Transforming Peasants, Property and Power: The Collectivization of Agriculture in Romania, 1949–1962

Image Plates

1 / The agrarian commission, assisted by numerous peasants, dividing the estate of a large landowner during the land reform of March 1945. 2 / Soviet authorities closely monitored the process of collectivization in Romania from its inception. See Marshal Voroshilov visiting the “Lenin’s Path” collective farm, Livedea, Bucharest region, August 1949. 3 / Peasants signing up for membership in one of the first collective farms in Romania, Ceamurlia de Jos, Dobrogea, 1949 (for details, see pp. 112, 116, 136). 4 / Propaganda pictures with peasants signing petitions to join the collective farms in 1949 in Zăbrani, Arad, wearing folk costumes. 5 / Reading the official newspaper to a group of peasants in the fields of a collective farm, action organized by the cultural house in Livezeni, Dolj region (1950). The slogan of the poster on the wooden board reads: “Let’s be the first ones who deliver the assigned requisition quotas.” 6 / Propaganda picture from 1952, showing the achievements of socialist agriculture emphasizing the inclusion of women in the work force in traditionally “male” professions (such as driving), as well as the mechanization of agriculture. 7–8 / The system of forced requisitions was an instrument of class struggle and a mechanism of ruining peasant households. At the same time, authorities remunerated collectivized farmers with crops in a celebratory atmosphere, in order to highlight the material benefits of enrolling in collective farms, as in the two pictures above (for details of such practices, see p. 287). The second such convoy, complete with musicians, was organized in 1952, after a peasant rebellion. 9 / The aggressive collectivization campaign generated numerous peasant revolts. In August 1949, in Arad and Bihor regions, angry peasants torched party headquarters and the city hall and destroyed communist propaganda symbols. See the interior of the city hall in Tăut, Bihor region, devastated by a peasant anti-collectivization riot. The torn portrait of the Communist leader Ana Pauker, then in charge of the Agrarian Commission of the CC, can be seen on the floor. 10 / Another form of resistance was blocking access to bridges into the village, as was the case in Batâr, Bihor region. 11 / Anti-chiabur propaganda from 1950. The caricature attributes chauvinistic feelings to the chiaburi and presents the collective farm as an example of a peaceful multi-ethnic cooperation. The text reads as follows: “ Among chiaburi: You see, despite the fact that they are of different ethnic origins [‘nationalities,’ in the communist language], they have overcome the “ancient hatred” which we so assiduously promoted, and get along well with each-other!” 12–13 / The violent repression resulted in the execution of many resistant peasants. As in the cases of I.G. and D.M., the family was left with only an old picture of them. 14 / Gheorghe Gheorgiu-Dej and the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on a visit to the collective farm of Livedea, August 1955. 15 / April 3–6, 1958. Party meeting with peasants working in the socialist agricultural sector, Constanţa. Gheorghiu-Dej urges completion of collectivization in the entire country. 16 / Gheorghe Gheorgiu-Dej among collective farm members in Nazna, Mureş region, September 1959. Such propaganda pictures were meant to stimulate peasants to join the collective farms. 17 / The Romanian leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and other high party officials in the fields of the Grabat State Farm, Banat region, June 1961. ...