the soviet partisan movement 1941-1944 by edgar m. howell

100 THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT
the revolution the last of the great holdings of the nobility disappeared.
The Soviet collectivization of the 1930's, however, which was so bitterly
resented by the peasants, voided the gains of 70 years, and at the time
of the German entry into the Soviet Union the decisive question with
the rural population was still ownership of land. In few cases did the
peasant thought process go beyond this basic issue.
In planning BARBAROSSA, the needs of the Four-Year Plan dictated
that the Kolkhozes be retained intact at least for the duration
of the war despite the insistence of Rosenberg's office that they be broken
up and an individual agrarian economy introduced. Propaganda units
were to impress on the people that immediate changes in the economic
set-up would harm everyone and serve only to increase the disruption
of economic life occasioned by the war. 10
However, when the maintenance of the collective economy was
found to be impossible due to the widespread Soviet destruction
and removal of farm machinery and when any resort to individual
farming impractical because the necessary small tools were lacking,
the Wehrmacht Propaganda Division was authorized to tell the people
that the collectives were to be transformed into communal farms with
the peasant retaining tax free his cottage and certain small plots of land
as his own property. Further, individual efficiency and initiative were
to be rewarded with additional grants of land. 11 On 3 October 1941,
however, there came a sudden policy shift which brought the question of
land reform to a halt and prohibited any further discussion of the return of
the land to the people. 12
The reasons for this about-face during a critical period are unknown.
It is possible that it was indirectly the work of Erich Koch, the Reichskommissar
Ukraine, who was a strong opponent of the agrarian policy
and thought Rosenberg far too liberal in his policies. More likely the
decision was Goering's as head of the exploitation program. In any
event, the effect was to postpone a solution until the Soviet successes
in the winter of 1941-42 cut deeply into the popular support the Germans
had enjoyed. When the new land policy was finally announced
much of the effect was lost.
The land reform order, "the Restitution Law" (Reprivatisierungsgesetz),
put into effect on 16 February 1942, was "to pave the way for a
gradual and orderly transition from Bolshevistic production on a col-
9
Kolkhozes: Soviet collective farms; Sovkhozes: Soviet State farms.
10 "Directive for Handling Propaganda for Operation BARBAROSSA," OKW Nr. 144/41,
g. Kdos, Chefs, WFSt/WPr., VI.41., in "Fuehrer Directives," op. cit.
11
Annex to Propaganda Dir, 21 Aug 41 in OKW/486/4, WFSt/WPr; also: Oral
testimony of Riecke in I.M.T., op. cit., XI, pp. 590-91.
12
Dir, OKW/WPr, 3.X.41., in OKW/ WPr, Propaganda-Angklegenheitcn aller
Art, X.-XII.41. OKW/634.