ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the collectivization of agriculture in the two countries and focuses on the Stalinist agricultural system and the efforts by the two successive regimes, those of Khrushchev and Brezhnev, to cope with the legacy that Stalin left. It examines Chinese agricultural development from the Great Leap Forward to the present in the light of the Soviet case. State power can be used in any number of ways; the point is that in Marxist-Leninist systems it tends to be used in ways inimical to efficient agricultural growth. The process of collectivization reflected the differences in elite attitudes and the different goal-mixes, but they were also shaped by significant differences in organizational strength and support within the villages. The Soviet Union has trained a much larger cadre of university-level agricultural scientists and agronomists than has China. Social support for collectivization came mainly from poor peasants, lacked draft animals and could benefit from the redistributive effect.
