Iakov Petrovich Nikulikhin

Born 1896; died 1939. Soviet agrarian economist.

In the 1930’s Nikulikhin worked at the research institute of the Kolkhoztsentr (All-Union Council of Kolkhozes of the USSR) and at the agrarian institute of the Communist Academy. He was also director of the Voronezh Institute of Agricultural Economics. Nikulikhin studied problems of socialist reorganization of agriculture and methods of introducing machinery in farming. He developed models of machine-tractor stations for specific types of agricultural production.

Nikulikhin proposed the establishment of large kolkhozes as an important task of the kolkhoz movement. He was an early proponent of forming agrarian-industrial combines in agriculture and proved that a single administration, a single production plan, and a common energy center were necessary for such combines. He investigated the social significance of the process of industrial and agricultural integration and contended that kolkhozes, sovkhozes, and machine-tractor stations would develop into large-scale industrial units and become constituent parts of agrarian-industrial combines.