pARTisan_32

The Splendors and Miseries of
(POST)S O V I E T
Kolkhoznitsa
Vadzim Mažejka
The current Belarusian
government has
grounds to be regarded
as an anti-modern
project. From the
outset it has not aimed
at reaching anything
radically new, but to
return to the good
old Soviet and freeze
there in stability. In this
regard kolkhoznitsa
becomes such a state’s
target audience. But
why did it happen and
who is she?
60
Kolkhoznitsa
and Kolkhozes
Kolkhoznitsa is an anti-individualist (an anti-villager), she always
represents a part of the collective identity. Kolkhoznitsa stands
against property ownership (an anti-farmer), since she is guided by
the principle «All around me belongs to the kolkhoz, thus — to me».
At the same time she is a priori characterized by commitment to state
paternalism. The kolkhoz is neither a self-sufficient farm nor an open
business model of the farm-household. It exists in the framework of
the State Planning Committee model (in one form or another) and is
impossible without orders and subsidies from the top.
Kolkhoznitsa grew up on the historical memory according to which
powerful and successful people were kulaks, whose possessions
had to be taken from them. It was much easier and more efficient
to be poor for show, but actually seek to snatch one’s part first
from kulak’s property and then from the kolkhoz’s goods (as the
Belarusian proverb says, «When I was living alone, I was wearing
rags, when I joined the kolkhoz – I found a coat there»). This is how
state paternalism was becoming a single option, since with all the
kulaks being dispossessed and impoverished households left to
kolkhozniks, kolkhoz became the only potential source of local
power and provision where people could earn money or just steal
anything left lying loose. And since waiting for the benefits from the
state had no sense, deception, foxery and the ability to adapt to the
authorities and the general to the strong became the main tools in
kolkhoznitsa’s life.
All these did not absolutely contribute to the growth of self-esteem.
It is also connected with kolkhoznitsa’s historical memory: starting
from the fact of forced collectivization and throughout the whole
XX century people with a strong sense of self-worth faced numerous
risks to perish so that the kolkhoznitsa’s prototype could be formed
without this quality. Its place was taken by the envy of more
successful kolkhoznitsas, but particularly of citizens (both males and
females). However, the relations between kolkhoznitsas and the city
were much more complicated than just envy and in fact they hid one
of their main dramas.
1
Translator’s note: Likbez is a Russian abbreviation for «likvidatsiya bezgramotnosti» meaning «elimination of
illiteracy», a campaign or eradication of illiteracy in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union in the 1920s-1930s.
2
Translator’s note: Prodrazvyorstka was a Bolshevik policy and campaign of confiscation of grain and other agricultural
production from peasants for a nominal fixed price according to specified quotas.
3
See: http://www.etobelarusdetka.com/1041107710831072108810911089108210721103/14-dacha-and-banya
4
See: http://naviny.by/rubrics/society/2014/03/16/ic_articles_116_184903/
5
See: http://eurobelarus.info/news/society/2012/12/19/tat-yana-vodolazhskaya-dozhinki-kak-faktor-razvitiyabelarusskih-gorodov.html
6
See: https://people.onliner.by/opinions/2015/01/28/mnenie-142
7
See: http://journalby.com/news/bogatye-tozhe-pryachut-otkuda-vzyalsya-belarusskiy-agroglamur-336
6
See: http://journalby.com/news/dolzhno-byt-krasivo-belarusskaya-krasota-mezhdu-kitchem-i-glamurom-423