie! :D (we had a few acres of land) but in all seriousness, its all just good old propaganda
Do you know of any sources specifically regarding the process in Siberia, especially with how the sizable nomadic populations underwent collectivization and dekulakization?
Such a nuanced view of the "other" side of the kulak situation than what I’m used to reading makes me wonder if I’d be more receptive to it earlier on if I lived in a more extreme capitalist society like the US (unlike Norway where I live) I still think it’s a very complicated and grey phenomenon, but I really appreciate the analysis you did here. Very interesting!!
I created a new Playlist to store this video, named "Absolute #1"! Smearing Stalin is the immediate oppositional smugness response. Now I am armed with the answer.❤
I think what happened was s tragedy. That said I don't know what the Soviet government could have done even as much as they were partly responsible. I am Irish in Ireland and it sickens me no end when European and descended people's claim what happened was genocide, when the USSR did all they could to minimize it when it happened. England committed genocide on Ireland and other places in the 19th century where they starved us so they could build an empire with our food, land and labour. The USSR was trying to build a union of equals and they tried to minimize and not maximise starvation, emigration and cultural evisceration as England did and still does. I am so glad the USSR and other socialist nations existed or exist as they prove our dreams of freedom, liberation, real peace, prosperity and unity not only possible but necessary!
The US didn't recognize the Soviet Union until Nov 1933 so I don't think you will find any pamphlets published in the US before that, but maybe you can?
Nothing officiated by the government, but plenty of printing presses focused on human rights and the working class printed pamphlets about the Soviet Union before 1933.
@@LadyIzdihar "exploration this! Exploration that!" What do they mean by this word anymore? Exploration? Beating their employees? Taking more then half of their stuff?
@@johnmanole4779 I'm guessing you mean "exploitation" and not "exploration" exploitation in the Marxian sense of the word is extraction of surplus labor value, or put another way let's day you generate $100 an hour of capital for a company, you only get paid $10 while the boss gets $90 even though they didn't do anything to produce that capital. That $90 is your surplus labor value being extracted, and that's exploitation
Extremely well-done video as always. Thank you for touching down on such a sensitive topic. The more we speak about it, the more it will be understood. I was wondering if you could cover a video on homosexuality within the USSR, especially in the Stalin era?
It would be helpful to also include the work of Mark Tauger, a researcher into famines. As it actually turned out is that the decreased harvest was not that it was inefficiently not harvested so much as they were victim of wheat rust, a disease that is hard to recognize. The crop looks healthy until you get to harvest and get only 30% of what you thought you were going to get. But they had no agronomists to diagnose it, and so jumped to 'human error' instead. The fact that Stalin took responsibility and attempted to alleviate it with rationing and shipping grain to Ukraine should speak well of him--if anyone knew the real story. Thank you for this.
@@ln5747yeah let's hear about capitalist efficiencies - irish famine? beghal famine? milions dead of hunger every year? that is efficent, but in making profits
@@ln5747 then show us a way for industrialisation and the end of hunger without communism nor capitalism! 😂 however, it is important to compare open racial intent of capitalist famines and conqesuences of those (mass profits), to mass organised relief in socialist countries, and progress never seen in history happening in few years afterwards (inspite such tragedies)
@@ulyanov17communism doesn’t work. How many times can you try the same thing and not see it? Why aren’t all you comrades fighting to move to Cuba or North Korea? It’s easy to be a communist in a free country but try being free in a communist country. Where are the millions dead every year from hunger from capitalism?
I think this video is a good start for explaining the "Soviet" perspective on the Kulaks and would be interested in further videos elaborating what I presume to be variety of thought within the USSR at the time. We got Stalin and Strong this time. Next time, how about some party members that disagreed with Stalin's reasoning, some peasants who recounted their experiences in Ukraine, some former Kulaks reminiscing about their resettlement experiences?
Left communists and Kulaks get too much representation in this discussion I want to hear from more perspectives just not them because they have been signal boosted for decades at this point and I am tired of hearing from them. We already know what they think "wah they took my hoarded grain to feed the community and we had to suffer with the poors instead of having more food to ourselves for that winter" and "Stalin bad, anything not Trotsky or Lennin bad and we would have done it better".
this is a very interesting topic as a person who love soviet history and how they did stuff this is video is good for me iam also very happy that you recommended some books and sources so people can further understand the topic and it is good to hear the other sides perspective on this to have a better understand of this topic like i say history is very complex and it not alawys so black and white
В обществе, основанном на эксплуатации, высшей моралью является мораль социалистической революции. Л. Троцкий. Агония капитализма и задачи Четвертого Интернационала
Wow. Watching this you'd think the Kulaks were just sent off on holiday for a while... I'm actually shocked by the dishonesty, and how willingly all the commenters lap it up.
I’ve been attacked by academics who are alumni of the college I attended for forwarding some of these ideas in an online alumni forum including being called a genocide denier, although I never denied that people died in the famine & there is plenty of mainstream, non-communist pushback against the Holodomor narrative. One of these people in particular implied that the definition of kulak was applied so widely as to encompass almost any peasant with even modest means (livestock, land), or who were even tenants themselves. I’m curious your perspective, realizing that there is probably more detail on these definitions within the literature you cite.
@@spehhhsssmarineer8961 Because there is no proof it was intentional. Genocide requires intent and all liberal scholars who aren't anti communists and some that are have had to admit it wasn't genocide. Also Jewish academics have identified it as an example of double genocide theory which is antisemitic becaause it is nazi collaborators in eastern europe saying that they are the same as the jews they murdered for the nazis.
Jewish academics have identified double genocide theory of which the "holodomor" or Soviet Famine of 1932-33 is an example. If you need to read more than that the current historiography is dominated by Stephen Wheatcroft and Robert Davies are the foremost experts and their books made Robert Conquest who is one of the main progenitors of the Holodomor as genocide in academia recant.
>One of these people in particular implied that the definition of kulak was applied so widely as to encompass almost any peasant with even modest means (livestock, land) this is true, you can find my comment about that here and yes that was genocide of Russian people.
