Machine-tractor station

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harvesting machines on the farm of the MTS Barnitz 1955
Two RS 01 in a machine-tractor station in Murchin

The machine-tractor stations (MTS) , from 1964 Kreisbetriebe für Landtechnik (KfL), were facilities in socialist countries where farmers could borrow agricultural machines and tractors for use. They were first created in Soviet Russia from 1920.

Machine-tractor stations in the USSR

Soviet postage stamp with an MTS

The Machine Tractor Stations (MTS) ( Russian: машинно-тракторная станция maschinno-traktornaja stanzija , МТС) were state institutions in the Soviet Union . In 1927 the first was established in the Odessa Oblast ("Shevchenkovskaya MTS"). The political goal was to use the few existing machines and the few skilled workers for maintenance and operation of the same as effectively as possible; at the same time, the state-controlled use of the class struggle carried out into the country, by specifically giving preference to collective farms and sovkhozes and severely disadvantaging or disadvantaging the mostly more efficient private farms. were excluded.

The stations were responsible for purchasing and the subsequent maintenance and operation of agricultural machines and tractors . Ideologically, they did not quite correspond to the objectives of communism, since they represented a form of property that belonged to the respective kolkhoz as a village community and not to the state as a community as a whole. The wards were staffed in such a way that they were used as “bulwarks” by the party and the police against the farm workers who were often reluctant to work in the kolkhozes after the forced collectivization .

The most important brigades were the tractor units, to which 75,000 tractors were made available by 1932. The stations were rewarded with natural produce as part of the harvest. There was the designation “natural remuneration” ( Russian натуральная оплата, натуроплата naturoplata ), which in 1933 corresponded to about 20 percent of the harvest. This proportion increased in the following years.

The machine-tractor stations existed as service stations for several collective farms until 1958. After that, they were renamed technical repair stations ( Russian ремонтно-техническая станция, РТС ). However, the new name took off slowly and the old term continued to be used colloquially. In 1972 they were renamed again in "Regional Cooperatives" ("Selchostechnika") ( Russian Сельхозтехника ), an abbreviation for "agricultural technology" ( Russian сельскохозяйственная техника ).

With the end of the Soviet Union, there were proposals to set up new machine-tractor stations similar to the German machine rings to support smaller farmers .

Machine-tractor stations in the GDR

Machine loan stations

The machine-lending stations (MAS) in 1948 in the Soviet occupation zone established after by order of the Soviet Military Administration (SMAD) a year earlier agricultural equipment owned by the landowners through expropriation drafted and the new farmers have been distributed. However, this decentralized machine park was transferred to the newly founded MAS and was thus centrally available on loan to all small agricultural businesses. The aim was to make the small and medium-sized farmers economically independent from the large farmers. At the beginning the MAS were organized as a mixed cooperative-state organization. From 1950 they were completely nationalized and made public property.

Work performance of the MAS in ha
activity 1949 1952
Fieldwork 73,100 2,800,000
Threshing 46,400 689,000
Transport work 750,000 1,500,000

The foundation was preceded by a resolution by the SED. The predecessor organizations were the machine yards and workshops of the Association of Mutual Farmers Aid . For a fee, the farmers could have all field and transport work done by them. The SED state subsidized the stations to a considerable extent. In 1950 the payments amounted to 110 million German marks and in 1952 even 169 million. The statutes were designed from the beginning in such a way that larger farms over 20 hectares were severely disadvantaged. They were only entitled to the use of machines on their land if no smaller farmers requested capacities and had to pay higher tariffs for the same service. From the beginning it was a task of the MAS to promote the “political awareness” through cultural offers. To do this, they built culture houses in which lectures and cultural events took place. The organization of the film screenings was also one of their responsibilities.

As a result of the preparation of the first five-year plan in 1951, the objectives of which were to prove the superiority of the socialist economic system, they were strengthened.

MTS tractor fleet (1959)

Machine-tractor stations

Conclusion of contract

With the establishment of the first agricultural production cooperatives (LPG) in 1952, the MAS were converted into machine-tractor stations (MTS). The LPGs received the services at the lowest possible rates. The MTS did not break even, and the state subsidized agriculture and LPG in particular via the MTS. In 1952, the stations had to set up political departments that were supposed to put the tractor drivers on the “right” ideological course through training.

