Unpromising, or literally perspectiveless villages () was a term used by the
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
government in 1960s–80s referring to the small rural settlements, which were considered to be not suitable for a
planned economy
A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, ...
.
The policy of unpromising villages' liquidation included the resettlement of the residents to larger rural settlements with concentration of the bulk of the rural population, production and social facilities. The most negative social impact of this policy was the significant damage done to rural infrastructure.
Planning
For the first time, the concept of "unpromising villages" was used in recommendations for the design of rural settlements. The recommendations were drawn up in 1960 by the
Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the USSR in accordance with the decisions of the Plenum of the
Central Committee of the CPSU
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the Central committee, highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Congresses. Elected by the ...
of December 1959 on the development of new schemes of "regional and intra-economic planning" in rural areas. According to this document, rural settlements were subdivided into two groups depending on what was their population size, how well they were provided with communications and to what extent they corresponded to the conditions of the economic development: "promising", the population of which was at least 1,000 to 1,500 people and "unpromising" with a correspondingly smaller population.
The initiators of this policy proceeded from the principle that highly concentrated forms of settlement should correspond to highly mechanized agriculture. According to the plans, each ''
kolkhoz
A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz. These were the two components of the socialized farm sector that began to eme ...
'' (collective farm) or ''
sovkhoz
A sovkhoz ( rus, совхо́з, p=sɐfˈxos, a=ru-sovkhoz.ogg, syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated from , ''sovetskoye khozyaystvo''; ) was a form of state-owned farm or agricultural enterprise in the Soviet Union.
It is usually contrasted w ...
'' (state farm) was to include one or two ''
posyolok
The classification system of inhabited localities in Russia and some other post-Soviet states has certain peculiarities compared with those in other countries.
Classes
During the Soviet time, each of the republics of the Soviet Union, including t ...
s'' with a population ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 people. A clear definition of "promising villages" was introduced, in which it was planned to relocate residents of smaller "unpromising villages" (which included up to 80% of their total number). It was assumed that this change in the settlement structure contributes to the better development of the socio-cultural and everyday life of the rural areas of the Soviet Union, bringing it closer to urban standards, as well as reducing the flow of migration to the cities.
It was originally planned that by 1979 the number of rural settlements will decrease from 705,000 to 115,000. Subsequently, in the process these numbers were constantly adjusted. On 20 March 1974, resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the
Council of Ministers of the USSR
The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ˌɛsˌɛsˌɛsˈɛr), sometimes abbreviated as Sovmin or referred to as the ...
were issued, according to which out of 143,000 settlements outside of the
Central Black Earth economic region
The Central Black Earth Economic Region or the Central-Chernozem Economic Region is one of 12 economic regions of Russia. This region accounted for almost 3% of the national GRP in 2008.
Composition
*Belgorod Oblast
*Kursk Oblast
*Lipetsk Obla ...
, 114,000 were to be liquidated and the 170,000 families were to be relocated to "comfortable kolkhoz/sovkhoz settlements", as well as to provide them with significant benefits and loans for individual construction there.
Implementation
In the early stages of the project, the policy of liquidation of settlements was limited. Mostly it boiled down to the revision and re-registration of rural settlements, the design of the territorial and economic organization of the districts. Since 1968, repair works and construction were no longer carried out in settlements declared "unpromising", objects of social infrastructure (schools, shops, rural clubs and other facilities) were closed and transport links were limited. These conditions forced people to migrate.
The destruction of unpromising villages was not accompanied by the same active transformation of “promising” ones. The improvement and expansion of individual housing in the ''central estate'' (settlement where the administrative center of a kolkhoz or sovkhoz was located), was carried out with a constant lack of resources. Often,
apartment blocks of urban type were provided for resettlement. Two-thirds of the settlers migrated not to "promising" rural settlements, but to regional centers, big cities and other regions of the country. The liquidation of "unpromising" settlements was carried out without taking into account the wishes of the inhabitants. Some residents perceived the resettlement negatively.
Results
The reorganization was not fully implemented: there were fewer unpromising villages liquidated than planned. Nevertheless, the settlement network has undergone significant changes. Over the period of 1959–79, the number of rural settlements in Russia decreased by 60.2% to 177,100, in the USSR as a whole by 54.3%, up to 383,100. Most of the resettlement actions took place in the Non-Black Earth zone.
Effect
The liquidation of unpromising villages failed to reach the initial plans and had negative socio-economic consequences for the numerous
northwestern and
central regions of Russia, as well as
Ural and
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
. Important aspects of the rural life were not taken into account, such as, first of all, connection of the resettled people with their personal household plots. The liquidation of small settlements led to the desolation of adjacent agricultural lands. The concentration process caused an increase in migration to major urban centers, leading to a population drop in the regions affected by the reform and demographic aging of the Russian countryside.
Public controversy unfolded on this issue. The unpromising villages liquidation program was criticized by demographer and writers such as
Vasily Belov
Vasily Ivanovich Belov (; 23 October 1932 – 4 December 2012) was a Soviet and Russian writer, poet and dramatist, who published more than sixty books which sold (as of 1998) seven million copies. A prominent member of the influential 1970s–198 ...
,
Fyodor Abramov
Fyodor Aleksandrovich Abramov () (29 February 192014 May 1983) was a Russian novelist and literary critic. His work focused on the challenging lives of the Russian peasant class, often depicting their struggles and hardships. Although his writi ...
,
Valentin Rasputin
Valentin Grigoryevich Rasputin (; ; 15 March 193714 March 2015) was a Soviet and Russian writer. He was born and lived much of his life in the Irkutsk Oblast in Eastern Siberia. Rasputin's works depict rootless urban characters and the fight for ...
, commonly known as members of
Village Prose
Village prose (, or Деревенская литература) was a movement in Soviet literature beginning during the Khrushchev Thaw, which included works that focused on the Soviet rural communities. Some point to the critical essays on col ...
literary movement.
In 1980, by the decision of the
Gosstroy's Committee for Civil Engineering and Architecture, the division of rural settlements into "promising" and "unpromising" was canceled. Nevertheless, the erosion of the rural settlement network had not stopped and small villages continued to become abandoned.
See also
*
Demographic crisis of Russia
The demographic crisis of Russia is the aging and decline of the Russian population caused by demographic transition. Although most high-income and middle-income countries experience demographic transition, Russia does differ in that it has a ...
*
Agriculture in the Soviet Union
Agriculture in the Soviet Union was mostly collectivized, with some limited cultivation of private plots. It is often viewed as one of the more inefficient sectors of the economy of the Soviet Union. A number of food taxes ( prodrazverstka, ...
*
Urban planning in Russia
Urban planning in Russia is the practice of urban planning according to the legislation and is influenced by various factors such as historical legacy, traditions, geography and climate and involves various actors including the federal as well as ...
*
Urban planning in communist countries
References
Literature
* {{cite book , last= Mazur , first=Lyudmila , title= Политика ликвидации неперспективных деревень в 1960-1970-е гг.: истоки, этапы, реализация, результаты (на материалах Урала) , trans-title = The policy of liquidating unpromising villages in the 1960–1970s: origins, stages, implementation, results (based on materials from the Urals) , url= http://elar.urfu.ru/bitstream/10995/54585/1/5-7996-0150-5_2002_08.pdf , language=ru
Economy of the Soviet Union
Demographics of the Soviet Union
Demographics of Russia
Soviet phraseology
Era of Stagnation
1960s in the Soviet Union
1970s in the Soviet Union