Slowly working through your stuff in no particular order. Do you have just recordings of you reading the works of Anna Louise Strong? That would be brilliant.
8:08 aye! I’m from, and live in, the San Joaquin Valley! Glad to see Anna Louise Strong mention us there. The Pixley and Corcoran cotton strikes in 1933 sadly had some armed struggle by the National Guard’s then traitorous hands. It is still ripe for communism here, and it was 100 years ago too. Now, I have seen even local Republicans running for local office having platforms (Mar 2024, in the Primary Election) that sounded very close to a socialist consciousness, and moreso than the local Democrats, which I never thought I’d see. Materially, the San Joaquin is economically powerful and ironically fruitful but poor (besides the Imperial Valley near Mexico, the San Joaquin Valley is the poorest region in California).
Yes Strong's and indeed also the CPSU's own writings on the subject are a very important and counterbalancing perspective that is as you say, now lost in the deluge of simplistic, biased misinformation about the USSR. However, there was an ideological component to the concept of the kulak, that as a rural bourgeoisie formed in real terms only about 1% of the peasantry. This meant that many of those identified as 'kulaks' were not and could not have been actual kulaks. The big problem was that the CPSU was certainly in the 1917-35 period, by its class and overwhelmingly urban composition only very distantly connected to the peasantry, if at all. This meant that they were alienated from and did not understand the latter, and were at best patronising to, or ofttimes contemptuous of, the peasants, who formed at that time around 90% of the entire Soviet population. Even much of the urban proletariat itself was removed from the peasantry by only one or two generations max. Many of the problems that faced the USSR in the 1920s and 30s could have been avoided had the CPSU not eliminated their original October revolutionary partners, the Left SRs - who were both from and understood the peasantry perfectly. This was I believe a huge mistake and indeed a tragedy, along with the heavy emphasis on centralisation and CPSU attempts to assert party control over the workers' and peasants' councils, instead of letting - as was originally intended - these to lead the way forward. The dogmatic nature of the party line particularly under Stalin and runaway bureaucratic components such as the 'political' wing of the OGPU that was able to serve its own interests by controlling pools of coerced labour for other components in charge of industry and infrastructure, was another factor. Another problem here is that while it is hugely important to recognise and laud many of the achievements that were enabled in the USSR and the PRC alike as at least a a majority of the participating cadres and workers strove to do, often against overwhelming odds, the actual elements most resistant to this project were not to be found amongst some largely absent backward group as the 'kulaks', but in the bureaucracy and nomenklatura who were in fact much more of a threat - and indeed proved to be a sort of gangster-capitalist clique in genesis form, jettisoning its 'socialist' skin and emerging into fully developed adult character with ease as the USSR in particular disintegrated (China is another, different story). This leads us to ask the question as to why very few Marxists have been able to apply Marx' own tools of dialectical historical interrogation also to states that claim to be socialist. If a state claims to be whatever, Marx teaches us that the information as given by those in power is not enough, and we instead need to look at the social relations in the economy and other parts of the structure. Yet most self-proclaimed 'Marxists' focus entirely on the debates and positions within the Socialist/Communist Party in charge of the state, as if the forces in play amongst the former are no longer propelled by the contradictions and struggles taking place at the base, and instead it is all down to pure 'ideological debate' within the charmed circle of a CPSU/CPC etc that has somehow transcended and rests above (despite the fact of the allegedly socialist state existing in a still-capitalist world), history's driving force of class struggle. There is however ample evidence of continued proletarian/bourgeois-like class struggle both within the USSR and the PRC with managerial elements of the bureaucracy replacing a currently absent bourgeoisie, as well as demonstrable proof of the successful alienation of labour from direct worker control and the accumulation of capital (labour) by alienated bodies (of exploiters) associated with this. Furthermore, there are some disturbing parallels to what Marx termed the process of 'capitalist primitive accumulation' in the post-NEP agrarian collectivisation policies of the 1930s. It is in this context that a thorough, and authentically Marxian, critique of the USSR in the 1930s should be made.
So well researched and so well paced. I'm genuinely thrilled to see some rad left content that's this high quality. (not hating on any other creator, just the algorithms)
The worst thing is when someone has a wrong opinion, and is unwilling to listen to the other side. They form a conclusion having heard of only one side of the story.
The worst is in the end it comes down to faith. They will say, "well pro Soviet sources are biased, lies, and propaganda."
And of course, we think the same of these "western" sources. So where does that leave us? Guess, I can only show them how much I suffered/suffer from western imperialism. But then they say,"...well it would be far worse under communism"
Sad
The bad guys have innoculated them against the truth. They are allergic to it, even a few words caused a flustered reaction.
The worst thing is trying to justify mass murder in the name of a death cult ideology. Even though it's proven itself over and over and over to result in the same thing.
60 million civilians murdered. Communism is wrong. If you think it should be tried again. You're worse than a nazi
Well, I mean the worst thing is genocide, right? Regardless how you get there.
amazing video as usual, they seem to just be getting better and better! And happy 100 year anniversary of the formation of the USSR!
Ayy thanks for recognizing an amazing anniversary. Can't wait for the USSA: United Socialist States of America.
@@ernstthalmann4306 You forgot the R and the I:
RUSSIA:
Reborn
United
Socialist
States of
Islamic
America
Just wanted to add the I because of shifting demographic and religious trends in the US.
Amazing video on a difficult and multifaceted topic. Also something that I've noticed many times across most socialist experiments is a willingness to admit to their governments excesses and failures.
Exactly! I just received a book that's a compilation of speeches and studies from the equality of women in the USSR conference from 1956 and when asked difficult questions about where they want to be with their equality they're very honest about where they're failing and what they are trying to achieve. It's never malicious or filled with lies, it's always very realistic.
even socialist movements are willing to accept failures and excesses
@@ABPHistory but capitalist ones on the other hand rarely do so, look at the American system
@@rimaq_ very true
@@rimaq_ I'd argue that capitalist nations cannot admit to their failures because if they do the illusion of capitalism being the only system that works would come crumbling down like the house of cards it is.
