4B

Under the Whip of the Quota: Compulsory Deliveries

Following the February 1948 communist takeover, the new regime adopted the system of compulsory deliveries, originally introduced by the Protectorate administration in autumn 1938, as one of its most severe instruments of state control over the countryside. Each farmer was assigned a mandatory 'contingent' by the state: a quota of agricultural products to be delivered to the authorities for a fraction of the market price. These quotas were set by government decree and often disregarded the actual harvest or the real capacity of individual farms. Failure to meet the required deliveries resulted in heavy fines, and it was not uncommon for property to be confiscated or for farmers to be imprisoned. The quotas thus became a deliberate tool for the economic destruction of private farmers. The threat of persecution was intended to force individuals into the 'voluntary' decision to joi5 a JZD, where responsibility shifted to the entire collective.