of different kinds of machine associations and other
forms of cooperation in agricultural production for the
purpose of the adoption of a new technical basis is of
wide extent, especially in connection with the government
 support rendered such agricultural collectives.
The membership of these agricultural cooperatives
was:

1924 .... enn 2,869,000
1925 ooo renee 8,589,000
1026 7 818.000

Especially characteristic of the development of cooperation
 in agricultural production is the considerable
 growth of the simplest forms of producers’ associations,
 which increased their membership during the
same years from 172,000 to 882,000, i.e., more than
five-fold. This growth involved the creation of machine,
milk, cattle-raising, horse-breeding and seed-raising
associations, and constituted the first preparatory
step in the process of collectivization, which has spread
so widely during these last years.
It is necessary to lay special stress on the enormous
role played in the growth of collective agricultural
production by that financial and credit aid which the
Soviet state has rendered to all forms of cooperation
and to the collective farms. The tax payments of the
collective farms and cooperative societies have been
considerably reduced. Often they have been entirely
exempted from the payment of a certain portion of
the taxes. In addition, the collective farms receive
and have received considerable financial support in the
form of cash credits and also of special credits for
the purchase of machinery. By decisions of the Soviet
Government, the bulk of the expenses involved in land
organization within the collective farms was assumed
18