Great video as always! You’re our favorite modern Soviet historian!
Thank you so much! 💖
Delusional nonsense. You people are crazy. Historian? Yeah about as reliable as David Irving.
You are an amazing human being, never let your mind doubt for a moment how appreciated your efforts and existence is.
Playing defense for mass murder is hardly amazing.
@@BlackIce3190please read…the Black Book of Communism and Mein Kampf don’t count.
Two legged cockroach, more like.
Thanks for this information!
I had a heated discussion with my brother about this topic just the other day -- I wish, I had had this detailed information back then... 😅
Great video! I’m a descendent of kulaks from Ukraine (mennonites). Mennonites have done a pretty good job of portraying themselves as innocent victims of a tyrannical SU but the more research I do, the more I discover that wasn’t the case. Thanks for adding to the conversation!
Takes a lot of intellectual bravery to make an objective assessment of your ancestors' actions, especially on such a controversial topic. Kudos.
Another Mennonite! This history is deeply painful and nearly taboo in a lot of our families. I appreciate this video for helping create a more full picture.
I thought Mennonites were only a US thing, like the Amish. Its interesting to see that there are Mennonites in other countries.
Wow show easy it make belive in intrment camps. I would never make a video, about same culture schools norway good. How nice just hope that ussr was sealing grain on internasjonale marker will there was no hunger. And blaming people that force in doing new stuff. Just russ today blame 600 russ solder. Die beacuse force putin speech.
@@gabrielmiller9517 yo it watching why amircan need to make kill nativ people. Video and soure person is from that. And 0 reflect to curent time.
Thank you as always for sharing historical tidbits like these, truly theres no better place on the english/western internet than your channel ☺
other good recommendations would be marxist paul and its called leninism, both cover USSR well
@@ABPHistory thank you for more recommendations!! It is really hard finding them in English.
@@tivahh yes and a good book about the subject would be another view of stalin!
Hakim, Second Thought, Yugopnik, Luna Oi are also good
@@manuel75757 yo you advertising almost every communist channel
Now Just So We Are Not "Biased", Lets See What Non-Bolsheviks had to say about kulaks
"Peasant life from the time of the abolition of serfdom to the present day has been characterized by the flourishing of the kulaks, who have taken over the entire peasant economy.
Rescuing the peasant in need, lending him money or goods in difficult times, the kulak makes him pay godlessly dear for his services and absorbs himself the lion's share of the benefit derived by the peasant from the loan granted to him.
Despite this, he adopts an arrogant and imperious tone of address, demands slavish obedience, allows himself the most outrageous mockery and knows no limits to his tyranny. All public affairs at the gathering are decided in the way that pleases him and is beneficial, and no one dares to utter a word against his plans, although everyone understands perfectly well how unprofitable such an influence is reflected on the economy. This is not the place to describe in detail the activities and methods of kulaks. They are too well known and sufficiently developed in the literature.
Ivan Koshko 1899 - "Small public credit as a powerful means of combating the impoverishment of our peasant"
"In close connection with the question of collecting state, zemstvo, and public taxes that fall on the peasant population, and, one might say, mainly on the basis of these penalties, a terrible ulcer of our rural life has developed, which, at the end of it, corrupts and takes away the people's well-being - this is the so-called kulaks and usury. Once indebted to such a usurer, the peasant can almost never get out of the noose with which he entangles him and which for the most part leads him to complete ruin. Quite often the peasant already plows and sows and gathers grain only for the kulak."
Alexey Ermolov 1892 - "Harvest failure and public disaster"
"Of all the "Happy Corner" only in the village of B. there is a real kulak. This one loves neither land, nor farming, nor labor, this one loves only money. Everything with a kulak is based not on farming, not on labor, but on capital, on which he trades, which lends out at interest. His idol is money, the increase of which he only thinks. He inherited the capital, obtained by unknown means, but by some unclean means."
Alexander Engelgardt "Letters from the Village 1872-1887"
great excerpts
this makes me not like kulaks
@@dynamitewolft4194 And this is not when Bolsheviks were in power. You can guess how they would act later.
@@konstantinkelekhsaev302 They'd have murdered tens of millions, would they? Created gulags for dissenters who wouldn't buy their eggs and grain?
@@dynamitewolft4194 You probably hate Jews too.
Interesting, to learn how the kulaks were felt with. The information I had come across previously focused on the failure to quickly and efficiently divide up the land among the peasants. I've heard much about how the revolution, and later the Soviet Union, fell short of many of their ideal goals. It is refreshing to learn about what was achieved. 😊
i started 'dicatorship and democracy' on my plane ride yesterday! what a happy coincidence, i feel like i accidentally did the correct reading for class
🤣 regardless, I'm so happy to hear you are reading it! It's very valuable and insightful
Want more and more of Anna Louise Strong's works every time I watch one of your videos! Her writing is so accessible and she was and still is a perfect voice for open-minded westerners. Having returned to socialism after decades of lost conviction after the USSR collapsed in '91, I'm now doing all the historical research and theory brush-up that I didn't do when I was a radical red flag waving teen (I probably wouldn't have drifted away back then if I'd had a firm grasp of theory and more understanding of the forces involved in the end of the USSR - instead I ended up falling for the western cold war propaganda!)
not the #stalin and #farmers
It was just a really odd choice of which words to hashtag 😂
Always fantastic to see this topic dealt with and examined, unfortunately lacking in many other Leftist RUclips channels who don't seem to cover this topic with the analysis it deserves!
Very few cite primary sources and give them proper context. Love this gem of a channel
It’s missing on the Right as well!
@@pattidoyle5102 Well yeah, just kinda what's expected from there
Just found your channel and im so grateful I did! As a sociology and geopolitics nerd your content is like candy to me. Humanizing the caricatured image of the soviet union that most of us grew up understanding as reality is super important work.
When the RUclips algorithm actually helps you find an informative content creator for once! Subbed!
