Machine and Tractor Station
Encyclopedia
The Machine and Tractor Station (MTS) ( Mashinno-traktornaya stantsiya, МТС) was a state enterprise for ownership and maintenance of agricultural machinery
that were used in kolkhoz
es. The first ever MTS was organized in the Odeska region (Shevchenkivska MTS). MTS were introduced in 1928 as a shared resource of scarce agricultural machinery and technical personnel.
William Taubman
, Khrushchev's biographer, describes them as follows:
The main units of an MTS were tractor brigades and automobile brigades, which performed the corresponding agricultural work. It was paid with the share of the agricultural product called natural payment (натуральная оплата, натуроплата, naturoplata). Over time, MTS became an instrument of transferring the agricultural production from kolkhozes to the state. In 1933 the natural payment constituted about 20% of the product and continued to grow.
They existed as independent inter-kolkhoz service until 1958, when the machinery was transferred to the farms, and MTS transformed into Machinery Service Stations (Ремонтно-техническая станция, РТС), which were still known under the old name for longer time. In 1972 they were further renamed into Regional Association "Selkhoztekhnika" (Сельхозтехника, an abbreviation for сельскохозяйственная техника, agricultural machinery).
In post-Soviet
Russia
some economist
s expressed ideas about the revival of MTS to help small independent farmer
s.
Agricultural machinery
Agricultural machinery is machinery used in the operation of an agricultural area or farm.-Hand tools:The first person to turn from the hunting and gathering lifestyle to farming probably did so by using his bare hands, and perhaps some sticks or stones. Tools such as knives, scythes, and wooden...
that were used in kolkhoz
Kolkhoz
A kolkhoz , plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms . The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective farm", while sovkhoz is a contraction of советское хозяйство...
es. The first ever MTS was organized in the Odeska region (Shevchenkivska MTS). MTS were introduced in 1928 as a shared resource of scarce agricultural machinery and technical personnel.
William Taubman
William Taubman
William Chase Taubman is an American political scientist. His biography of Nikita Khrushchev won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2004 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography in 2003....
, Khrushchev's biographer, describes them as follows:
As the name implies, the MTSs were rural agencies that supplied collective farms with agricultural machinery and people to run it. They were set up in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the kolkhozy were too weak and disorganized to manage their own equipment. Ideologically, collective farms were a "lesser" form of property (since theoretically they belonged to the collective rather than the state as a whole); hence it would not do to have them own part of the "means of production." Politically, the new collective farms, into which so many peasants were dragooned, were unreliable. So the MTS also served as a party (and police) stronghold in the countryside.
The main units of an MTS were tractor brigades and automobile brigades, which performed the corresponding agricultural work. It was paid with the share of the agricultural product called natural payment (натуральная оплата, натуроплата, naturoplata). Over time, MTS became an instrument of transferring the agricultural production from kolkhozes to the state. In 1933 the natural payment constituted about 20% of the product and continued to grow.
They existed as independent inter-kolkhoz service until 1958, when the machinery was transferred to the farms, and MTS transformed into Machinery Service Stations (Ремонтно-техническая станция, РТС), which were still known under the old name for longer time. In 1972 they were further renamed into Regional Association "Selkhoztekhnika" (Сельхозтехника, an abbreviation for сельскохозяйственная техника, agricultural machinery).
In post-Soviet
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
some economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
s expressed ideas about the revival of MTS to help small independent farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
s.