REPORT ON PRODUCERS COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN LUBLIN WOJEWODZTWO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700130313-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 23, 2011
• Sequence Number: 313
• Publication Date: September 16, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700130313-8
? *' CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTED
CENTRAL ~GE AGENOCY REPORT
COUNTRY Poland DATE OF
. WHERE
HOW DATE DIST. /6 Sep 1953
PUBLISHED Monthly periodical
SUBJECT Economic; Political - Cooperative movement
DATE
PUBLISHED Mar 1953
LANGUAGE Polish SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
?'? ?"?'??' "' ? ^+? ?? ?? ?? THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
REPORT ON PRODUCERS COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN LUBLIN WOJEWODZTWO
The following information is taken from one of the commentaries
made by dignitaries of the PZPR (Polish United Workers Party) at the
of the commentaries, given in abridged form in Nowe Drogi, is an am-
The immortal Stalin teaches us that the dictatorship of the proletariat
is not consolidated and strengthened spontaneously, but through the self-
sacrifice of the party and through its leadership. Without party leadership,
dictatorship of the proletariat would be impossible. In their efforts to
realize the tasks of the party and the government, the party echelons and or-
ganizations are growing and being strengthened in the daily battle with the
class enemy.
The political work of recent months, the fight for the r-alization of
economic plans in industry, and the achievement of compulsory deliveries by
the villages have greatly strenthened the Lublin organization. Through polit-
ical and economic activities, the party echelons have been drawn closer to the
primary party organizations, and the party activists and party organizations
to the working masses and the peasantry. As a result, the party echelons and
party activists now have a better perception of the attitudes of the masses awl
react more quickly to the appearance of 'rostile activities. By removing ele-
ments which hampered the development of party organizations by opportunism and
hostile attitudes to the party line, we have greatly strengthened the party
ranks. As the authority of the party grew and activities of the masses in-
creased, shockworkers and peasants began to join the organizations prepared to
work diligently t9 realize our task. The newly organized candidate groups are
IrSTATE IAw NSes CiSTRIBUTON I I j
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showing great activity in organizing producers cooperatives. Comrade
Stalin has taught us to strengthen the alliance between worker important work
in educating the peasant masses to the importance of compulsory deliveries,
explaining that they are the peasants, contribution Luward the realization of
the Six-Year Plan and are closely tied in with their own interests. In 1951,
our woJewodztwo was very late in realizing the plan of compulsory deliveries;
in 1952, grain delivieries were completed on schedule.
The Seventh Plenum placed before us the task of mobilizing the great po-
tential reserves by increasing per-hectare crop yield- and livestock production
to temper the excessive disproportion between the tempo of sociali:;t industrial
development and agricultural development. In 1)52, we increased the cultivated
area by 25,000 hectares, as compared to 1953. The area under wheat was in-
creased by 35,000 hectares, barley by 31,000 iectares, sugar beets by 28 per-
cent, flax and hemp by 31 percent, and tobacco by 23 percent. Per-hectare wheat
yields increased 2 quintals over those of 1551, and rye 1.5 quintals.
Increased party activity in the villages is improving the work of the na-
tional councils, in which the feeling of responsibility for the over-all eco-
nomic problems has been strengthened. Another strengthening factor was the re-
placing of casual and hostile elements with new people recruited from the ac-
tivists of the National Front. In 1952, the professional and political train-
ing of council members was expanded. All this helped to cement the bond between
the councils and the working peasant masses and mobilized the councils to fight
the kulaks and speculators. The councils fought the fictitious "paper" division
of lands and brought to light the true state of affairs, unmasking the kulak
who was hiding behind a fictitious distribution of his lands.
In the Seventh Plenua, Comrade Bierut, in mappin,^ out the developmr t of
socialism in the Polish villages, showed that we must increase our efforts to
transform the small individual peasant farms gradually into large socialized
farms, enabling them to take advantage of scientific and technical discoveries,
to raise the level of work productivity, and to achieve higher crop yields.
To promote producers cooperatives among the masses of small- and medium-
holding peasants, the Lublin organization planned more than 400 trips to co-
operatives during 1952 and 1953 in which about 15,000 peasants participated.
We have expanded our political activities in the gains and the powiat with the
rural intellectuals, especially the teachers, preparing them to promote cooper-
atives in the schools and among the parents. We have placed scientific workers
in agricultural and university institutes, and agronomists who have started to
popularize modern achievements in agriculture among the working peasant masses,
on a wider scale than heretofore. We have orgy zed meetings of scientists and
leading peasants and farm workers. Discussions at these meetings included re-
gional specialization of crops, proper cultivation of land, and methods of sys-
tematic increase in per hectare yields.
91
We have carried out intensive political work among the industrial workers
in Lublin Wojewedztwo, persuading them to take an active part in the fight for
the development of producers cooperatives. As a result, 363 contact groups
have been set up to organize producers cooperatives. Through this work, a
number of party and nonparty activists have been developed who understand the
rcle of the working class as )eaders in relation to the working peasantry.