Welcome! 😁
My whole feed is commie goodies 😋 😍 ☺ I beat the algorithm
@@ernstthalmann4306 mine is getting there! can't wait :D
@@ernstthalmann4306 Can you suggest us some creators? The more, the better.
@@danielhadad4911 SecondThought is awesome socialist content.
Loved this! I'm totally jealous of your collection of writings and memorabilia! Can't wait for your next video Comrade.
1:20 Isn't it interesting how anytime one reads an online encyclopedia, they feel the need to mention that the source is Soviet and therefore "might be ideologically biased." Yet they often don't feel the need to say the same when a source is from any of the myriad anti-communist, Robert Conquest-esque sources which are often used when describing almost anything having to do with Communism. An interesting video as always, comrade. ✊🏼
Oh, the link to IstMat (Истмат)! Nice.These guys have been publishing Soviet archival documents for a quite time.
I had a Grandparent who was a veteran in the Greco-Italian war, and after he was wounded he spent most of Axis Occupation in the hospital, including the famine period. All of his fellow ex-fighters in the hospital were organised in EAM-ELAS, supposedly except him. One day, the Security Battalions came for the Veterans, their first crime, including himself. He survived. But after Dekemvriana, after he picked a fight with Organisation X probably, he returned back to his village, allied to the Right-Wing, and became a Greek analogue of a Kulak. He had 11 children (to enslave his 15-year-old wife with reproduction probably, she was also a terrible person and was disseminating rumours the Quisling government and the Nazis did, including blood libel) and was obsessed with accumulating property. He had one of those state-granted certificates of Anticommunism (πιστοποιητικά εθνικοφροσύνης) so that he was given the right to open a shop with knick-knacks, he had a local monopoly in cigarettes for example. He even denounced a son of his for fighting against the CIA-backed Military Junta in the Polytechnic Uprising as a student, he was a top one.
End result? His other children, who he taught nothing about the workd but being obsessed with working and accumulating property, maybe some humanist rhetoric here and there, had values so twisted, that some of them support the ideology of the people that invaded Greece back in the day, the ideology of the death squads that came for him. He would die a second time if he knew how many of his children, even Grandchildren are "Golden Dawn" losers or sympathetic to them. With the garbage narratives they listened at as children, it makes sense.
Moral of the story is, don't become a f*cking Kulak, it's stupid, also it makes you and your spawn evil.
😅
My nonno was drafted into the Kings Imperial Army during ww2 in Italy but when the kind abdicated he refused to be sent with most of the rest of those soldiers to join Mussolini's army/hitlers war effort so him and 800,000 other italian soldiers got chucked in concentration camps as italian military internees. When the camp was liberated because he was italian the French or soviets I think didn't fully understand why the italian detainees were there (neither did the italians back in italy many assumed people like him volunteered to work for germans even when many of the civilians actually were collaborators) so he got kept in another camp afterwards and then was like fuck europe. Also because Italy was basically liberated by the resistance then ruined by the Americans too
Excellent video! It's great to have all these questions tackled directly and on a short format, but still filled with evidence!
Thank you!! I'm trying to improve!
@@LadyIzdihar Ok, so i just checked the video. It's... certainly something. You clarify that you use sources from the Soviet perspective and Soviet friendly sources and the thing is that it does just that, you show us the official and highly favorable view of the collectivization process.
You cite the official definition of what a Kulak is, meaning a rural bourgeois that engaged in exploitative actions in the countryside, amassing large fortunes. And this is presented contrary to Marxism-Leninism, but it doesn't really tell you the rationale or the motives behind collectivization beyond "capitalism bad, therefore we must collectivize".
After their victory in the Russian Civil War and the failure to bring the revolution to Germany, the Bolsheviks had a completely devasted country, where the peasants were totally distrustful and resentful of the authorities after centuries of oppression because of serfdom from the Tsar and the confiscations of grain by both Whites and Reds and were basically ungovernable, which was a problem in a mostly agrarian country. In the cities there was widespread unrest because of the shortages of food, the breakdown of industry and the authoritarianism of the party meant that the Bolsheviks were on very thin with their core base unhappy and the majority of the country hostile to them. So to appease the peasantry they stopped the requisitions and introduced a tax (first in kind and later in money), and then they legalized private trade and ownership in small and medium sizes. This basically meant a concession to the peasants to let them be in exchange for grain and a pacification of the majority of the country.
Now, in the countryside the social classes of the rural village (mir) weren't really as in the city were you could see a bourgeois class and a proletarian class. In the village the social composition was more uniform, with the peasants having a strong communal sense and being generally very protective of their customs and way of life. So when the Communists talked about the Kulaks oppressing poor peasants, they didn't really saw any of it and generally closed ranks against party agitators and any attempts from the state to disrupt and change their ways.
However, the independence of the peasantry from the party made most the Soviet leaders uncomfortable, with the scissor crisis (the prices of industrial goods rised and the price of grain decreased) that peasants saw few reasons to sell grain and instead started to hoard it to make grain prices raise again. It also didn't help the communists that the peasants, probably for their first time in existence, had the luxury of finally be able to eat a lot more so they consumed a lot of their food. Fewer grain in the cities meant more hungry workers, and hungry workers were angry workers with the government. It also meant that they had fewer grain to export, the only means to acquire foreign currency from a very hostile capitalist world. So the situation (apart from the obvious ideological reasons) became very egregious to the party leaders, aka Stalin who had outmaneuvered the Leftist and later United Opposition.
The collectivization sparked controversy between Stalin and the Right Opposition that advocated a more gradual approach to socialism in the countryside. Stalin in the end won the debate and collectivization went ahead, however the process was very messy and violent and the definitions of what a Kulak was often now clear and fluid meaning that a poor peasant of yesterday was the kulak of today. And more often than not most of the comittees of peasants that formed quickly transformed to vicious attacks on other peasanst. Collectivization was created and implement with the intent of bringing the peasantry under the control of the state and get the grain they need without the need of negotiations.
