| Abstract [eng] |
After the Soviet Union annexed Lithuania on June 15 in 1940, already in the first months of occupation the new Soviet system of agriculture started to be systematically implemented in the whole country. The main goal of the sovietization campaign in Lithuanian villages was the destruction of private property and farmsteads and the implementation of agricultural collectivization. However, this process was stopped when the war between the USSR and the Third Reich began. In the years 1944–1947 before the beginning of establishment of collective farms, the agrarian land reform was carried out in Lithuania. The process of establishing collective farms in the region was renewed in 1947. After two years, almost every village had a collective farm. Machine-tractor stations (MTS) and machine-horses rental points (MHRP) made a significant influence to the pace of collectivization. Small farms were not able to apply rational forms of farming. They lacked qualified workers, maintaining an administrative machine cost a lot, and therefore in 1950, the decision was taken to enlarge the collective farms. The small collective farms in the surrounding countryside and villages joined to the bigger ones. The peasants of all social layers joined the collective farms: poor, medium and the ritch ones called „buožės“. Poor farmers joined the collective farms because they they already had nothing to lose. There was a posibility to use common property (horses, feed and etc.) or to occupy a minimum subsistence guaranteeing position in the collective farms. The collective farms in Šiauliai, Joniškis, Radviliškis, Kelmė specialized in crop-growing and livestock farming. They organized their work in farms, brigades and units. The material condition of the collective farms was weak. However, from 1950–1954 there were signs of improvement of the material base. When connecting the collective farms, geographic and other conditions were not very important. These big collective farms were too large for that period, so in 1957–1958 the removing of mistakes made in enlargement eyar was started. In 1958 MTS were abolished, their machinery was transfered to the collective farms and farmers were exempted from compulsory agricultural product obligations. Since the very first years of collectivization, there has been concern about the establishment of collective farm settlements. Massive taking off the farmsteads and the forming of collective farm settlements was started in 1965 together with expanded land reclamation, also called the second collectivization, whitch had to end in 1990. In 1982 Senior management institutions approved the agro-industrial complex program. The agro-industrial complex is an integrated whole of material production branches, which is connected with the general objective of the production, processing and marketing of agricultural products and raw materials. In 1983 agro-industrial asssociations were established in the districts of Šiauliai, Joniškis, Pakruojis, Radviliškis and Kelmė. |
