How would you describe the motivations of Lev Kopelev as a young activist implementing Stalin's forced collectivization of agriculture?
Lev Kopelev was born in 1912 and died in 1997. He was given the mandate of enhancing the collectivization of agriculture in Ukraine. As a young communist activist, he is determined to see that he perform his allocated duty without any compromise whatsoever. Lev believes that he is a warrior, and he would work hard towards confiscating grains of those farmers who fail to take their harvest to the grain depots. Stalin's revolution had a five-year plan, and he would say that "the struggle for grain was struggling for socialism. That phrase by Stalin would remind those collecting grains not to relent until they were performing a noble course of actualizing the five-year plan. Since Kopelev was one of them, he was always motivated for being part of the revolution, and nothing would stop him from performing his duty.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Kopelev energy in collectivization drive is made secure by the fact that he understands the great truth of communism which the ignorant farmers fail to do. At the Myrhood district, Kopelev is sent with other three members to fulfill the grain collection plan which had not been realized by December 1932. The designation of two newspapers by the district committee; Locomotive Worker and the Socialist Kharkov Register made it easy for Kopelev and his team to push their agitation on grain collection. He says that the message on the hard-core holdouts was "undisputed confiscation." This means that the issues on those newspaper directed them on what to do, and since he was supposed to push through the collectivization agenda, that always motivated him to confiscate the farmers harvest and even their homestead valuables. He says, "They would take not only the livestock and food, but also icons in their frame, and surpluses of clothing and all valuables."
Kopelev recounts how he took part in the raid with his friend Volodia. They would indicate items that were confiscated in the inventories. Although the owners of the goods wailed loudly and screamed all over, nothing would stop them. The children would echo them with coughing, choking, and screams. Men looking in despair, hateful, frightened, ferocious and pleading to them, but they could not stop it. Despite all this cry from the villagers, Kopelev is persuaded and explains to himself that he had to keep doing what he was sent to do. That he is not supposed to give in to the pondering pity of the villagers. What came up in his mind was that they were collecting grains for their fatherland which would serve the five-year plan.
How did Kopelev come later to see these actions?
Kopelev narrates how he saw people die from hunger in the spring of 1933. Woman and children had developed swollen bellies and lifeless eyes which were turning blue. Corpses from the huts they took the grains earlier would be seen, and other bodies are lying under the bridge of Kharlov. Lov Kopelev fell sick in February of 1933, and his father arrives from a trip. His father had been inspecting the preparation of sugar beets through the provinces. Kopelev began to receive condemnations of what he had done to the Ukrainians. Kopelev had helped Stalin's administration to take away the farmers' grains. Now, the Ukrainians who were grain growers were dying of hunger, with his son facilitating the confiscation of their grains. The death of the villagers and the criticism from his father made him learn of collectivization actions. He comes to understand how inhuman it was and he later joins the war against the Red Army abuses on German civilians. Kopelev is sentenced for promoting "compassion towards the enemy," and "bourgeous humanism." Even after being released on completion of the ten-year jail term, he continues to fight for fairness and humanity. This results in him losing his Soviet citizenship.