@@tudoraragornofgreyscot8482Mass production in agriculture was always going to happen in both the capitalist and socialist world. It's more efficient and any interest group that wants more production will push for that. Either the farmers are bankrupted to get their land or the local labor is reorganized and that's what happened on most of the planet. Small concerns only remain in mixed economies like India, which is inefficient but represents the interests of the small holders and some of their labor. Look at the mass protest movement in India, 200mil.
Thank you for all the fascinating info… Appreciate you!
Fantastic video. I learned a lot in these few minutes about kulaks then I ever did before
I love your work, your sound has gotten a lot better from when I was first listening.
Wow! I think this was your best video yet comrade! Thank you for sharing it
You're doing a great and important job, comrade. Спасибо
Дружба, товарищи, с Новым Годом!
Не осталось у вас товарищей
My great uncle worked in deporting the kulaks in the Karelian ASSR. He never understood, he never approved. He came the USSR only because his wife wanted to go there and when he was asked to give his passport, he left to Finland. He kept sending packages to his family that continued to live in Karelia and elsewhere. Karelia was poor, the farms were small and there were no kulaks to speak of.
First time I've ever been recommended a good Marxist-Leninist channel by RUclips. Well done, comrade, and I look forward to viewing more of your videos and hopefully supporting the channel.
There is no such thing as "good Marxist-Leninist" channel. The sentence is self-contrary
Well I searched for "kulaks" and this is the first channel that came up. So RUclips is obviously promoting it
just finished it, your content is so good!!
Thank you so much! I'm trying to get better!
Thank you for an excellent and accessible video that tackles one of the most challenging parts of Soviet history. I must look up those pamphlets and have a read.
Your videos are always enlightening.
I'm sad my notifications for your videos got turned off.. but I felt like watching some of your content and saw this today so it's okay!!
Great video, the history we aren't told in the west makes the most sense.
Thank you for this video. It is so refreshing to hear a perspective that actually tries to understand the context these people were faced with, and why they took the actions they did.
Brilliant!
Love your work & I wasn't aware of this Anna Louise Strong woman, excellent comparison of hers that you found on the Kulaks.
🙏✊
Great content as always, Comrade!
Thanks!
Very great and insightful video!
ACCELERATED INDUSTRIALIZATION, increased appropriation of grain from the peasants, forced collectivization, liquidation of the kulaks, production declines, and hunger are the main links in a chain of events that led to the famine of 1932- 33 in the Soviet Union and to millions of deaths.
well, i wonder what would happen in 1940s, if it wasn't for a decade long accelerated industrialisation and collectivisation... oh, i know - we would speak of polish, ukrainian, russian, baltic and hundreds of more peoples as we speak of native americans today - colonised, exterminated, forgotten. USSR fought speedy and forced collectivisation in the early years of its existence, however in ten years of the rise and rearmament of the 3 reich, they were forced to either build a defense, or perish
@@ulyanov17 Hitler would have steamrolled the USSR without the American Lend Lease program supporting them. Read some history.
@@ulyanov17 Military Equipment
Aircraft (14,795 total):
Fighter planes: P-39 Airacobra, P-40 Warhawk
Bombers: B-25 Mitchell, A-20 Havoc
Transport planes: C-47 Skytrain
Tanks (7,056 total):
M3 Lee
M4 Sherman
Trucks (375,883 total):
Studebaker US6 trucks
GMC trucks
Jeeps (51,503 total):
Willys MB
Ford GPW
Motorcycles (35,000 total):
Harley-Davidson motorcycles
Artillery:
Anti-tank guns: 57 mm M1
Anti-aircraft guns: 40 mm Bofors
Industrial Equipment and Materials
Locomotives (over 1,900 total):
Steam locomotives
Diesel locomotives
Railcars (11,000 total):
Freight cars
Tank cars
Steel and Aluminum:
Steel plates
Aluminum ingots
Machine Tools:
Lathes
Milling machines
Drilling machines
Communication Equipment:
Radios (SCR-300 and SCR-536)
Field telephones
Signal equipment
Food Supplies
Canned and Dried Foods:
Canned meat (SPAM)
Canned fish
Dried milk
Canned vegetables
Grains:
Wheat
Flour
Cornmeal
Other Foods:
Sugar
Fats and oils (vegetable oil, lard)
Chocolate and coffee
Raw Materials
Fuel:
Aviation gasoline
Motor gasoline
Lubricants
Rubber:
Natural rubber
Synthetic rubber
Chemicals:
Explosives
Industrial chemicals
Pharmaceuticals
Clothing and Medical Supplies
Uniforms:
Winter clothing (coats, boots, gloves)
Standard military uniforms
Medical Supplies:
Medicines (penicillin, sulfa drugs)
Bandages
Surgical instruments
Medical kits
Support Services
Technical Assistance:
Training for the use of American equipment
Technical manuals and documentation
On-site support and advisory teams
@@ulyanov17 Given how the first year of the war went and how many Soviets died because of the catastrophic mismanagement of the military it might be hard to think about how it could have been worse. The USSR came out by the skin of its teeth. Germany came closer than any other European power ever did to actually taking out the Russian Empire.
You guys are all idiots
This video has been very helpful with getting rid of the obfuscation of the nature of kulaks. I've read many comrades misconstrue what they did and what went on. Giving the detractors leeway
It's always good to hear Stalin in his own words.
God bless you you are a beautiful amazing person
Brilliant work on (probably) the most misrepresented topic in history
You have an amazing collection of antique socialist texts. I’m jelly.
I am not a "fellow comrade," but I find you to be so enjoyable and informative to listen to. You have a gift for conveying your knowledge. It would be lovely to hear you have a debate and or open discussion with an opposing view by someone who is as much a good actor as yourself. This is what we need these days.
