Peasants Get a Guaranteed Wage

Central Committee and the Council of Ministers, On Raising the Material Incentives of Collective Farmers for the Development of Socialist Production. May 16, 1966

 

Original Source: K. U. Chernenko and M. S. Smirtyukov (eds.), Resheniia partii i pravitel’stva po khoziaistvennym voprosam (Moscow, 1968), Vol. 6, p. 111.

The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR note that there are serious shortcomings in the practice of distributing incomes in collective farms and making payments for collective farmers’ labor. In many collective farms the level of these payments does not provide collective farmers with the necessary material incentives for the development of the public sector.

The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, attaching, as they do, great significance to raising the material incentives for collective farmers to develop social production in the collective farms, decree that

1. The collective farms be recommended:

To make, from 1 July 1966, a guaranteed payment for collective farmers’ labor (in money or kind), on the basis of the tariff rates of the corresponding category of workers in state farms. The output norms are to be fixed with regard to concrete conditions, as applicable to the output norms obtaining for analogous work in state farms;

To effect (together with the guaranteed payment of collective farmers’ labor for the volume of work done) payment to collective farmers on the final results of their labor (for the quantity and quality of production, or for the overall income received);

To allow for the necessary funds in money and kind for the payment of collective farmers in the collective farms’ production and finance plans, and to use these funds for this purpose alone;

To make the guaranteed labor payments to collective farmers in money at least once a month, and in kind, depending on the times when products are received.

2. In distributing income within the collective farm money shall in the first instance be allotted for the payment of the collective farmers’ labor.

Allocations to the indivisible and other public funds are to be made in amounts determined by the collective farms themselves, after money has been allotted for collective farmers’ labor, obligatory payments to the state, and contributions to the centralized all-union fund for collective farmers’ social insurance.

3. It should be recommended to collective farms that they create, in order to satisfy collective farmers’ requirements of agricultural products, a guaranteed fund in kind for distribution according to labor. A certain proportion of the overall grain harvest and other agricultural products is to be set aside for that fund, so that the collective farmers may, if they so desire, receive, against their guaranteed wage payment, grain and other products, and also fodder for their own private cattle, in quantities determined by the general assembly of collective farmers.

4. The introduction of guaranteed payment for collective farmers’ labor, and further improvements in their pay, are to be effected through increasing their output of agricultural products, a growth of productivity, the removal of existing shortcomings in fixing labor norms and tariffs, the removal of surplus managerial and service personnel, a sharp reduction in unproductive expenses, and strict attention to economy.

5. The Councils of Ministers of the union republics are obliged, in the course of a month, to work out, with the agreement of the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR and the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for Questions of Labor and Wages, approved recommendations for the payment of labor in collective farms.

6. The State Bank of the USSR is obliged, in cases where collective farms do not have enough funds of their own to ensure the guaranteed payment of collective farmers’ labor, in accordance with point 1 of this decree, to grant such collective farms, in 1966-1970, credit for up to five years within the limits of the sums included in the collective farms’ long-term credit plans.

This credit is granted to collective farms on the basis of applications examined and approved by the raion executive committees.

The extent of the credit is determined within the limits of the difference between the guaranteed-wage fund and the collective farms’ own means as designated for this purpose in the production and finance plans.

The collective farms are to repay this credit beginning from the third year after it has been received, and in the first place after their payments into the budget.

In view of the fact that the collective farms’ long-term credit plans for 1966 have already been brought to the notice of the autonomous republics, krais, oblasts and raions, the Councils of Ministers of republics, the executive committees of krais, oblasts and raions are to effect, with the object of ensuring guaranteed payments for collective farms, and in cases where it is necessary, the redistribution of long-term credit between autonomous republics, krais, oblasts, raions and collective farms.

7. The Councils of Ministers of the union republics are obliged to ensure, in 1966, in connection with the introduction of guaranteed payments in the collective farms and the increase in collective farmers’ incomes, a corresponding increase in the turnover of retail goods and the production of consumer goods from local resources.

8. The Central Statistical Administration of the USSR is obliged, in agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR and the State Bank of the USSR, to work out and introduce from August 1966 current monthly reports on the settlement of collective farmers’ labor payments.

Source: Mervyn Matthews, ed., Soviet Government: a selection of official documents on internal policies (New York: Taplinger, 1974), pp. 380-382.

 

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