RHN 95/2025 | Event
Organisers: Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the National Museum of Agriculture (Národní zemědelské muzeum)
22 – 23 October 2025, Národní zemědelské muzeum, Kostelní 44, Praha, Czech Republic
Agricultural Collectivization in the Soviet Sphere of Influence
International Conference
Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů a Národní zemědělské muzeum pořádají ve dnech 22.–23. října 2025 mezinárodní vědeckou konferenci na téma Kolektivizace zemědělství v zemích sovětské sféry vlivu.
Konference se zaměří na vývoj zemědělství v zemích, které po 2. světové válce připadly do sféry vlivu SSSR, zůstaly za železnou oponou a podstoupily zkušenost násilné kolektivizace zemědělství pod taktovkou komunistických stran.
Programme
22 October 2025
9.30—10.00 Registration
10.00—10.15 Opening Remarks
10.15—11.45 PANEL 1
Chair: Jiří Urban
ROMUALD TURKOWSKI: The Fate of Peasants in the Soviet Bloc during the Period of Brutal Rural Collectivization
ARND BAUERKÄMPER: Against All Odds. The Persistence and Transformation of Individual and Collective Interests and Norms under the Impact of the Collectivization of Agriculture in the GDR
ZSUZSANNA VARGA: “What should we talk about in the village?” Women and Collectivization Propaganda in Hungary
ONDREJ PODOLEC: Peasants before the Czechoslovak "People’s" Justice Discussion
11.45—12.00 COFFE BREAK
12.00—13.30 PANEL 2
Chair: Jaroslav Rokoský
VĚRA MAJEROVÁ: Forced Collectivization of Czech and Slovak Countryside in Oral Testimonies
MARTIN BOŠTÍK: The Peasant Jan Boštík and his Mladočov Jericho. A Literary Treatment of the Story of Collectivization in a Small Village
SILVIA KOPČÁNI: Youth on Tractors, for a Village without Toil! Young People as Actors and Victims of Forced Collectivization
MICHAELA ZEINEROVÁ BRACHTLOVÁ: The Maršov Chronicle Discussion
13.30—14.15 LUNCH BREAK
14.15—15.45 PANEL 3
Chair: Ondrej Podolec
RÓBERT RIGÓ: The Transformation of Rural Society after 1945
NADIIA HONCHARENKO: The Secret Diary of a Ukrainian Engineer as a Way to Overcome Trauma and Preserve the Memory of Collectivization and the Holodomor
ALEXANDER GOGUN: Not a Goal, but a Means. Collectivization in the European Satellites of the USSR in the Context of the Preparation for the Third World War, 1944–1953
MARIAM MANJGALADZE: Mountain Kulakization in Georgia: Forced Relocation and Political Control
Discussion
15.45—16.00 COFFE BREAK
16.00—17.45 PANEL 4
Chair: Martin Tichý
PETAR DOBREV: The Fight Against the Kulaks in Bulgaria – The Fate of the Larger-Scale Landowners in Dobrudja after 1944
JAROSLAV ROKOSKÝ: 1950: Resistance Against Collectivization in Czechoslovakia
DARIUS JUODIS: Lithuanian Partisan Resistance to Collectivization in the 1940s and 1950s
NICOLAE DRĂGUȘIN: Forgotten Actors of the Peasant Revolts Against Collectivization. Women, Children and the Elderly in Oral Testimonies about Romania in the 1950s–60s
JANJA SEDLÁČEK: Yugoslav Collectivization: The Case of Slovenia
Discussion
18.00—19.00 Tasting of Products from Member Farms (Association of Private Farming of the Czech Republic)
23 October 2025
8.30—9.00 Registration
9.00—10.30 PANEL 5
Chair: Jiří Urban
GÁBOR CSIKÓS: The Symptoms of the Weak – The Elimination of Peasant Society and the Psychological Consequences
IRENA KRČILOVÁ: Forced Evictions of Farming Families from the Pelhřimov Region in the 1950s
JANA PTÁČKOVÁ: Persecution of Peasants in the Náchod District, 1949–1961
PAVOL HRIC: The Easternmost Districts of Czechoslovakia: A Spatial Analysis of the Judicial Persecution of Peasants (1950–1959) Discussion
10.35—10.45 COFFE BREAK
10.45—12.15 PANEL 6
Chair: Ondrej Podolec
KAMIL NEDVĚDICKÝ: The Unlawful Punishment of “Kulak” Children, or Class Racism in Practice
CORNEL MICU: Legal Foundations of Romanian Collectivization: Continuities from Agrarian Reforms to Communist Policy
MIROSŁAW SZUMIŁO: Party Management of the Collectivization of Agriculture in Poland, 1949–1956
ISTVÁN ÖTVÖS: The Political Police against Hungarian Society Discussion
12.15—13.00 LUNCH BREAK
13.00—14.30 PANEL 7
Chair: Martin Tichý
KHRYSTYNA SEMERYN: Female Narration of Soviet Collectivization: Gender, Memory and the Limits of Language
VERONIKA CHALUPOVÁ & JOSEF KADEŘÁBEK: Every Woman with a Basket of Hay! Collectivization of Small Villages in the Slaný District, 1945–1958
JANA JAKUBSKÁ: Collectivization in 2D: Posters from the National Agricultural Museum Archive
ANDREI-DUMITRU OLTEANU: “In Our Village” is “Fox Hunting”: Collectivization through Propaganda in Communist Cinema Discussion
14.30—14.45 COFFE BREAK
14.45—16.30 PANEL 8
Chair: Jaroslav Rokoský
JIŘÍ URBAN: Searching for the “Class Enemy” in the Environment of Czechoslovak State Farms
MARTIN TICHÝ: The Political Trial of Deml and Others PÁL GERMUSKA: Escape and Unemployment: The Unintended Side Effects of Collectivization in the Late 1950s, through the Example of Vas County
JIŘÍ PETRÁŠ: The Agricultural Cooperative (JZD) Lhenice from its Beginnings to its Bitter End
JAROSLAV ŠEBEK: From the Perspective of Today’s Private Farmers: Will the Consequences of Forced Collectivization in the Czech Lands Ever Be Overcome?
Discussion
Full programme as pdf-download can be found here.
Source: programme and https://www.nzm.cz/aktualne-v-muzeu/akce/konference-kolektivizace-zemedelstvi-v-zemich-sovetske-sfery-vlivu