Agricultural resettlements in the USSR in the mid-1920s - early 1950s: main stages, scale and results

The objective of the study is to analyze agricultural resettlement in the USSR from the moment planned resettlement began until the beginning of the Virgin Lands Campaign. The analysis of stages, scales and determination of results of agricultural resettlement in the USSR in the mid-1920s - early 1950s is conducted. The stages of implementation of resettlement campaigns are determined, characteristics are given for each of them, the connection between resettlement and other types of migration are indicated. General scientific, special historical and statistical methods were used in the study. The authors relied on published and archival documents, which can be divided by type into statistical, regulatory and legal acts and directives of the party, office documents. During the studied period, resettlement activities were carried out in four stages (waves): Stage 1 - mid-1920s - 1930s; Stage 2 - 1939 - June 1941; Stage 3 - June 1941 - 1945; Stage 4 - 1946-1953. The most massive resettlements were in the second half of the 1920s (351.8 thousand people were resettled) and the late 1930s - early 1940s (743.5 thousand people were resettled). The contingent of resettlers was heterogeneous, and the scale and geography of resettlement also varied. During the Great Patriotic War, agricultural resettlements were urgent in nature, resettlements for work in fishing farms and settlement of territories after forced eviction prevailed. In the post-war years, the most important task of the resettlement policy was the settlement of annexed territories, and the settlement of the territory of Siberia and the Far East was also continued.