Yeah. I agree. I'm von Ribbentrop over here but never miss an upload
The phenomenon of "kulaks" is quite typical. It started as an middleman between the land owner/market and the rural community and ended as an owner who lives at the expense of the community. The Bolsheviks didn't have to explain in their articles and speeches: what is the phenomenon of "kulakism" and what is wrong with it. This was a well-known knowledge for contemporaries. Now, bourgeois propaganda is trying to present them as "pioneer entrepreneurs", "hard workers", "victims of dictatorship violence"; although their essence was no different from the criminal essence of those who were engaged in the primary accumulation of capital. They just managed to stop them, unlike someone like Rockefeller.
They are basically calling a property manager who did some hands on work for the two properties he managed for an owner at minimum wage, who the owner bequeaths those properties to them on his death, an exploited worker because he didn't outsource the maintenance he did when he inherited them. To analogise it to today.
Kulaks are hardworking peasants like my hypothetical guy is a hardworking worker who made "savvy" investments.
@@illogicalslayer9856 Close, but still a miss. The first iteration of the kulaks, these were former headmen who were literate unlike their fellow villagers and dealt with the documentation of their masters.
Then, a little magic happened, and with the reform of the emancipation of the peasants from serfdom they received some of the best land holdings.
There was also the option of going out through close contacts to trade grain or other, more valuable goods, but this still led to the scheme of "we had common plots that we allocated to tillage by lot, and now you owe me at 50%.". Also, "I'll probably, well definetly, scam you on of the goods trade".
The second iteration was in 1917, when the Bolsheviks distributed allotments according to the "number of eaters in the family".
Then primitive genetics worked: you have, for example, 7 surviving children out of 14 born, by the age at which they were fit not only as "little helpers" but also as workers. Of these, 5 were male. And I have five survivors of which 3 are female. Yes, women work just as hard as men if they want to eat, but first, the pressing issue is their marriage, moving in with their husband and dropping out of the production cycle, and second, the physical condition of the average man and the average woman who live in roughly the same conditions and eat the same food.
Congratulations: you won the Darwin's lottery and now I'll probably be the one coming to you to borrow grain for planting at the same 50%.
@@Ailasher Yes even in socialism having more wealth meant you had more surviving kids and therefore got the welfare at a greater rate.
I am glad my analogy got close though but Kulaks were a very weird case of Tsarist reform.
@@illogicalslayer9856 "Yes even in socialism" C'mon! Really? It was literally during the Civil War and a quote from quotes: the "state capitalism", that is, the NEP.
Socialism began with a process of central planning and collectivization, to mechanize the work of rural communities.
That's the essence of dialectical materialism: it's not enough to just say "OK, now we have "it", so let's have a party, now!" This is idealism (in the philosophical sense).
This should actually be "present" - this is actually the good ol' materialism.
@@Ailasher Yes I was commenting on the lower phases of communism not able to fully overcome the capitalist relations.
Not in a this will never work way but as a material reality that need to be continually worked on.
It is a transitional state it isn't going to be perfect.
look up “preventing the mass exodus of farmers who are starving”
Happy USSR creation day
Thank you for making this video. It counters a lot of anti-Soviet propaganda. 😀
Looking fresh! Killing it with the stiez
Izdihar, you are doing great job, don’t worry about the haters, there will always be some, your work is fantastic.
Я только что наткнулся на этот канал, но мне уже нравится
Again, great stuff. I am reminded of the methodology of Domenico Losurdo, who strove to demonstrate the power of the dialectic in his research. Finding out about your offerings has been a real pleasure to someone who has long been interested in the crossroads of communism and Islam, and in paritcular, the complexities of the woman question impacted at that crossroads. Salaam alaikum.
That last quote was awe inspiring. Also, love that Cheburaska next to "Caucasian Cuisine"
Love your content, queen, keep going!
Could you do a video on the deportation of the Crimean Tatars
Currently reading through "The Years of Hunger" by Wheatcroft and Davies and I am very much surprised what a "perfect storm" the sowing and harvesting of '31-'32 was. They really had the worst weather for crops and ergot and rust along with insects did a lot more damage. Of course there was damage caused by Kulaks and "Independent Peasants" and that makes the situation all the more difficult. The Soviet government constantly lowered grain requirements, reduced exports and provided seed and grain aid, but the dire situation was discovered too late.
Kulaks were working with the local Communists as the policies were all failing. They were given a ration for themselves which they planted at the right time, the rest was planted at the wrong time as ordered by the government. This gave the impression they were keeping for themselves, causing the shortages and the rest of the crop failing was their fault. Result was break up the Kulaks, split it between peasants, use the money to pay the peasants a subsistence and fund industrialisation with the 'profit'. All failed of course. It's almost like leaving people alone makes things work.
@@ln5747 unfortunately Collectivization led to higher crop yields as opposed to the decentralized independent farming method that preceded it. A case can (and has been) made for the Kulak class to grow, but as the Bukharinite right-wing of the CPSU was the only one to even come close to such a proposal, it is highly unlikely such a policy would have been tolerated by a revolutionary communist party.
Robert C. Allen, in his book "Farm to Factory" posits that the Soviet model of a planned economy was "the best" option available to the country at the time and concludes that a swing towards a more market-friendly economy would have slowed growth and possibly cost the USSR the war against Nazi Germany.
Which historians' works have you found to be the most resourceful on this topic?
@@tokarev3094 on which topic?
@@ln5747 the topic you posted about an hour ago (see above post).
excellent video, thank you
oh so thats why my family had to flee its home and its farmstead the 40s under threat of being deported to siberia - we were bourgeoisie! :D (we had a few acres of land)
but in all seriousness, its all just good old propaganda
your content is so calming, great work!!
thank you 🙏i will get to reading
Great video comrade!
Do you know of any sources specifically regarding the process in Siberia, especially with how the sizable nomadic populations underwent collectivization and dekulakization?
Such a nuanced view of the "other" side of the kulak situation than what I’m used to reading makes me wonder if I’d be more receptive to it earlier on if I lived in a more extreme capitalist society like the US (unlike Norway where I live)
I still think it’s a very complicated and grey phenomenon, but I really appreciate the analysis you did here. Very interesting!!
