Agriculture

ESTONIAN AGRICULTURE, 1940 – 1990

Enormous changes took place in agriculture of Estonia after the establishment of the Soviet power, both in the administrative system as in the arrangement of production. The double system of administration, which was in force in the Soviet Union, where beside the governmental system the political direction by the structures of party was in use. The governmental structure was represented by the Ministry of Agriculture ( 25. VIII 1940 – 25. III 1946 People’s Commissariat ). Changes of the names and reorganizations took place continuously. In addition, there were the Ministry of Sovkhozes ( state farms) and the Ministry of Stockbreeding in the 1950ies.

For a short time, at the beginning of the 1960ies, the Ministry of Agriculture didn’t exist at all, the Ministry of Provision was established instead. Both existed later on. In the same period the attempt to move the Ministry of Agriculture from Tallinn to Saku settlement was made. It was a failure and the decision was annulled. The last attempt of reorganization during the Soviet time was the establishment of the Agro-industrial Association of the ESSR in 1983 (from 1985 Committee of Agro- industry ). It didn’t realize its aim: to co-ordinate the development of agriculture and its conjunctive branches. It formed an enormous ministry difficult to administrate. The departments of agriculture under different names represented the Ministry of Agriculture in the structure of the executive institutions of the administrative districts. The Ministry of Agriculture depended on the Committee of Planning in the relevant questions.

The top person of the political directing was the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP of the ESSR coordinating the agriculture by subordinated department. Subdivisions of the same kind were at the district committees of the party. Directing functions were also given to MTJs (Machine Tractor Stations) although these were essentially the enterprises tending the agriculture. The establishment of MTJs began in 1941. There were 24 of them in 1945, 56 in 1950 and at last 69. During 1950 – 1952, the departments of politics were established at MTJs, to help to direct politically the recently formed kolkhozes (collective farms). After that, the agricultural advisory service went into the structure of MTJs, agriculturists and zoologists. In 1958 MTJs were liquidated and reorganized into the service and techniques stations. Tractors and other machines were sold to kolkhozes. Also agricultural specialist went there to direct agriculture.

The changes in the system of the agricultural enterprises followed the scheme planned by the theorists of Marxism and used in the main territory of the Soviet Union. The changes began with the nationalization of land. It brought together the agrarian reform, started in 1940 and continued in 1945. It was the preparation for the collectivization of agriculture. It was tried to build up a system of small scale farmhouses, more or less of the same size, which lead to essential impairment of agriculture. A part of the expropriated property of the big farmhouses was given to horse rent stations, which was meant to be the first form of joint usage of means of production. Their property was ruined fast. The owners of the big farmhouses up to that time, were tried to break with taxes beyond their power and obligatory delivery quota and work in the woods.

After that, the propaganda of the low effectiveness of small-scale production began. Still, the authorities did not expect the farmers to join into kolkhozes voluntarily. The process was planned to be carried out by mass representation and against the background of creating the atmosphere of terror. The mass collectivization was took place during 1949 – 1951, influenced by the action of deportation of the peasants to Siberia in 1949.

At that time there was no economical need to establish large-scale agricultural industry. The most important was an abstract ideological purpose: to liquidate the private property in agriculture. There was also a lack of the economical preconditions for building up the material bases of the large-scale production. The minimum necessary bases formed only during some twenty years up to the end of 1960ies.

The reorganization of the system of enterprises began with the nomination of the previous state manors to sovkhozes. There were 70 sovkhozes at the end of 1945.

In addition, more were established from the land remained in state reserve according to the agrarian reform. 127 sovkhozes were established up to the end of 1951.

The first 5 kolkhozes were established in 1947, 439 up to the end of 1948. The collectivization continued in forced form , after the deportation in March, 1949, 2898 kolkhozes were formed up to the end of the year. At first, the small so- called one village kolkhozes were established but the campaign of incorporation of the farms began all over the Soviet Union in 1950. Up to the end of that year the total number of the kolkhozes had decreased considerably and their average size enlarged 1,7 times (Table 1). The incorporating of farms was carried on continuously. It had to strengthen them economically but in reality weakened entirely: the difficulties in organizing the work and the indifference of people deepened.

Table 1. The number and size of the agricultural enterprises

During the second half of 1955, the attempt was made to unite the economically weak kolkhozes to sovkhozes. In kolkhozes the guaranteed wages and state pensions were paid, some financial aid was given by the state for establishing of the bases of production. 48 kolkhozes were united with kolkhozes in 1956, establishment of the new kolkhozes on the bases of the weak kolkhozes began in 1957. The enlarging of the significance of the sovkhozes became a part of the state politics. In 1960 kolkhozes owned 69% and sovkhozes 31% of the land of the agricultural enterprizes, up to 1880 the relation was 48%:52% in favor of the sovkhozes.

