Bauman and the Crisis over Collectivisation, 1929–30

Abstract

Moscow’s political instability did not end with Uglanov’s demotion. The following winter saw a different kind of crisis, this time the result of excessive zeal for current policies. Like the whole history of collectivisation, the events of 1929–30 in Moscow are still poorly documented.¹ But the broad outlines of the crisis are clear, and more details may be available in future if the sources have survived. Collectivisation in the Moscow region was carried out at an alarmingly rapid rate, even by the standards of the time. The Moscow leadership, scrapping earlier plans for a phased campaign, pushed the province forward into line with the priority collectivisation areas.² They may also have resisted the slow-down called for in Stalin’s article, ‘Dizziness with success’,³ of March 1930.⁴ The impetus for the excesses came mainly, but not exclusively, from the MK. Local secretaries in the okrugs also played a part in forcing the pace. When the policy was formally abandoned in April, Bauman, the new Moscow party secretary, was removed, and with him over one hundred okrug-level party officials.⁵