Great video!
I created a new Playlist to store this video, named "Absolute #1"! Smearing Stalin is the immediate oppositional smugness response. Now I am armed with the answer.❤
Thanks for video. Actually my grandfather was kulak and was departed to Siberia.
I think what happened was s tragedy. That said I don't know what the Soviet government could have done even as much as they were partly responsible.
I am Irish in Ireland and it sickens me no end when European and descended people's claim what happened was genocide, when the USSR did all they could to minimize it when it happened.
England committed genocide on Ireland and other places in the 19th century where they starved us so they could build an empire with our food, land and labour. The USSR was trying to build a union of equals and they tried to minimize and not maximise starvation, emigration and cultural evisceration as England did and still does.
I am so glad the USSR and other socialist nations existed or exist as they prove our dreams of freedom, liberation, real peace, prosperity and unity not only possible but necessary!
The US didn't recognize the Soviet Union until Nov 1933 so I don't think you will find any pamphlets published in the US before that, but maybe you can?
Nothing officiated by the government, but plenty of printing presses focused on human rights and the working class printed pamphlets about the Soviet Union before 1933.
@@LadyIzdihar there you go.
ruclips.net/video/7MG1-s9GyCM/видео.html
@@LadyIzdihar "exploration this! Exploration that!" What do they mean by this word anymore? Exploration? Beating their employees? Taking more then half of their stuff?
@@johnmanole4779 I'm guessing you mean "exploitation" and not "exploration" exploitation in the Marxian sense of the word is extraction of surplus labor value, or put another way let's day you generate $100 an hour of capital for a company, you only get paid $10 while the boss gets $90 even though they didn't do anything to produce that capital. That $90 is your surplus labor value being extracted, and that's exploitation
Extremely well-done video as always. Thank you for touching down on such a sensitive topic. The more we speak about it, the more it will be understood. I was wondering if you could cover a video on homosexuality within the USSR, especially in the Stalin era?
It would be helpful to also include the work of Mark Tauger, a researcher into famines. As it actually turned out is that the decreased harvest was not that it was inefficiently not harvested so much as they were victim of wheat rust, a disease that is hard to recognize. The crop looks healthy until you get to harvest and get only 30% of what you thought you were going to get. But they had no agronomists to diagnose it, and so jumped to 'human error' instead. The fact that Stalin took responsibility and attempted to alleviate it with rationing and shipping grain to Ukraine should speak well of him--if anyone knew the real story. Thank you for this.
Sounds like communist inefficiencies 😂
@@ln5747yeah let's hear about capitalist efficiencies - irish famine? beghal famine? milions dead of hunger every year? that is efficent, but in making profits
@@ulyanov17 are you seriously starting a comparison over communist and capitalist famines? 🤣
@@ln5747 then show us a way for industrialisation and the end of hunger without communism nor capitalism! 😂 however, it is important to compare open racial intent of capitalist famines and conqesuences of those (mass profits), to mass organised relief in socialist countries, and progress never seen in history happening in few years afterwards (inspite such tragedies)
@@ulyanov17communism doesn’t work. How many times can you try the same thing and not see it? Why aren’t all you comrades fighting to move to Cuba or North Korea? It’s easy to be a communist in a free country but try being free in a communist country. Where are the millions dead every year from hunger from capitalism?
I think this video is a good start for explaining the "Soviet" perspective on the Kulaks and would be interested in further videos elaborating what I presume to be variety of thought within the USSR at the time.
We got Stalin and Strong this time. Next time, how about some party members that disagreed with Stalin's reasoning, some peasants who recounted their experiences in Ukraine, some former Kulaks reminiscing about their resettlement experiences?
Left communists and Kulaks get too much representation in this discussion I want to hear from more perspectives just not them because they have been signal boosted for decades at this point and I am tired of hearing from them.
We already know what they think "wah they took my hoarded grain to feed the community and we had to suffer with the poors instead of having more food to ourselves for that winter" and "Stalin bad, anything not Trotsky or Lennin bad and we would have done it better".
Great work. Love your videos.👍👍
this is a very interesting topic as a person who love soviet history and how they did stuff this is video is good for me iam also very happy that you recommended some books and sources so people can further understand the topic
and it is good to hear the other sides perspective on this to have a better understand of this topic like i say history is very complex and it not alawys so black and white
Lebedev-Kumach's poems are called "fist" and "monologue of a foreign worker."
New sub comrade!! Midwestern Marx sent me
thats a nice intro song, what is it called?
В обществе, основанном на эксплуатации, высшей моралью является мораль социалистической революции.
Л. Троцкий. Агония капитализма и задачи Четвертого Интернационала
This was great!
does izdihar means -promotion/advertisement/leaflet/proposal(it does in my language)?
It means to blossom or flourish in Arabic
Thanks. I am halfway through TSEI. A great read.
if they didn’t get rid of the kulaks capitalism would’ve persisted in the countryside and would’ve had disastrous effects for soviet socialism
@@nikolamilicevic1040 no it didnt, the famine was caused by natural weather conditions and kulak resistance, however your right about the violent part
You know you're going to get an unbiased opinion when the host starts the video with "Asalamu alaykum Comrades".
nothing is "unbiased" to this so is to be naïve
Why do you have a problem with Muslims?
loved the video and book recommendations, much love from Brazil
If you could put that "What About Russia?" pamphlet up online somehow or share a link that would be amazing!!!
Thank you!
Always good to the the Soviet Perspective as well as Amerucan/Western one.
Thanks to you. I don't think I could find those in spanish. Except in Cuba.
Wow. Watching this you'd think the Kulaks were just sent off on holiday for a while... I'm actually shocked by the dishonesty, and how willingly all the commenters lap it up.
I was curious wether you coved the Kulak question, well done. Ramadan Mubarak.
Thank-you for your great work in giving us this perspective. I've subscribed because I want to hear more from you.
