Collective farm democracy in 1946-1991 (using the example of the collective farm “New Life” in the Pravdinsky district of the Kaliningrad region)

The article, which is part of a comprehensive micro-historical study of the Novaya Zhizn collective farm in the Pravdinsky district of the Kaliningrad Region, examines the state of collective farm democracy in 1946-1991 based on unpublished materials from the Kaliningrad Region State Archive and the Archive Department of the Pravdinsky City District Municipal Administration (minutes of general meetings of collective farmers, meetings of the collective farm board and its primary party organization). The purpose of this study is to determine the place of democratic principles in the collective farm management system in 1946-1991. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the principles of the formation of managerial personnel of an agricultural enterprise, the role of the general meeting in making significant production decisions is demonstrated, and an assessment of the activities of the primary party organization of the collective farm and its public organizations is presented. It is concluded that in the early years of the agricultural association’s existence, the general meeting of collective farmers played an important role, exerting a decisive influence on the formation of the collective farm board, but since the late 1940s it has gradually lost its importance, its competence has been reduced to unanimous approval of various provisions, the election of collective farm leadership has become a formality, however, in fact The principle of unity of command was established, in which the main decisions were made by the chairman, who was a creature of the district party committee. The years of perestroika, despite the alternative nature of the election of the collective farm board, did not become a renaissance of collective farm democracy, since the chairman still remained a protege of higher structures, and the general assembly overwhelmingly approved directives issued from above, even despite periodic disagreements with them.