This film “Victory of Collectivization” dates to 1935. It is a Soviet documentary portraying the aftermath of the collectivization, which was begun in 1927, 8 years later. The film lauds the new methods of organization of agricultural labor – collective farms (kolkhozes), centered around the newly-created Machine-tractor-stations (see below) and shows various types of agricultural machinery in use during this period – notably the Caterpillar harvester, Fordson tractors and the first domestically-designed and manufactured Soviet tractor – the S-60. Portrayed are also the Soviet udarniks Pasha Angelina, Maria Demchenko, Konstantin Borin. The movie ends on the results of the plenary meeting of the 2nd all-Union assembly of the agricultural workers in 1935.
0:20 “Onwards to take agriculture by storm!”
0:35 – 0:40 Holt-Caterpillar harvesters (or Soviet copies). This a Soviet tractor produced at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant between 1933 and 1937. It was based on the American Caterpillar Sixty tractor and was mostly produced for the Red Army, which used them extensively to haul artillery, as the tractor was heavily built and had a powerful engine.
0:46 C-60 “Stalinets” Caterpillar diesel-based Soviet tractor
0:51 Shipping the C-60 tractors by railway
0:55 to 1:22 Shots of the Soviet rural inhabitants (non-doctored/non-Potemkin Village-style)1:23 to 1:43 People riding Fordson and Fordson-Putilovets tractors (Soviet licensed copy of the American Fordson)
2:01 to 2:04 – Shot of a North Caucasus village kolkhoz « Ostrogorka/Zavety Il’icha » in the Ostrogorka poselok (village) near Zheleznovodsk, Kinzhal (Dagger) mount in the background, before its planned demolition in 1981. Retouched or doctored shots.2:41 to 2:47 Pasha (Praskovia) Angelina, the first female tractor-operator, head of the first all-female tractor platoon, and the symbol of the « new stakhanovite worker » of the collectivization period.
2:49 to 2:55 Maria Demchenko, « zveno » (5-people team) manager, a stakhanovite beats harvester
2:57 to 3:10 harvester operator and stakhanovite Konstantin Borin
3:30 Shot of a Soviet newspaper showing some of the old spelling of the words, pre-1956 spelling reform
3:32 Second all-Union assembly of the agricultural workers 1935
3:47 Possibly G. Baikov, head of the « Yangi-Turmysh » kolkhoz of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Republic
4:11 to 4:13 more Holt-Caterpillar harvesters
4:31 « by the end of the 5-year plan (1932) 93% of the individual farms merged to become kolkhozes. That meant success and the victory of collectivization in the country. »
The machine tractor station (MTS) was a state enterprise for ownership and maintenance of agricultural machinery that were used in kolkhozy. Each MTS was responsible for around 40 kolkhozy. The first ever MTS was organized in the Odessa Oblast (Shevchenkivska MTS). MTSs were introduced in 1928 as a shared resource of scarce agricultural machinery and technical personnel. The main units of an MTS were tractor brigades and automobile brigades, which performed the corresponding agricultural work. It was paid with the share of the agricultural product called natural payment. Over time, MTSs became an instrument of transferring the agricultural production from kolkhozy to the sovkhozy of the state. 75,000 tractors had been supplied by MTSs to Soviet collective farms by 1932, and in 1933 the natural payment constituted about 20% of the product and continued to grow.
They existed as independent inter-kolkhoz service until 1958, when the machinery was transferred to the farms, and MTS transformed into machinery service stations (Russian: ремонтно-техническая станция, РТС), which were still known under the old name for longer time. In 1972 they were further renamed into Regional Association “Selkhoztekhnika”. In post-Soviet Russia some economists expressed ideas about the revival of MTSs to help small independent farmers.
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