It takes a village”

Collectivization in the postwar Ukrainian borderlands

Bibliographic Data

ID9640421
AuthorsEmily B Baran (0000-0002-5854-0128, Middle Tennessee State University, corresponding author), Emily Baran (Middle Tennessee State University)
Year2018
Volume60
Issue3-4
Pages529-547
Publication date2018-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanadian Slavonic Papers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-5006 • E-ISSN: 2375-2475
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00085006.2018.1516454
OpenAlexW2894883253
LanguageEN
References cited21

This article examines collectivization as a crucial aspect of the Soviet state’s ambitious effort to “Sovietize” its postwar western borderlands. Given the enormity of this task, the state leaned heavily on local agitators to convince residents to join the farms, and to manage the farms and their workforce. This put heavy responsibility on local activists to get results, but it also gave them power. This article provides a microhistory of these dynamics in the Transcarpathian village of Bila Tserkva. Faced with a failing collective farm and increased state scrutiny in 1949, village activists blamed the local Jehovah’s Witness community for allegedly subverting a successful collectivization effort. In reality, religion provided convenient scapegoats for villagers and the state to disguise a broader indifference and animosity to Sovietization. This case study demonstrates that state control of its borderlands was limited and dependent upon locals for information and the projection of power

Microhistory · Political economy · Political science · Power (physics · Scrutiny · Sociology · State (computer science · Witness · Workforce · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · European history and politics · Gender Studies · History · Law · Soviet and Russian History

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