MOISEY
FIDELMAN

In mid-1955 Moisey was sent to… lead a kolkhoz (collective farm) located at about 600 kilometres east of Moscow.

 

This happened as part of the 30,000th program. The 30,000th program, or the “thirty-thousanders” was the idea of sending advanced specialists and members of the Communist Party to the countryside to lead economically weak collective farms to increase collective farm production in the USSR (1). On March 25, 1955, the government decided to recruit at least 30,000 volunteers for leadership work on collective farms, hence the name "thirty-thousanders".

 

“On April 4, 1955, I spoke at a meeting of the Communist Party organization of the Main Directorate for Procurement, Processing and Marketing of Secondary Ferrous Metals, expressing my desire to move to a permanent job in the countryside as the chairman of a collective farm.” – Moisey wrote in a statement a month later, on May 5th (2).

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However, “on April 11, 1955, at a meeting at a higher level on the selection of personnel for collective farm chairmen, I stated that, due to no knowledge of agriculture, I cannot take on such responsibility as leading a collective farm. This inconsistency of my actions was rightly condemned by our Party organization. Now I understand that for the inconsistency of this act with my speech at the meeting, I deserve the most severe punishment and I myself condemn it. I believe that going back on your word is incompatible with the title of party member. Considering my work throughout my conscious life, voluntary service in the Soviet Army during World War II, I ask the committee to trust me by recommending me as the chairman of the collective farm” (3).

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On May 10, 1955, Comrade Fidelman's candidacy was approved (4), and at the end of August he already arrived at the collective farm (5). This was the small village of Parastaevo, located about 5 kilometres from the Volga River and surrounded by forests. The nearest large city of Cheboksary was approximately 50 km away. It was 600 kilometers to Moscow, or about 12 hours by train.

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“In the 1950s, the collective farm was headed by a “thirty-thousander” from Moscow, sent from the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy, Mikhail Emmanuilovich Fidelman. Under him, the collective farm purchased a freight car, a passenger car, built a new garage, and a new farm for cattle. The hydroelectric power station on the Bolshaya Yunga River, which had begun back in 1947, was completed; and residents got electricity in their houses. – it is written now on the Internet page of the village of Parastaevo (6).