Commune, Agricultural

a form of agricultural production cooperative that arose during the first years of Soviet power. Land tenure and all means of production (buildings, small implements, and livestock) were socialized in the agricultural commune. Members’ consumption and consumer services were based completely on the public farm, and distribution was equalized, not on the basis of labor but on the basis of the number of mouths to feed. Members did not have their own personal supplementary farms. Agricultural communes were organized primarily on lands that formerly had belonged to landlords and monasteries, and from the state they received, in addition to the land, residential and farm buildings, implements, and other forms of assistance free of charge. As the kolkhoz movement developed, the agricultural commune proved to be an impracticable form of cooperation, since it could not ensure the proper combination of personal and public interests and material incentive linked with the results of labor. It was for this reason that the agricultural communes were transformed into kolkhozes in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s.