collectivization

American  

[kuh-lek-tuh-vahy-zey-shuhn] / kəˌlɛk təˌvaɪˈzeɪ ʃən /

especially British, collectivisation

noun

1. the act or process of organizing a people, industry, enterprise, etc., according to collectivism, an economic system in which control, especially of the means of production, is shared cooperatively or centralized.

   After World War I Russia introduced a full-scale command economy, including the collectivization of agriculture and the nationalization of almost all industrial capital.

2. the act of making something apply to a group of people as a whole rather than as individuals.

   The collectivization of guilt is a tool used to show that the community in which the crimes occurred has yet to become a community that can guarantee they will not be repeated.

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Etymology

Origin of collectivization

collectiiviz(e) ( def. ) + -ation ( def. )

Explanation

When an industry is controlled by a collaborative group, instead of by individual private owners, it's called collectivization. The Soviet Union's 1930s policy of agricultural collectivization transformed many small farms into one enormous shared farm. In economics, collectivization means forming collectives, or cooperative organizations, instead of allowing separate businesses to compete against each other. It's an important concept in communism, and Stalin's unsuccessful attempt at using collectivization to free peasants from poverty is often used as proof it can't work. Other kinds of collectivization have been more successful, though, from cooperative living situations to artist and worker collectives that give groups of people more support and bargaining power than they had as individuals.

Example Sentences

Forced collectivization of agriculture under Joseph Stalin, Lenin’s successor as the Soviet leader, drove a wave of famine in the early 1930s.

From New York Times • Dec. 30, 2022

His grandfather on his father’s side, Andrei, rejected collectivization and tried to make it on his own.

From Washington Post • Aug. 30, 2022

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born to a peasant family on March 2, 1931, amid one of dictator Josef Stalin’s most savage endeavors, the forced collectivization of agriculture that left millions of rural Russians to starve.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 30, 2022

The losses for Russia in the 1990s were nothing like the horrors of collectivization.

From Salon • Oct. 7, 2021

In addition to the collectivization of farms, the Five-Year Plans also aimed to industrialize the USSR.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein