ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by considering the situation of the Soviet peasant within the large kolkhozes and sovkhozes. In some ways, Soviet peasants are like peasants in any modernizing agrarian society. The chapter discusses the history of the kolkhoz councils, existing corporatist institutions for political representation of agricultures interests to the central authorities. It examines the development of several new agrarian organizations. The chapter considers the implications of these developments for the ongoing reform struggle in the Soviet Union. The system of agricultural management that evolved during and after collectivization in the 1930s was designed to prevent autonomous activity by the new kolkhozy and their managers. But farm leadership has always sought to increase its freedom of action in relation to higher officials. A nationwide network of kolkhoz councils was finally established in 1969 as part of Leonid Brezhnev's apparent liberalization of agricultural policy.
