Jewish Settlers Oppose Plan to Transform Their Farms into Collectives

Opposition to the Soviet government plans to put into effect a process of “collectivization,” that transforms the farms of individual settlers into communal units in which the toilers have common interest, is reported from the regions of New Zlatopol and Zaporozhje, where the plan is being put into effect.

It is true that those settlers who object to joining the collective have the choice of receiving other land in exchange for the land now held, but the colonists are afraid that in this process they will lose their best land. There is reluctance to enter into permanent obligation to the government in consideration of the government credits. The plan does not affect the land alone but also the livestock.

The colony Krivein in the region of Pervomaisk, consisting of 70 Jewish families, was concerted into a collective. This was the first case of the collectivization of the livestock. The Jewish peasants fear that the same policy will be followed in other colonies and will result in the gradual turning over of the cattle and milk products, now private property, to communal holdings.