Creation of teleut collective farms in 1929-1933 (based on documents from KRSA (Kemerovo region state archives)

This article explores the Soviet government's collectivization campaign of the Teleut households in 1929-1933. The study is based on the documents from the Kemerovo Region State Archives (KRSA). The Teleuts are indigenous peoples of Turkic origin. According to the 2010 Russian Census, there are 2,643 reported Teleut people, 2,520 of whom live in Kuzbass. The Teleuts live compactly on the territory of the Belovsky and Guryevsky Districts in the Kemerovo region, which comprised a single Belovsky District until 1935. Collectivization was carried out in the USSR in the late 1920's - early 1930's. It was the process of consolidation of individual peasant farms into kolhozy (collective farms). Wholesale collectivization began in 1929, and by 1933 it was complete in the whole country. The Communist Party and Soviet officials regarded the kulaks (prosperous peasants) as an obstacle to collectivization. A set of measures, both economic and non-economic, called dekulakization has been employed against this class of peasants. Mass disenfranchisement of rural residents was one of the most common methods of dekulakization campaign. Disenfranchised peasants had their property expropriated without any compensation, and they and their family members were deported to remote areas of the country. Sometimes the kulaks were executed. Numerous works by Russian and foreign historians have been devoted to collectivization and dekulakization, but the collectivization of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East has not been fully explored. In particular, the collectivization of the Teleut households and the changes that it introduced into the life of South Siberian Turkic peoples were practically not investigated. Based on the documents from 1929-1933, from the archival collections of the Kemerovo Region State Archives (KRSA), this paper revealed that in 1931-1932, a number of Teleuts were accused of systemic exploitation of batraks (farm laborers) and seasonal workers, as well as of the meat and fur trade. The Belovo District Executive Committee of the Councils of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies subjected these people to both economic (raising the tax levy, increased land rent and tax rates for households designated as kulak) and non-economic (disenfranchisement) measures. Any information on the repressions (arrest and exile) of the Teleuts, recognized as kulaks, in the documents of the Soviet authorities from the KRSA collections, has not been found to date. As a result of the collectivization in the Belovsky District of the Kemerovo Region, the collective farms were created in the areas where the Teleuts compactly reside. They experienced significant economic difficulties and failed to meet the state bread, vegetable and milk quotas.

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