The machines and tractors did not become the property of the peasants, but remained in the hands of the socialist state. The MTS were legally independent state- owned production companies in which the tractor drivers and other operating personnel for the technology were also employed. The MTS were considered to be the bases of the working class in the countryside , insofar as the mechanics in the workshops of the MTS - as workers - were supposed to guide peasants who were not yet so advanced in the development of their class consciousness. The basis of the cooperation between MTS and LPG was the annual employment contract concluded between them .

From the beginning of the 1960s, the agricultural machinery was systematically handed over to the agricultural production cooperatives, which had already been formulated as a political goal. The conversion was intensified after the forced collectivization in 1960. One of the aims was to integrate the tractor drivers, mostly not from farming families, into the LPGs, thereby accelerating the “industrialization” of agriculture. The MTS were renamed in 1964 as Kreisbetriebe für Landtechnik (KfL). Their task was limited to the maintenance and repairs of the agricultural machinery.

Machine-tractor stations in Czechoslovakia

The history of the origins of the machine-tractor stations ( Czech Strojní a traktorová stanice , STS) in Czechoslovakia as well as their use were - similar to the other Eastern Bloc countries - closely connected with the collectivization of agriculture. Act 27/1949 Sb. Of February 2, 1949 established a center for the mechanization of agriculture ( Ústředí pro mechanisaci zemědělství ), which was then to establish machine stations and machine repair centers . The tasks included:

  • to provide machine-based help for agriculture and to carry out repairs
  • Carry out training courses for the relevant personnel in handling machines
  • to offer all administrative, technical and similar help to the local cooperatives JZD (the Czechoslovak version of the LPG )

The machine and tractor stations were created from the individual local facilities of the Central Office for Mechanization of Agriculture from January 1, 1952 by government order 83/1951 Sb. (In the legal form národní podnik - np , according to the VEB in the GDR) which ultimately came under the Ministry of Agriculture. By government order 94/1953 Sb. Of November 27, 1953, the stations were finally subordinated to the state budget as legal entities. They survived in this form until the 1990s and were privatized.

Web links

Commons : Machine Tractor Stations  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : MAS  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Taubman : Khrushchev: The Man and His Era. WW Norton & Company, 2004, ISBN 0-393-32484-2 , pp. 375-376.
  2. ^ Robin Bunce, Laura Gallagher: Stalin's Russia 1924-53. Hodder Education, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4441-5207-4 , p. 20.
  3. ^ A b Hans Bichler: Agriculture in the GDR. Agricultural policy, farms, production bases and services. 2nd Edition. Gebr. Holzapfel Verlag, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-921226-13-9 , p. 20.
  4. ^ Antonia Maria Humm: On the way to the socialist village? (= Critical Studies in History . Volume 131). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1999, ISBN 3-525-35794-X , p. 85.
  5. ^ Antonia Maria Humm: On the way to the socialist village? 1999, p. 86.
  6. ^ Antonia Maria Humm: On the way to the socialist village? 1999, pp. 85/86.
  7. ^ Antonia Maria Humm: On the way to the socialist village? 1999, p. 82.
  8. ^ Antonia Maria Humm: On the way to the socialist village? 1999, pp. 93/94.
  9. Ursula Will: The machine-tractor stations (MTS) as historically necessary facilities for the realization of the class alliance between workers and peasants during the transition period to socialism in the GDR. A contribution to the political and economic development of the MTS in the districts of the GDR from 1953 to 1959 . Dissertation . Rostock University, Faculty of Agriculture, 1964.
  10. ^ Andreas Kurjo: Agricultural forms of operation. In: Hartmut Zimmermann, Horst Ulrich, Michael Fehlauer (eds.): GDR manual. Volume 1: A - L. 3rd edition. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-8046-8642-7 , p. 810: Kreisbetrieb für Landtechnik (KfL).
  11. Jens Schöne: Agriculture in the GDR 1945–1990. ( Memento of the original from December 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. State Center for Civic Education Thuringia, ISBN 3-931426-90-4 , p. 43/44 (PDF; 195 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thueringen.de
  12. 27/1949 pp. - Zákon o mechanisaci zemědělství , online at www.zakonyprolidi.cz / ...
  13. See § 5 of Law 27/1949
  14. 83/1951 Sb. - Vládní nařízení o organisaci strojních a traktorových stanic , online at www.zakonyprolidi.cz / ...
  15. 94/1953 Sb. - Vládní nařízení o nové organisaci a financování strojních a traktorových stanic , online at www.zakonyprolidi.cz / ...