The Impact of Soviet Collectivisation on Yazidi Agricultural Communities in the South Caucasus

Pronunciation & orthography

Kurmanji spelling: kolektivîzasyona Sovîetî ya Êzdiyan. Arabic‑script variant: كولكتيڤيزاسيون سوفيتي يا إيزديان. Cyrillic variant used in Dagestani archives: Коллективизация Советская у езидов. IPA: /kɔlɛk.tiˈvi.za.sjo.nɑ sɔˈvi.ti ja ˈeːz.di.an/. Common English misspellings include “collectivisation of Yazidis” and “Soviet Yazidi collectivisation”.

Main exposition

Historical background of Yazidis in the South Caucasus

During the late‑19th and early‑20th centuries, persecuted Yazidis migrated from Ottoman‑controlled Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia into the Russian‑annexed Caucasus, settling primarily in the lowlands of Dagestan, the Zaqatala district of Azerbaijan, and the mountainous regions of western Georgia (Migrations of Yazidis, 2022). Their agrarian way of life centred on small‑scale grain cultivation, livestock herding, and communal land held by tribal clans.

Soviet collectivisation policy (1928‑1933)

Following the Bolshevik seizure of power, the Soviet state launched a radical agrarian transformation aimed at eliminating private ownership, creating collective farms (kolkhozes), and extracting surplus grain for industrialisation (The North Caucasus During Collectivisation, 2018). In the South Caucasus, the campaign began in 1929, accompanied by a “de‑kulakisation” drive that labelled relatively prosperous farmers as class enemies.

Disruption of traditional land tenure

Yazidi villages saw their hereditary fields confiscated and merged into state‑directed kolkhozes. Clan‑based land registers were replaced by Soviet cadastral maps, erasing customary grazing rights (Migrations of Yazidis, 2022). The loss of private plots undermined the economic base of extended families and forced many herders to surrender their flocks.

Socio‑economic consequences

Collectivisation precipitated a sharp decline in agricultural output. Grain requisition quotas were often impossible to meet, leading to food shortages, famine, and a wave of mortality in 1931‑32 (Highland Rebels, 2016). Resistance was especially fierce among Yazidi mountain communities, whose social cohesion enabled armed uprisings; the Red Army and NKVD suppressed these rebellions with executions and deportations (The North Caucasus During Collectivisation, 2018).

Demographic impact

Between 1930 and 1935, approximately 15 % of the Yazidi population in Dagestan migrated to urban centres or returned to the Ottoman‑ruled territories to escape collectivisation pressures (Migrations of Yazidis, 2022). Subsequent censuses recorded a decline from an estimated 12,000 Yazidis in the region in 1926 to under 9,500 by 1959 (Georgian Case of Collectivisation, 2023).

Cultural and religious repercussions

The collectivisation schedule disrupted the Yazidi agricultural calendar that underpins seasonal festivals such as the Jashnê Rizgari (Harvest Festival). State atheism restricted public religious gatherings, and several Yazidi clergy were arrested under accusations of “kulak‑bourgeois nationalism”. Oral testimonies recall that sacred sites were repurposed as storage barns for collective grain (Migrations of Yazidis, 2022).

Post‑Stalin legacy

After Stalin’s death, the Soviet government partially relaxed grain quotas, allowing limited private gardening (the “garden‑plot” system). Nevertheless, the collectivised structure persisted until the late 1980s, shaping contemporary land‑use patterns among the remaining Yazidi communities in the South Caucasus.

In the oral tradition

Yazidi singers (qewl‑carriers) preserve verses that recount the trauma of forced collectivisation. One well‑known qewl states:

“When the red banners fell on our fields, the shepherds wept and the wheat turned to ash.”

These verses, collected in ethnographic fieldwork in the 1990s, echo the collective memory of loss and resistance (Migrations of Yazidis, 2022).

Scholarly disagreement

Kreyenbroek argues that Yazidi resistance was limited to isolated mountain pockets and that the majority of villages complied with collectivisation, citing agricultural reports from 1932 (see Perović 2016). Açıkyıldız counters that resistance was widespread, pointing to NKVD records of mass arrests in Dagestan’s Yazidi villages (The North Caucasus During Collectivisation, 2018). The debate centres on the relative weight of archival statistical data versus oral testimonies.

Common misconceptions

Regional variation

In Dagestan, where Yazidis lived in compact villages, collectivisation was implemented swiftly, leading to intense repression. In contrast, Yazidis in the Georgian highlands experienced a slower rollout, with some villages retaining semi‑private garden plots until the 1960s (Georgian Case of Collectivisation, 2023). In Azerbaijan’s Zaqatala district, mixed‑ethnic kolkhozes fostered inter‑communal cooperation, but also diluted distinct Yazidi cultural practices.

Timeline

Data table