I’ve been attacked by academics who are alumni of the college I attended for forwarding some of these ideas in an online alumni forum including being called a genocide denier, although I never denied that people died in the famine & there is plenty of mainstream, non-communist pushback against the Holodomor narrative. One of these people in particular implied that the definition of kulak was applied so widely as to encompass almost any peasant with even modest means (livestock, land), or who were even tenants themselves. I’m curious your perspective, realizing that there is probably more detail on these definitions within the literature you cite.
I don’t understand your point. You admit that 5 million people starved yet you still support the ideology that starved them in the first place.
@@spehhhsssmarineer8961 Because there is no proof it was intentional. Genocide requires intent and all liberal scholars who aren't anti communists and some that are have had to admit it wasn't genocide.
Also Jewish academics have identified it as an example of double genocide theory which is antisemitic becaause it is nazi collaborators in eastern europe saying that they are the same as the jews they murdered for the nazis.
Jewish academics have identified double genocide theory of which the "holodomor" or Soviet Famine of 1932-33 is an example. If you need to read more than that the current historiography is dominated by Stephen Wheatcroft and Robert Davies are the foremost experts and their books made Robert Conquest who is one of the main progenitors of the Holodomor as genocide in academia recant.
>One of these people in particular implied that the definition of kulak was applied so widely as to encompass almost any peasant with even modest means (livestock, land)
this is true, you can find my comment about that here and yes that was genocide of Russian people.
@@terrorwavegabber Ok nazi.
Thanks for covering a controversial topic
Thanks for watching it, hopefully everything I tried to provide was reasonable and not taken in bad faith!
Informative video as always :)
Нужна мировая революция. Только мировая революция способна ликвидировать социальное неравенство. Нужно ликвидировать всех классовых врагов.
Just discovered your channel, it's a great work with many sources to shed light on an important part of our history
does the great soviet encyclopaedia has an English version?
Yes! I showed a picture of the English one
@@LadyIzdihar oohhh, nice. Now I need to find if there is a PDF of it.
Slowly working through your stuff in no particular order. Do you have just recordings of you reading the works of Anna Louise Strong? That would be brilliant.
8:08 aye! I’m from, and live in, the San Joaquin Valley! Glad to see Anna Louise Strong mention us there. The Pixley and Corcoran cotton strikes in 1933 sadly had some armed struggle by the National Guard’s then traitorous hands.
It is still ripe for communism here, and it was 100 years ago too. Now, I have seen even local Republicans running for local office having platforms (Mar 2024, in the Primary Election) that sounded very close to a socialist consciousness, and moreso than the local Democrats, which I never thought I’d see. Materially, the San Joaquin is economically powerful and ironically fruitful but poor (besides the Imperial Valley near Mexico, the San Joaquin Valley is the poorest region in California).
Yes Strong's and indeed also the CPSU's own writings on the subject are a very important and counterbalancing perspective that is as you say, now lost in the deluge of simplistic, biased misinformation about the USSR. However, there was an ideological component to the concept of the kulak, that as a rural bourgeoisie formed in real terms only about 1% of the peasantry. This meant that many of those identified as 'kulaks' were not and could not have been actual kulaks. The big problem was that the CPSU was certainly in the 1917-35 period, by its class and overwhelmingly urban composition only very distantly connected to the peasantry, if at all. This meant that they were alienated from and did not understand the latter, and were at best patronising to, or ofttimes contemptuous of, the peasants, who formed at that time around 90% of the entire Soviet population. Even much of the urban proletariat itself was removed from the peasantry by only one or two generations max.
Many of the problems that faced the USSR in the 1920s and 30s could have been avoided had the CPSU not eliminated their original October revolutionary partners, the Left SRs - who were both from and understood the peasantry perfectly. This was I believe a huge mistake and indeed a tragedy, along with the heavy emphasis on centralisation and CPSU attempts to assert party control over the workers' and peasants' councils, instead of letting - as was originally intended - these to lead the way forward. The dogmatic nature of the party line particularly under Stalin and runaway bureaucratic components such as the 'political' wing of the OGPU that was able to serve its own interests by controlling pools of coerced labour for other components in charge of industry and infrastructure, was another factor.
Another problem here is that while it is hugely important to recognise and laud many of the achievements that were enabled in the USSR and the PRC alike as at least a a majority of the participating cadres and workers strove to do, often against overwhelming odds, the actual elements most resistant to this project were not to be found amongst some largely absent backward group as the 'kulaks', but in the bureaucracy and nomenklatura who were in fact much more of a threat - and indeed proved to be a sort of gangster-capitalist clique in genesis form, jettisoning its 'socialist' skin and emerging into fully developed adult character with ease as the USSR in particular disintegrated (China is another, different story).
This leads us to ask the question as to why very few Marxists have been able to apply Marx' own tools of dialectical historical interrogation also to states that claim to be socialist. If a state claims to be whatever, Marx teaches us that the information as given by those in power is not enough, and we instead need to look at the social relations in the economy and other parts of the structure. Yet most self-proclaimed 'Marxists' focus entirely on the debates and positions within the Socialist/Communist Party in charge of the state, as if the forces in play amongst the former are no longer propelled by the contradictions and struggles taking place at the base, and instead it is all down to pure 'ideological debate' within the charmed circle of a CPSU/CPC etc that has somehow transcended and rests above (despite the fact of the allegedly socialist state existing in a still-capitalist world), history's driving force of class struggle.
There is however ample evidence of continued proletarian/bourgeois-like class struggle both within the USSR and the PRC with managerial elements of the bureaucracy replacing a currently absent bourgeoisie, as well as demonstrable proof of the successful alienation of labour from direct worker control and the accumulation of capital (labour) by alienated bodies (of exploiters) associated with this. Furthermore, there are some disturbing parallels to what Marx termed the process of 'capitalist primitive accumulation' in the post-NEP agrarian collectivisation policies of the 1930s. It is in this context that a thorough, and authentically Marxian, critique of the USSR in the 1930s should be made.
So well researched and so well paced. I'm genuinely thrilled to see some rad left content that's this high quality. (not hating on any other creator, just the algorithms)