Perspectives of Collectivisation - Popular Opinion and Memory in Saxony and Lower Silesia, 1948-1960
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Perspectives of Collectivisation - Popular Opinion and Memory in Saxony and Lower Silesia, 1948-1960 PhD in Russian and Slavonic Studies Klara-Maeve O'Reilly Trinity College Dublin 2017 I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University’s open access institutional repository or allow the library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. The text is the thunder rolling long afterwards. Walter Benjamin Acknowledgements Above all, I thank my supervisor Dr. Balázs Apor for his patience, guidance, and helpful criticism. Ez egy kellemes utazás, köszönöm. I acknowledge with gratitude the support of the Deutsches Polen-Insitut DPI in Darmstadt for their funding and the possibility of consulting the institutes's library at an early stage of the thesis. I am grateful for the Fritz Stern Scholarship by the Deutsche Nationalstiftung which enabled my stay in Wrocław in September 2013, and the A.J. Leventhal Scholarship at Trinity College for financing my field trips to the villages in Saxony and Lower Silesia in 2014 and 2015. I am especially grateful to Dr. Clemens Ruthner and Dr. Anęta Stepień at Trinity College for their comments, encouragement, and central European perspectives. I thank Dr. Annemarie Franke and Yurek Wejwoda for their rigour and mental company throughout the past years. I thank the ladies at koLABORacja e.V. in Görlitz for creating an open space to think, write and talk. I would also like to thank Dr. Sybille Fuchs for her understanding. A multitude of people have helped me along the way. I thank Jennifer Adamson and William D. Finnie for their kindness and tacaíocht; similarly Arwen, Peter, Fionn, Hiroko, Daire, John, Christine, Kay, and the other Finnies and O'Reillys whom I haven't mentioned; Barry Price and Jess O'Connor for their mixture of sedition and the good life; Jenni Hankeln and Piotr Krupnik for keeping it up; Holger Mach for talking theory in the trams of Dresden; Nele Wessels for opening another link between Elbe and Liffey; Claudia Ehrig and Saskia Lippold for their long-term perspectives; Anna Caban for proof-reading the Polish transcripts; Lorenz Kallenbach for exploring Lusatia with me; Dr. Kristina Hinneburg and Dr. Piotr Kocyba for their desks; Dennis, Annu, Franzi, Ulli, Daniel, Monty and the Fitties for their late-night view of the world. Finally, I thank Franziska 'Fränze' Seidel and Valentin Hacke for our collective in the house, and Heinrich Uebel for his constant complicity. This thesis could not have been thought of without Renate, Maike and Kieron. Thank you. Abbreviations ABV Abschnittsbevollmächtigter; community policeman APW Archiwum Państwowe Wrocław; State Archive in Wrocław, Poland BArch Bundesarchiv; Federal Archive in Berlin-Lichterfelde, Germany CDU Christlich-Demokratische Union; Christian-Democratic Union, GDR bloc party DBD Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands; Democratic Farmers’ Party of Germany, GDR bloc party DDR Deutsche Demokratische Republik; German Democratic Republic (GDR) HStAD Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden, main state archive in Dresden, Germany HO Handelsorganisation; state-owned and national trade and retail organisation in the GDR KGW Koło Gospodyń Wiejskich; Polish state-affiliated mass organisation for rural women KPD Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands; Communist Party of Germany LDPD Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands; Liberal-Democratic Party of Germany, GDR bloc party LPG Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft; collective farm in the GDR MAS Maschinen-Ausleih-Station; Mashine lending stations, established 1948 in the GDR MfS Ministerium für Staatssicherheit der DDR; Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the Stasi MTS Maschinen-Traktor-Station; Mashine-tractor station in the GDR, successors to the MAS from 1952 onwards PGR Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne; Polish state-run farm PiS Prawo i Sprawiedliwość; Law and Justice party, currently the strongest political party in the Polish parliament (Sejm) PNZ Państwowe Nieruchomści Ziemskie; national land agency in the PPR from 1946 onwards PRL Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa; Polish People’s Republic (PPR) PSL Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe; Polish Peoples’ Party, agrarian party disbanded in 1949 PPR Polska Partia Robotnicza; Polish Worker's Party, merged in 1948 with the Polish Socialist Party to form the PZPR PPS Polska Partia Socjalistyczna; Polish Socialist Party PZPR Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; Polish United Workers’ Party, governing Communist Party in the PPR until 1989 SBZ Sowjetische Besatzungszone; Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany until 1949 SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands; Socialist Unity Party, governing Communist party in the GDR until 1989 SMAD Sowjetische Militäradministration; Soviet Military Administration in Germany SKK Sowjetische Kontrollkommission; Soviet or People’s Control Commission in