212. The Soviets also planned to import 10,000 breeding cattle from South America, Germany, and Britain. Davies and Wheatcroft, Years of Hunger, 138; Kondrashin et al., Golod v SSSR, I/ii: 290–1 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 12, l. 114, 124). That same day, the politburo decreed the expulsion of 38,300 “kulak” households, but ten days later, this would be circumscribed to individual arrests of “evil elements in the village.” Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, III: 367 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 162, d. 12, l. 134). May 5, 1932, was the 30th birthday of Pravda, which was celebrated without mention of Bukharin, its editor for twelve years. Medvedev, Nikolai Bukharin, 49.
213. Soon, the regime clarified that such trade would be “carried out at prices formed on the market.” Davies and Wheatcroft, Years of Hunger, 138 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 883, l. 9), 140; Sobranie zakonov, 1932, no. 1: article 190; Sobranie zakonov, 1932, no. 33: article 195; Partiinoe stroitel’stvo, 1932, no. 11–2: 50; Kollektivizatsiia sel’skogo khoziaistva, 411–3, 416–7; Khlevniuk, Politbiuro, 58–9 (no citation). An Oct. 1931 decree had legalized peasant trade of grain at “cooperative prices.” Additional decrees after May 6, 1932, reduced procurement targets for other agricultural products. Gorelik and Malkis, Sovetskaia torgovlia, 125; Whitman, “Kolkhoz Market,” 387. From Jan. 15, 1933, the regime would concede free trade in meat, too.
214. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 2, d. 484, l. 36–46. “We still have bazaars that are not Soviet but purely private, in almost every village, almost every town,” North Caucasus party boss Sheboldayev complained at the 17th party conference. “Not only do these bazaars fail to make the individual peasant into a socialist, they sometimes prevent him from becoming a collective farmer.” XVII konferentsiia VKP (b), 210.
215. Davies, Crisis and Progress, 187–90. Whereas (black) market prices for grain in 1929 had been double the state procurement prices, in 1932 the multiple reached 28 times. Ellman, “Did the Agricultural Surplus Provide the Resources for Increased Investment in the USSR during the First Five-Year Plan?” Economic Journal 85 (1975): 844–63 (table 6); James R. Millar, “Mass Collectivization and the Contribution of Soviet Agriculture to the First Five-Year Plan: A Review Article,” Slavic Review 33/4 (1974): 750–66.
216. Davies, Crisis and Progress, xv.
217. Davies, Crisis and Progress, 51 (citing Za industrializatsiiu, March 15, 1931: Dukarevich). “You cry that you do not have this or that but you never say what is necessary to correct the situation,” Orjonikidze complained at a heavy industry commissariat meeting on June 6, 1932. “You are placing the blame on others when you yourself are to blame.” Gregory and Markevich, “Creating Soviet Industry,” 798 (citing RGAE, f. 7297, op. 38, d. 10, l. 4).
218. Kvashonkin, Sovetskoe rukovodstvo, 171–2 (RGASPI, f. 74, op. 2, d. 38, l. 56–7). See also Samuelson, Plans for Stalin’s War Machine, 108–12, 141–3; Ken, “‘Moia otsenka byla slishkom rezkoi’: I. V. Stalin rekonstrucktsiia RKKA,” 150–2 (RGASPI, f. 74, d. 38, 1.58, 56–7); and Voennye arkhivy Rossii, 79–80. Tukhachevsky was in Stalin’s office on April 7 and 14, 1932. In Aug. 1932, Stalin would even invite him over to his dacha in Sochi. Na prieme, 65–6; Ken, Mobilizatsionnoe planirovanie, 198n90 (RGASPI, f. 74, op. 2, d. 105, l. 56–7: Tukhachevsky to Voroshilov, Aug. 27, 1932). During Voroshilov’s summary speech at the June 1–4, 1937, meeting of the Main Military Council, a revealing exchange would occur when he labeled Tukhachevsky’s Jan. 1930 proposals “idiocies.” Stalin interjected: “It would have been good to have such a force, but it was necessary to rebuff it at that time.” Voroshilov persisted: “This was a wrecking proposal.” Ken, Mobilizatsionnoe planirovanie, 319n43 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 165, d. 61, l. 130: uncorrected transcript).
219. On May 8, Stalin approved a commission, headed by Kaganovich, to check the production and distribution of consumer goods. Rees, Iron Lazar, 107 (citing RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 883, l. 1).
220. Danilov et al., Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, III: 365 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 43, l. 60).
