Kolkhoz

A kolkhoz (Russian plural: kolkhozy; anglicized plural: kolkhozes (Russian: колхо́з, IPA: [kɐlˈxos] ^ⓘ) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz. These were the two components of the socialized farm sector that began to emerge in Soviet agriculture after the October Revolution of 1917, as an antithesis both to the feudal structure of impoverished serfdom and aristocratic landlords and to individual or family farming.

The portmanteau колхоз, kolkhóz is a contraction of коллективное хозяйство, kollektívnoye khozyáystvo, 'collective farm'. This Russian term was adopted into other languages as a loanword; however, some other languages calqued equivalents from native roots, such as Ukrainian колгосп, kolhósp, from колективне господарство, kolektývne hospodárstvo. In Belarus, the term was known as калгас, калектыўная гаспадарка, kalhas, kalektywnaya haspadarka, in Lithuania – kolūkis, kolektyvinis ūkis.

The Russian terms for members of a kolkhoz is "kolkhoznik" (male) and "kolkhoznitsa" (female).

As a collective farm, a kolkhoz was legally organized as a production cooperative. The Standard Charter of a kolkhoz, which since the early 1930s had the force of law in the USSR, is a model of cooperative principles in print. It speaks of the kolkhoz as a "form of agricultural production cooperative of peasants that voluntarily unite for the main purpose of joint agricultural production based on [...] collective labor". It asserts that "the kolkhoz is managed according to the principles of socialist self-management, democracy, and openness, with active participation of the members in decisions concerning all aspects of internal life".

In practice, the collective farm that emerged after Stalin’s collectivization campaign did not have many characteristics of a true cooperative, except for nominal joint ownership of non-land assets by the members (the land in the Soviet Union was nationalized in 1917). Even the basic principle of voluntary membership was violated by the process of forced collectivization; members did not retain a right of free exit, and those who managed to leave could not take their share of assets with them (neither in kind nor in cash-equivalent form).

The role of the sovereign general assembly and the democratically elected management in fact reduced to rubber-stamping the plans, targets, and decisions of the district and provincial authorities, who together with imposition of detailed work programs also nominated the preferred managerial candidates.

The most basic measure was to divide the workforce into a number of groups, generally known as brigades, for working purposes. By July 1929 it was already normal practice for the large kolkhoz of 200–400 households to be divided into temporary or permanent work units of 15–30 households.' The authorities gradually became in favour of the fixed, combined brigade – that is, the brigade with its personnel, land, equipment, and draft horses fixed to it for the whole period of agricultural operations, and taking responsibility for all relevant tasks during that period. The brigade was headed by a brigade leader (brigadir). This was usually a local man (a few were women).

Brigades could be subdivided into smaller units called zvenos (links) for carrying out some or all of their tasks.