Despite its profound, long-term socio-political implications, the collectivization of agriculture in Eastern Europe after the Second World War has remained a relatively under-researched field. In order to understand the post-communist transformation of Eastern European societies, scholars need to pay attention to the status and evolution of the peasantry and to employ a historical perspective, by exploring the communist agricultural policies and their enduring economic and social implications. To contribute to this analytical effort, the volume explores the inter-related campaigns of collectivization of the agriculture in USSR in the interwar and post-war periods and in the communist dictatorships established in the Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe after World War II.
The Collectivization of Agriculture in Eastern Europe: Comparisons and Cross-border Entanglements I. The Soviet Interwar Model and its Application in post-1945 Soviet Union Collectivization in the Soviet Union: Specificities and Modalities The Collectivization of Agriculture in the Baltic Soviet Republics, 1944-1953 II. Land Collectivization in East Central Europe The Collectivization of Agriculture in Poland: Causes of Defeat Collectivisation in Czechoslovakia in Comparative Perspective, 1949-1960 The Forced Collectivisation of Agriculture in Hungary, 1948-1961 Ideology and Asymmetrical Entanglements: Collectivization in the German Democratic Republic III. Land Collectivization in South-Eastern Europe Collectivization in Yugoslavia: Rethinking Regional and National Interests Collectivization and Social Change in Bulgaria, 1940s - 1950s " Any other road leads only to the Restoration of Capitalism in the Countryside:" Land Collectivization in Albania The Collectivization of Agriculture in Romania, 1949-1962 IV. Axes of Differentiation: Social Conflicts, Centre and Periphery, Class Struggle, Social and Ethnic Cleavages The Appropriation and Modification of the Soviet Model of Collectivization: The Case of Hungary Collectivization as Social Practice: Historical Narratives and Competing Memories as Sources of Agency in the Collectivization Campaign in the GDR Collectivization at the Grass Roots Level: State Planning and Popular Reactions in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and the GDR, 1948-1960 Eastern European Collectivization Campaigns Compared, 1945-1962 V. Appendix General Bibliography Maps Index List of Contributors