Socialist competition of high-yield links and labor people providing agriculture during the war
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan continues a series of publications devoted to the agriculture of the TASSR during the Great Patriotic War. During the war years, Tatarstan became especially important in the food supply of the army and the population. The demand for food was growing, and the possibilities for its production were reduced. There was a catastrophic lack of equipment, fuel and lubricants, mineral fertilizers and workers. In order to increase agricultural production, various forms of material incentives for farmers were applied. A number of decrees were adopted on additional wages for increasing crop yields in agriculture and livestock productivity in animal husbandry. Thus, the additional wage in the form of a premium allowance was provided for MTS machine operators for high-quality planting, raising yields and timely cleaning. Tractor drivers for the over-fulfillment of yield plans relied 13% of the grain harvested above the plan and 11% of potatoes; Combineers for grain harvest above the norm should have received 10 poods each, if during the season an area of over 180 hectares was processed and 25 poods - for a threshed area of 300 hectares, etc.
To maintain the enthusiasm of the farmers, a significant place was given to socialist competition. The collective farms, state farms, brigades, units, and individual leaders of production competed. The competition of tractor drivers and women’s tractor brigades, which began in the spring of 1942, was particularly widespread in the country. Only in Tatarstan, 5,288 tractor drivers and 112 women’s tractor brigades in 106 MTS of the Republic took part in it. More than 200% of the plan was perfomed by tractor driver Serazeeva Fatima from Yurtushskaya MTS, Dinmukhametova Gayan from Bondyuzhskaya MTS, Ilyasova Zamilya from Budennovskaya MTS and many others. Over the years, the brigades of Khatima Khusnutdinova (1942) and Sagura Mustafina (1944) from the Yanylskaya MTS of the Kukmorsky District, the brigade of M. Giniyatullina (1943) from the Kazanbash MTS of the Arsky District became the winners of the national competition.
The socialist competition of high-yield links was essential for increasing the collection of agricultural products. Zakiya Sadykova from the collective farm “Red Partisan” of the Takanyshsky (now Mamadyshsky) district, Madina Kadyrova from the collective farm “Dores Yul” of the Tenkovsky (now - Verkhneuslonsky) district, Alfiya Ibragimova from the collective farm “Alga” Dubyazsky (now - Vysokogorsky) district were the best in it.
Fulfilling the tasks of the party and the government, the villagers worked with full dedication. Eyewitnesses of those years say that after hard grueling work they did not even have the strength to return home. Denying themselves the most necessary, rural workers gave the state all the manufactured products. For personal use of collective farmers, virtually nothing was left. The quality of life of the villagers during the war was extremely low, they were balancing on the verge of survival.
Thus, the war caused enormous damage to the agriculture of Tatarstan. All branches of agricultural production came out of it with heavy losses. The material and technical base was devastated, there was an acute shortage of equipment, spare parts, the productive forces of the village were significantly reduced. The agrarians themselves were in a state of extreme exhaustion, but they saved the agriculture.