View source for Sovkhoz

{{short description|Soviet state-owned farm}}
{{Refimprove|date=February 2022}}
[[File:Pig farm (Stroev).jpg|thumb|1932 [[Socialist Realism]] painting, "In a pig-breeding sovkhoz" (Petr Stroev)]]
[[File:Совхоз "Ленинуголь".jpg|thumb|Headquarters of the "Leninugol" sovkhoz, [[Kemerovo Oblast]].]]
[[File:На фоне Т-4А.jpg|thumb|Students from the [[Kazakh Agricultural Institute]] at the [[Novopokrovsky]] sovkhoz, 1991.]]
A '''sovkhoz'''{{efn|{{bulletedlist|{{lang-rus|совхоз|p=sɐfˈxos|a=ru-sovkhoz.ogg}}, [[syllabic abbreviation|abbreviated]] from {{lang|ru|советское хозяйство}} ({{translit|ru|'''sov'''etskoye '''khoz'''yaystvo}}); {{lit|council farm}}|plural: {{lang|ru|совхозы}} ({{translit|ru|sovkhozy}});  'sovkhozes'}}}} was a form of state-owned farm or agricultural enterprise in the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sovkhoz|title=sovkhoz|website=Merriam Webster}}</ref>

It is usually contrasted with [[kolkhoz]], which is a collective-owned farm. Just as the members of a kolkhoz were called "kolkhozniks",{{efn|{{langx|ru|колхозники|link=no}} (''kolkhozniki'')}} the workers of a sovkhoz were called "sovkhhozniks".{{efn|{{langx|ru|совхозники|link=no}} (''sovkhozniki'')}}

==History==
Soviet state farms started to be created in 1918<ref name=eohou>Padalka, S. "''[http://resource.history.org.ua/cgi-bin/eiu/history.exe?&I21DBN=EIU&P21DBN=EIU&S21STN=1&S21REF=10&S21FMT=eiu_all&C21COM=S&S21CNR=20&S21P01=0&S21P02=0&S21P03=TRN=&S21COLORTERMS=0&S21STR=Radhospy Radhosps (РАДГОСПИ)]''{{-"}} {{in lang|uk}}. ''Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine''.</ref> as an ideological example of "socialist agriculture of the highest order". 

[[Kolkhoz]]es, or [[collective farming|collective farm]]s, were regarded for a long time as an intermediate stage in the transition to the ideal of state farming. While [[kolkhoz]]y were typically created by combining small individual farms together in a cooperative structure, a sovkhoz would be organized by the state on land confiscated from former large [[Estate (house)|estate]]s (so-called "state reserve land" that was left over after distribution of land to individuals) and sovkhoz workers would be recruited from among landless rural residents. The sovkhoz employees would be paid regulated wages, whereas the remuneration system in a kolkhoz relied on cooperative-style distribution of farm earnings (in cash and in kind) among the members. 

In 1990, the [[Soviet Union]] had 23,500 sovkhozy, or 45% of the total number of large-scale collective and state farms. The average size of a sovkhoz was 15,300 [[hectare]]s (153 km<sup>2</sup>), nearly three times the average kolkhoz (5,900 hectares or 59 km<sup>2</sup> in 1990).<ref>''Narodnoye Khozyaiatvo SSSR'' [''Statistical Yearbook of the USSR''] {{in lang|ru}}, State Statistical Committee of the USSR, Moscow, 1990.</ref> Sovkhoz farms were more dominant in the [[Central Asia]]n part of the Soviet Union. 

During the transition era of the 1990s, many state farms were reorganized using [[joint stock]] arrangements, although the development of land markets remained constrained by opposition to private ownership of land.

==In other countries==
* [[Agriculture in Angola|Angola]]
* [[History of agriculture in the People's Republic of China|China]]
* [[Agriculture in Communist Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]] (''státní statek'')
* [[Volkseigenes Gut|East Germany]] (''Volkseigenes Gut'')
* [[Agriculture in Ethiopia#Cooperatives and State Farms|Ethiopia]]
* [[Agriculture in Mongolia|Mongolia]]
* [[Agriculture in Mozambique|Mozambique]]{{sfnp|Smith|Naylor|2014|p=226}}
* [[State Agricultural Farm|Poland]] (''państwowe gospodarstwo rolne, PGR'')

==See also==
*[[Collectivization in the Soviet Union]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
*{{cite book
|last1= Smith
|first1= Whitney L.
|last2= Naylor
|first2= Rosamond L. 
|authorlink2= Rosamond L. Naylor
|chapter=Land Institutions and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
|editor=Rosamond L. Naylor
|title= The Evolving Sphere of Food Security
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=p05uBAAAQBAJ
|date= 2014
|publisher= Oxford University Press
|location= Oxford
|isbn= 9780199354078
|pages=202–238
}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Agricultural organizations based in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Agricultural labor]]
[[Category:Soviet phraseology]]
[[Category:Government-owned companies of the Soviet Union]]