Social and economic dimensions of Southern Ural dekulaked peasants (1930-1934)

Abstract

'This paper envisages a regional case study of a major turning point in the rural history of modern Russia, namely, the elimination of well-to-do peasants as a group and the collectivization of agriculture. By making a database 'Dekulaked Peasants of Southern Ural (1930-1934)' (database 'DPSU') that is enough representative and consists of 1024 dekulaked peasant families (11.8%; of the general set) social and economic attributes of Southern Ural dekulaked peasants are considered in order to analyze what Southern Ural dekulaked peasants were. It is also an explicit test of the property rights argument. It is important to disentangle the effects of the property rights regime change and of the loss of human and physical capital on agricultural productivity.' (author's abstract)