After becoming the dominating form, sovkhozes lost their previous advantages. Simultaneously, the less rigid economical regime of sovkhozes gave them small advantages. Therefore some sovkhozes were liquidated already in 1970 and their lands were given to kolkhozes. The large scale reorganization of sovkhozes to kolkhozes began at the end of the 1980ies, a bit before falling of the Soviet regime. At that time, the dividing of the enterprises, which had become excessively giant, to rational units also began, the value of the sovkhozes diminished.

Besides changing the territories of the enterprises larger, the concentration of production and establishment of specialized enterprises was started already in 1960ies. The Tallinn Poultry Factory was established and an enterprise of the same kind in Tamsalu, Põdrangu sovkhoz. The remained part of the poultry breeding was concentrated into a few enterprises. The great vegetable growing greenhouse farms were also established. In the mid 1970ies the great Pig Breeding Integrated Plants of Viljandi and Pärnu were established. The building of the big dairy cattle-houses, accommodating 400 - 800 cows began at the same time. By the end of the period 60% of the cattle were held in big cow-houses. In some respects the tendencies of the world were followed but essential exaggerations appeared. The planned effect was not achieved, the rules of the environment protection were ignored. The Soviet agrarian politics, at first the forced collectivization, essentially inhibited the development of the agriculture. Immediately, during the after-war years the farming was weakened and the pre-war capacity of production was not restored, as it was, for example, in Finland. The following collectivization at first caused the direct relapse of the production capacity and the low level continued during 15-20 years. The pre-war level in the cattle breeding was exceeded only in the middle of the 1960ies especially due to the use of purchase concentrated fodder. The raise of the production of plant growing stayed moderate during the whole period.

Table 2. The production of the main agricultural products in Estonia ( th. tons)

The instability of the level of production of agriculture is characterized by the changes of the quantity of the main products in the different periods (Table 2). The quantity of the production of the main provisions, potatoes and milk, stayed more or less on the same level during the difficult periods mainly thanks to the private households. Later, the growing of potatoes decreased because of the great demand of labor productivity and little mechanization. In plant growing the growing of grain was forced in the 1970ies, the total harvest output raised to millions of tons. The production of fodder stayed moderate. The production of milk, especially meat, was rapidly forced due to the pressure of the planned economy of the central organs of the Soviet Union.

The average grain yields per hectare and the milk production were comparatively low in Estonia and the neighbouring countries in the 1930ies. The grain yields balanced between 10 – 12 z, it was 12 z/ha in 1939. The average milk yield per cow was 2185 in the agricultural year of 1937/1938. The yields and productivity of the war-years even dropped and the earlier level was not reached in the following decades. In the 1950ies the new decrease began due to collectivization. The average grain yield was 6.5 z/ha and the average milk production per cow was 1669 kg in 1955. The level of production increased only at the end of the 1960ies. The average grain yield was 17.6 z per hectare already in 1970, 21.4 z/ha in 1980 and 24.4 z/ha in 1989. The average milk production per cow reached the level of 2844 kg in 1960, was 3315 kg in 1970, 3658 kg in 1980 and increased to 4217 kg in 1989.

The development of the agriculture of Estonia was influenced by several positive and negative factors during the years of 1940-1990. The physiological factor was of negative influence. The motivation of work of the rural people was paralyzed for years by the collectivization of agriculture carried out forcibly and repressively. In addition. Work was done practically for free and the salaries were raised to a more or less satisfactory level only by the end of the 1960ies. The period of the absolute decadence and despair lasted in the main territories of the Soviet Union during a quarter of the century until 1953, the situation in Estonia and the other Baltic countries relieved after some years.

The development of the rational and effective production was restricted by the absolute system of the big enterprises, the progress would be guaranteed by the agrarian structure with several forms. Simultaneously, there were no economical possibilities for the big enterprises to build up the production bases fast. Also, the irrational form of the usage of the limited technical means through the MTJs until 1958 hindered the effectiveness.

The economical politics, formed on the bases of the chronic lack of food products in the USSR formed a favorable situation for the Estonian agriculture: more production resources were directed into the Baltic countries as it was evident that here they were used more effectively than elsewhere. Estonian agriculture was provided with technical means and building materials for the creation of the industrial bases , also mineral fertilizers and concentrated fodder for current production, on easy terms. This made it possible to raise the productivity of field crops and cattle breeding.

The development of agriculture and the effective usage of the production resources was decisively hindered by the management conditions formed by the soviet agrarian politics. Until 1950ies , industry and other branches of economy were developed on the account of agriculture. The profits were sucked out of agriculture by means of low procurement prices which didn’t cover production costs. The losses were covered by depriving the farmers of their salaries. Even the later price policy was chaotic and inconsistent. That led to an ineffective utilization of production resources as well as the decrease of the initiative enterprise leadership. It also brought along the interference of any party and executive officials into enterprise operations. This resulted in inefficient exploitation of the production capacity.