As a result of the work of the party and the national counai_'s, we have
strengthened, to a great degree, the axisting cooperatives by training cadres
for producers cooperatives, by expanding livestock breeding, and by eliminating
the overexpansion of garden plots, thus increasing the cultivated area of the
cooperatives by 600 hectares.
i
L
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We organized more than 300 producers cooperatives in 1953. The total
number of producers cooperatives in Lublin Wojewodztwo as of 27 March ex-
ceeded 500. Of the newly organized cooperatives, 255 will participate in the
spring sowing.
In what kind of political atmosphere within the party and among the work-
ing peasants was the battle for the expansion of producers cooperatives in the
Lublin area waged this year? Lublin's contribution to the economy means, first
of all, an increase in the production of grain, meat, and industrial crops. The
majority of the party members, aware of this fact, concentrated on the expansion
of producers cooperatives. We demander a positive attitude from directors of
people's councils, gmina cooperatives, and party activists. To build the coop-
erative movement, we used leading activists of the wojewodztwo and powiat co^i-
mittees, whose work in gminas and communities stirred up the activists on the
lower level and equipped them with better talking points and new methods of
working with peasants. As a result of this, devoted activist groups to promote
producers cooperatives were formed in a number of gminas Ind communities.
Comrades working in communities dealt effectively with the kulaks, unmask-
ing their methods of exploitation and the inspiration of their hatred for the
idea of producers cooperatives. A favorable attitude toward organizing cooper-
atives was growing in hundreds of our villages. To a greater measure than here-
tofore, the medium-holding peasant joined the cooperative. This is something
to be emphasized because in the Lublin organization there has existed a lack of
faith in our influence on medium-holding peasants. In the Chelm and Wlodawa
powiats, a new method of operation has been started. A community that has or-
ganized a cooperative appeals, in writing, to neighboring communities to follow
in its footsteps. Members of cooperatives have gone to their neighbors with
such letters and have helped activists to organize producers cooperatives.
Evidence of the great interest of peasants in cooperatives is the spontan-
eous participation of peasants from surrounding communities in meetings for the
registration of cooperatives. This took place in the Wlodawu, Hrubieszow, and
Chelm powiats.
Stalin taught that we should not :..g behind the raases or outstrip them too
much, but rather advance with them, and lead the masses to a better understand-
ing of our slogans and make it as easy as possible for the peasants to be con-
vinced through their own experience about the justice of these slogans. We in-
structed our party echelons and organizations to permit peasants the freedom of
choosing a type of cooperative they wanted, taking into consideration the degree
of political maturity of the peasants, and to permit then to unite personal in-
terests with the interests of the state to the best of their understanding. As
a result of this, a larger number of Type I cooperatives, more suitable for the
medium-holding peasant, were created than heretofore. The 300 newly organized
cooperatives include 9 Type I, u6 Type lb, 32 Type II, and 144 Type III.
In the intensified work this year in organizing producers cooperatives, we
did not, however, avoid chortcon*..gs and errors. Increased activity of the
party organization during recent months created favorable conditions for , wider
expansion of the party. I:owcver, these possibilities were not used to advantage.
An example of' this is the fact that in a7 of the newly organized cooperatives
there are no party organizations. Furthermore, the membership of workers has
not expanded in proportion to the growth of the working class. The large number
of persons applying for membership in the party, which assumed notable propor-
tions in 9oland after Stalin's death, should help to :strengthen the worker-
peasant section in our organization. The party apparatus and activists are
still guilty of poor organizing methods. For exauaple, in some communities ad-
ministrative pressure was used to _et some peasants to join new cooperatives
when these peasants had to pay fines for falling behind on produce delivery
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quotas. There were several cases where party and nonparty members were threat-
ened with dismissal from work because their parents refused to Join the coo
atives. In several cases
th
,
-
ere was no screening of applicants to the coopera-
tive, or of members of the administration. The result of this was that here and
there a kulak was able to join the cooperative. At the root of such occurrences
lies the lack of fundamental assimilation by some of the party activists of
Stalin's teachings that organizing producers cooperatives through force can only
produce unfavorable results, and can only turn peasants against the producers
cooperative movement. Peasants can be convined of the superiority of group
econony only after they have learned from experience that it assures a way out
of poverty and misery for poor and medium-holding peasants.
The work in ecpanding the producers cooperative movement has shown that de-
spite our weaknesses, producers cooperatives can be set up faster than previously.
The fact that we have at present 140 new organizing committees and 470 initiat-
ing groups is proof of this. The battle for an increase in the yield per
and for the expansion of the producers cooperative movement means a fullerhuti-
lization of the fertile Lublin Lands, and an increase in participation by our
wojewodztwo in the work to improve the living conditions and culture of our
people. For the fulfillment of our tasks, we will further improve the ideolog-
ical quality of the party members, and the mobilizing ability of the primary
party organizations. Above all, we will teach party activists and all party mem-
bers to listen more carefully and attentively to the voice of the people, to
take people's feelings into account, and to direct these feelings.
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