ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

MEASURES CONCERNING THE ECONOMIC ANDORGANIZATORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLECTIVEAGRICULTURAL HOUSEHOLDS BETWEEN 1962 AND 1965NARCISA MITUThe collectivization process, that started in 1949, ended in 1962 throughthe incorporation, most of it, of the agricultural lands within the collectiveagricultural households. The communists thought it was a certain extent ofimproving the peasants lifes and an important contribution of the country`seconomic development, where the youth had an important role, „having lesspreconceptions than the old ones” 1 .Actually, through collectivization, it was pursued to eliminate thepeasants class, class that had been the instrument for destroying the wealthy andnow they were single in front of the communists. Although the official ideologysaid that it was only about renewing it, the reality showed this opinion, becauseonce the land was lost, the source of living for the peasants was gone.After 13 years of threatening, intimidation, sequestration of lands ownedby the wealthy, abusing and illegalities against the peasants, the physicaldistruction of the opponents through sending them in jails or work camps,deportations, this communist dream had become reality, succeeding, in march1962, to collectivize the whole country. Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej announced in1962 that 3.5 million families had become cooperative members from individualowners, losing the land and the tools too 2 . Although, there were many peoplewhich improved the occasion of collectivization, having now a better life thanbefore, but most of the people felt hard the effects of this process.In 1962, as an effect of the collectivization process, from a total of 15million ha of agricultural land, only 60% were transformed in agriculturalcooperatives, 30% had been framed in state farms and 9% remained privateproperties 3 . The private properties contained lands which weren`t accessible forhigh zones cooperativization.In an extraordinary session of The Great National Gathering, from April27-28, 1962, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, declared in front of more than 11 thousandpeasants brought from all the country regions, the ending of the „socialist1 Stenogramle Şedinţelor Biroului Politic şi ale Secretariatului ComitetuluiCentral al P.M.R., volume II, 1949, Bucureşti, 2003, p. 124.2 Alina, Mungiu-Pipidi, Gérard, Althabe, Secera şi buldozerul. Scorniceşti şi Nucşoara.Mecanisme de aservire a ţăranului român, Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 2002, p. 53.3 Dennis Deletant, Teroarea comunistă în România. Gheorghiu-Dej şi statul poliţienesc,1948-1965, Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 2001, p. 109.ARHIVELE OLTENIEI, Serie nouă, nr. 21, 2007, p. 105–110