I know Kotkin is an anti-communist; and I also know that the rollout of collectivisation was poorly implemented. However, it sounds like Kotkin is blaming something inherent in collectivisation which obviously is wrong given how the USSR didn't experience another famine once collectivisation got rolling. Mark Tauger thinks collectivisation actually mitigated this famine.
That's a consistent thing. "Communism is when no food!" but during the history of the Soviet Union there were three famines - the 1920 (22?) famine where there was a bad drought on top of years of WWI and the Russian Civil War, the 1932 famine which happened in the middle of collectivization and a bad drought, and the 1946-47 famine which happened after the Nazis murdered like 20 million people and, if I recall this right, there was a drought.
Same thing in China - There was a famine during collectivization, but after that there haven't been any famines. Cuba and the DPRK had serious food problems in the years right after the USSR fell, but like duh they're relatively small, poor countries with very limited agricultural land and their massive trade partner disintegrated.
I know Kotkin is an anti-communist; and I also know that the rollout of collectivisation was poorly implemented. However, it sounds like Kotkin is blaming something inherent in collectivisation which obviously is wrong given how the USSR didn't experience another famine once collectivisation got rolling. Mark Tauger thinks collectivisation actually mitigated this famine.
That's a consistent thing. "Communism is when no food!" but during the history of the Soviet Union there were three famines - the 1920 (22?) famine where there was a bad drought on top of years of WWI and the Russian Civil War, the 1932 famine which happened in the middle of collectivization and a bad drought, and the 1946-47 famine which happened after the Nazis murdered like 20 million people and, if I recall this right, there was a drought.
Same thing in China - There was a famine during collectivization, but after that there haven't been any famines. Cuba and the DPRK had serious food problems in the years right after the USSR fell, but like duh they're relatively small, poor countries with very limited agricultural land and their massive trade partner disintegrated.