the GDR, successor to the SMAD, active from 1949 until 1953 SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands; Social Democratic Party of Germany, merged with the KPD to form the SED in 1949 UB Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, Department of Security in the PPR VdgB Vereinigung der gegenseitigen Bauernhilfe; Peasants’ Mutual Aid Organisation, state affiliated mass organisation for farmers in the GDR, founded in 1946 VEG Volkseigenes Gut; People-Owned Property, state-run farm in the GDR VEB Volkseigener Betrieb; People-Owned Factory, state-run entreprise in the GDR VP Volkspolizei; People’s Police in the GDR ZMP Związek Młodzieży Polskiej; Union of Polish Youth, Polish Communist youth organisation from 1948 until 1956 ZSCh Związek Samopomocy Chłopskiej; Organisation of Farmers’s Self-Help Table of Contents Introduction 1 Part I – Theoretical Framework and Methodology 1. Introduction 35 2. Conceptualising Popular Opinion 34 2.1. Public and Private Spheres 35 2.2. Between Intention and Agency 40 2.3. Beyond Binary Categories 48 2.4. Mood Plus Attitude Equals Opinion ? 53 2.5. Popular Opinion in Soviet-type Societies – Definition 54 3. Memory Studies 56 3.1. Literature Review of Collective Memory Studies 58 3.2. Five Conceptual Considerations 64 3.3. Memory as a Research Object – Definition 69 4. Connecting Memory to Oral History 70 5. Research Design I: For the Combination of Popular Opinion and Memory 75 6. Research Design II: Micro-history, Popular Opinion and Memory 78 7. Summary 81 Part II – Popular Opinion In Lower Silesia and Saxony 1. Introduction 85 2. Representations of Popular Opinion in Saxony 86 2.1. 'To Use All Our Power' – Local Reporting in Kreis Löbau 87 2.2. Differentiation – Local Debates and National Interpretations 91 2.2.1. Differentiation in Regional and National Reports 93 2.2.2. Public Criticism of Differentiation in 1951 98 2.3. The Negotiation of Discipline and Support 101 2.3.1. The Case of Chairman Exner 103 2.3.2. Rumours during the Socialist Spring 108 2.3.3. The Aftermath of a Regional 'Resignation Wave' in 1961 112 2.4. Summary 117 3.Representations of Popular Opinion in Lower Silesia 119 3.1. Reports from Visits to Collective Farms 120 3.1.1. Resignations 122 3.1.2. Criticism of Local Cadres 126 3.1.3. Enemy Acitivity – The Case of Wilhelm Majewski 128 3.2. 'A Process of Convincing' – Defusing Criticism and Stabilising Control 131 3.3. Narrating Successes within the State Agricultural Sector in 1956 137 3.3.1. During Farmers' Converntions in March 1956 139 3.3.2. After the Polish October in 1956 141 3.5. Summary 144 PART III – Memories of Collectivisation 1. Introduction 148 2. Memories of Collectivisation in Lower Silesia 150 2.1. Appropriation, Loss and Construction in Post-War Lower Silesia 150 2.2. Social Groups in the Post-War Village Society 151 2.3. Material Conditions upon Arrival 162 2.3.1. Szaber and Poverty 163 2.3.2. 'Manually and with Horses' – Farm Labour 165 2.3.3. Resettlement, de facto Expropriation and Farm Distribution 166 2.4. After Land Reform – Ownership, Taxation and Registration 168 2.5. Memories of Collective Farms 170 2.6. Memories of the State Farm and Its Workers 183 2.5.1. State Agriculture in the Western Territories 183 2.5.2. Social relations around the PGR 187 2.7. Summary 196 3. Memories of Collectivisation in Saxony 201 3.1. Post-War Saxony 201 3.2. The Agitation Period Remembered 202 3.2.1.Competing Loyalties 202 3.2.2. Aggression and Evasion 204 3.2.3. Hidden Transcripts of the Agitation 207 3.3. Contextualising membership to the LPG 209 3.4. Experiences on the Collective Farms 217 3.5. Female Memories of the Collectives 220 3.6. Memories of Lower Silesia and References to Poland 226 3.7. Summary 230 Conclusion 1. From Popular Opinion to Memory – Comparisions 233 2. Collectivisation in the Mnemonic Landscape of Saxony and Lower Silesia 238 3.Heteroglossic Memories and Pragmatic Modernisation 239 5. Original Contribution and Limitations of the Thesis 242 Bibliography 244 1 Introduction The endeavours of the East German and Polish state-socialist regimes to collectivise agricultural production stand at the centre of this thesis. The diverging experiences of collectivisation in East Germany and Poland are investigated through contemporary party reports and present-day memories of the 1950s and early 1960s. The aim is to open new perspectives on the history of collectivisation in both countries by studying two aspects of this topic which have been hitherto neglected: the every-day, standardised negotiation of popular opinion on the farms and the present-day memories of the period. This introduction commences with an overview of the scope of the thesis before turning to the history of collectivisation in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Polish People's Republic (PPR). Following this, the concept of collectivisation is discussed with particular attention to its historical context and the Communist discourse about peasants and modernity.1 The various frameworks of remembering the history of the 20th century in Europe, especially with regard to the Communist era, are briefly introduced before the methods and source material of the thesis are addressed.