1. This expression is derived from a recent seminar report of the Agricultural Development Council (see Castillo, Gella T., The Changing Role of Women in Rural Societies: A Summary of Trends and Issues [New York: Agricultural Development Council, 1977])Google Scholar. The most comprehensive treatment of women in the Soviet labor force can be found in Dodge, Norton T., Women in the Soviet Economy (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966).Google Scholar For a discussion of the rural labor force, see Dodge, Norton T., “Recruitment and Quality of the Soviet Agricultural Labor Force,” in Millar, James R., ed., The Soviet Rural Community (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971), pp. 180–213 Google Scholar; Dodge, Norton T. and Feshbach, Murray, “The Role of Women in Soviet Agriculture,” in Karcz, Jerzy F., ed., Soviet and East European Agriculture (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 265–302 Google Scholar; Robert C. Stuart, “Structural Change and the Quality of Soviet Collective Farm Management, 1952-1966,” in Millar, Soviet Rural Community, pp. 121-38; Sacks, Michael Paul, Women's Work in Soviet Russia: Continuity in the Midst of Change (New York: Praeger, 1976.Google Scholar For a comparison of the role of women in Soviet and American industrial management, see Kathryn, M. Bartol and Robert, A. Bartol, “Women in Managerial and Professional Positions: The United States and the Soviet Union,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 28, no. 4 (July 1975): 524–34.Google Scholar For a general discussion, see Boserup, Ester, Women's Role in Economic Development (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1970).Google Scholar

2. In 1950, the Soviet rural population was 109, 133, 000, or 61 percent of the total Soviet population; in 1975, the Soviet rural population was 100, 151, 000, or 40 percent of the total Soviet population. The average annual net increase in urban dwellers from rural-urban migration over the period 1950-73 was over 1.6 million. For a survey of these data, see Naselenie SSSR (Moscow, 1975). For an analysis of migration patterns, see Robert, C. Stuart and Paul, R. Gregory, “A Model of Soviet Rural-Urban Migration,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 20, no. 1 (October 1977): 81–92.Google Scholar

3. For a useful survey of the characteristics of rural-urban migrants in the Soviet Union, see David E. Powell, “Rural Youth Migration in the Soviet Union,” unpublished manuscript, 1975. For a survey of the Soviet rural labor force, see Norton T. Dodge, “Recruitment and Quality of the Soviet Agricultural Labor Force,” in Millar, Soviet Rural Community, pp. 180-213; for a recent survey, see Feshbach, Murray and Rapawy, Stephen, “Soviet Population and Manpower Trends and Politics,” in United States Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Soviet Economy in a New Perspective (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976), pp. 114–54.Google Scholar

4. For a discussion of managerial personnel, characteristics, and selection procedures in kolkhozes, see Stuart, Robert C., The Collective Farm in Soviet Agriculture (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1972)Google Scholar.

5. While party membership is restricted to roughly 10 percent of the Soviet population, it should be emphasized that party control over personnel matters is pervasive. The nomenklatura is basically a personnel list of possible candidates for certain positions. For a detailed study of the Communist Party, see Rigby, T. H., Communist Party Membership in the U.S.S.R.: 1917-1967 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.Google Scholar

6. The nature of the structural changes is discussed in detail in Stuart, The Collective Farm. As I shall note later, structural changes in terms of presenting new opportunities for aspiring managers could be both positive and negative. Obviously, the expansion in the number of sovkhozes brought new openings. On the other hand, the sharp contraction in the number of kolkhozes must have meant the abolition of many top management positions. At the same time, where kolkhozes were eliminated by means of converting them to sovkhozes (a popular approach), one might expect many of the previous kolkhoz managers to retain their positions in the new sovkhozes.

7. This comparison should be made with caution. For example, one cannot make a direct comparison between say a brigade in a kolkhoz and a brigade in a sovkhoz. Moreover, both have changed over time. The internal organization structures of the two types of institutions are different. Furthermore, they differ significantly in size and therefore presumably in managerial responsibility.

8. Sel'skoe khoeiaistvo SSSR (Moscow, 1960).

9. See the discussion of the selection procedure in Stuart, The Collective Farm, chapter 8.

10. On the Communist Party, see Rigby, Communist Party Membership. See also Mickiewicz, Ellen, “Regional Recruitment in the CPSU: Indicators of Decentralization, Power, and Policy,” Soviet Union, 5, part 1 (1978): 101–25.Google Scholar

11. The only systematic presentation of data on educational background of Soviet farm managers by type of education of which the author is aware was in Sel'skoe khoziaistvo SSSR (Moscow, 1971), pp. 460-62.

12. Such differences should not be understated. For example, the role of women in middle-level kolkhoz management positions in the republics of Central Asia is much smaller than elsewhere. There are also substantial differences in the family and other functions of women in kolkhozes and sovkhozes.

13. In the 1950s, Khrushchev stressed the need for specialists to work on farms rather than as bureaucrats in the administrative machinery. Decrees were enacted to achieve this result. Thus specialists now work on farms, though there are many who work elsewhere, and to further complicate the problem, there are many who, though educated in a particular specialty, do not work in that specialty. These complications make interpretation of the data particularly difficult.

14. Soviet statistical handbooks have typically reported the proportion of given farm managers (for example, sovkhoz directors) who have been in position for selected periods of time. Unfortunately, most of these data probably refer to time as director of any sovkhoz, rather than a particular sovkhoz. For our purposes, the latter is more interesting and is reported in Sel'skoe khoziaistvo SSSR (1971), pp. 460 and 463. These data, referring to stage of work on a given farm generally suggest increasing longevity, presumably decreasing the number of openings that would arise annually, thus tending to preserve the status quo in terms of the representation of women. To the extent that age is a proxy for experience, this pattern might suggest that the importance of experience has been upgraded as a criterion for top farm management.

15. These data are discussed in Stuart, The Collective Farm, chapter 8. Unfortunately, the data lump together the kolkhoz chairman and assistants, although it is unlikely that this would introduce any serious distortions for our purposes.

16. Ibid.

17. See, for example, the discussion of upward mobility in Dunn, Stephen P. and Dunn, Ethel, The Peasants of Central Russia (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967), chapter 3.Google Scholar

18. For a study of this subject, see Sacks, Women's Work in Soviet Russia.

19. The authoritative work on the private sector is Wadekin, Karl-Eugen, The Private Sector in Soviet Agriculture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.Google Scholar

20. This point is emphasized in Sacks, Women's Work in Soviet Russia.

21. This evidence is cited in Jerry F. Hough, “The Changing Nature of the Kolkhoz Chairman,” in Millar, Soviet Rural Community, pp. 103-20.

22. Although the internal organizational arrangements of sovkhozes remain to be studied in detail, the evidence for kolkhozes suggests that the number of production brigades has declined along with the number of kolkhozes. The net result is roughly the same number of brigades per kolkhoz, but as with the kolkhoz itself, the brigade represents a sharply increased volume of resources (land, labor, and capital) and hence a sharply increased task for the brigade leader. In sum, the present brigadier faces a task not unlike the task faced by a kolkhoz manager of thirty years ago.

23. This pattern is examined in Stuart, The Collective Farm, chapter 8.

24. See the concluding comments in Bartol and Bartol, “Women in Managerial and Professional Positions,” pp. 533-34.