HALADOVÁ, Silvia. Forced collectivisation in the years 1949 – 1953 on the example of Trnava city and Trnava District municipalities

After the Communist coup in February 1948, society in post-war Czechoslovakia was marked by the violent enforcement of authority by a state that used several forms of persecution for this purpose. An image of the inveterate opponent of new social norms in the form of a class enemy, representing anyone who, for various reasons, did not suit the regime, became a common part of the 1950s. Gradually, new principles of a society-wide direction were formed, accompanied by the persecution of almost all social classes, including ordinary citizens. The building of the people's democratic state, which followed the Soviet model, the reorganisation of the society and the blurring of any class differences led to the establishment of a power monopoly by The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Fundamental changes also affected the agricultural sector. The socialisation of the village clearly affected the traditional life of the peasants and their usual way of farming. The primary objective of the new agricultural policy was the final liquidation of the private farming of the peasants and the building of collective agricultural production. The main enemies of the construction of socialist agriculture were wealthy farmers, the so-called village rich. The basic prerequisite for their purposeful criminalisation was the non-compliance of contingents, which became the most common and even most effective cause of punishment of peasants in the harshest ways, such as financial penalties, imprisonment, conscription to auxiliary technical battalions and forced labour camps, or the eviction of entire kulak families. The process of agricultural collectivisation and application of the principles of the new agricultural policy in post-February Czechoslovakia can be effectively approached by mapping at regional levels. It is possible to participate in a comprehensive examination of the issue by looking into Trnava District – a district with a significant representation of agricultural production.