- Twenty-five-thousander
Twenty-five-thousanders ( _ru. Двадцатипятитысячники, "Dvadtsatipyatitysyachniki") was a collective name for the frontline workers from big industrial cities of the USSR, who voluntarily left their homes for
rural areas at the call of theCPSU in order to improve the performance ofkolkhoz es during theagricultural collectivisation in the USSR in the early 1930s.In November 1929, the
plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) issued adecree on sending 25,000 workers with sufficient organizational and political experience to the rural areas to work in kolkhozy andMachine and Tractor Station s (MTS). The decree found a broad response among the workers of the country. As a result, 27,519 people were selected from all over theUSSR and sent to work in the kolkhozy.Social structure of 23,409 twenty-five-thousanders, who had personal files:
* Males - 92.3%, females - 7.7%
* Members of the CPSU - 69.9%
* Members of theKomsomol - 8.6%
* Members of the Metal Workers Union - approx. 16,000
* Individuals with no party affiliation - 21.5%
* Up to 5 years of work experience - 13%
* 5 to 12 years of work experience - 39%
* More than 12 years of work experience - 48%In order to prepare the twenty-five-thousanders for work in the rural areas, the
Soviets organized special courses. Some of them were sent tosovkhoz y for two or three months as interns. Most of the twenty-five-thousanders were sent directly to kolkhozy in the principalcereal regions of the country, such asUkraine , NorthCaucasus , Lower and MiddleVolga ,Black Earth Region and others.The twenty-five-thousanders took part in creating new kolkhozy and strengthening the weak ones, conducting political, educational and cultural work among the inhabitants of the rural areas. They assisted kolkhozy in organizing stock, strengthening work discipline and establishing correct product distribution. Some of the twenty-five-thousanders were elected board members and chairmen of kolkhozy.
However, the twenty-five-thousanders encountered fierce resistance from the so called
kulak s, who had been opposed to thesocialist re-organization of theagriculture .The
phenomenon of the twenty-five-thousanders was widely reflected in the Sovietliterature . One of the most famous books on this subject was "Virgin Soil Upturned " ("Поднятая целина" in Russian, or Podnyataya tselina) byMikhail Sholokhov .ee also
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Virgin Lands Campaign
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