which joined the collectives in three of the chief agri-
cultural regions:
Percentage of Peasant Holdings Joining Collective Farms
June 1, June 1, June 1, Oct. 1, May 1-15,
Region 1927 1928 1929 1929 1930
Northern Caucasus... 1.6 5.2 7.3 10.0 55.2
Lower Volga cw. 1.6 21 5.9 18.3 84.8
Steppe Region of
Ukraine ev. 1.6 38 8.6 16.0 45.4
The collective farm movement has made big strides
throughout the U. S. S. R., extending from the grain
regions of the south and embracing to an ever greater
extent the central and northern regions of the country.
VIII
What has led to such an enormous growth in the
collectivization of agriculture in the U. 8. 8S. R.? The
answer to this question lies in those advantages of
large-scale collective production which were disclosed
in the process of collectivization in the first years of
the formation of large-scale collective farms. First of
all the collectivization of peasant holdings eliminated
boundary strips, and, in connection therewith, increased
the utilization of the means of production in the large-
scale farms thus formed. An enormous role in this
uniting of the small peasant strips into the large tracts
of the collective farms has been played by the national-
ization of land in the U. S. S. R. and by the abolition
of private ownership in land. This has provided the
indispensable basis for combining the many thousands
of small scattered strips of land, constituting the
peasant holdings which entered into the collective
farms, into the large land tracts of the collective farms,
organized in conformity with the topographical condi-
tions, with the nature of the soil, and with the best
20