Sovkhoz

A sovkhoz was a state-owned agricultural enterprise in the Soviet Union, functioning like a large collective farm. It was directly managed and funded by the government, with workers employed on a labor contract rather than as private farmers. The sovkhoz cultivated crops and raised livestock mainly for national distribution and export, operating according to centralized planning. It represents an example of socialist agricultural organization, aiming for large-scale productivity, state control, and economic efficiency, contrasting with collective farms (kolkhoz), which were jointly owned and managed by groups of peasants.