Peasants under siege [electronic resource] : the collectivization of Romanian agriculture, 1949-1962 / Gail Kligman, Katherine Verdery.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [477]-497) and index.

Laying the groundwork -- The Soviet blueprint -- The village community and the politics of collectivization, 1945-62 -- Creating party cadres -- Pedagogies of power : technologies of rural transformation -- Pedagogies of knowledge production and contestation -- Pedagogies of persuasion -- Fomenting class war -- Outcomes -- The collectives are formed -- The restratification and bureaucratization of rural life -- Conclusion -- Appendix I. Project and participants -- Appendix II. Methodology -- Appendix III. List of interviewers and respondents.

In 1949, Romania's fledgling communist regime unleashed a radical and brutal campaign to collectivize agriculture in this largely agrarian country, following the Soviet model. Peasants under Siege provides the first comprehensive look at the far-reaching social engineering process that ensued. Gail Kligman and Katherine Verdery examine how collectivization assaulted the very foundations of rural life, transforming village communities that were organized around kinship and status hierarchies into segments of large bureaucratic organizations, forged by the language of "class warfare" yet saturat.

Description based on print version record.