| Under socialism, numerous countries have implemented collectivization of various rural economies, based on the model pioneered in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Collectivization is the process of removing agricultural production from private owners and creating collectives, which are in theory owned by the workers that belong to the collective. The Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) which was officially established in 1924, followed closely in the footsteps of the USSR and attempted to collectivize the country's herding economy beginning in 1930. However, this attempt is almost universally labeled a disaster, as it resulted in mass migration, slaughter of livestock, and armed rebellion. Over two decades later collectivization was again promoted in the MPR, and by 1960, all households had officially joined the collectives. In the second campaign, punishment of wealthy herders was implemented in the form of a progressive tax, but the wide scale violence and terror of the first round of collectivization did not occur, in large part because the powerful centers of resistance were already eliminated. This second attempt is generally considered a success. I examine how both rounds of collectivization were represented at the time, and are remembered today, and why the two rounds are represented and remembered quite differently by Mongolians during and after socialism. |
