The name is absent

In rural areas, virtually all investments into production, social and cultural sphere
were made by these farms. They concentrated investments predominantly on their
production centres. When two or more collective farms merged, most of these investments
were directed to the new, usually the strongest centre, leaving the former centres with their
surrounding villages without the necessary level of services.

And again, like in the case of industrial settlements, local administrative units village
soviets (külanoukogu) and county (rajoon) administration had practically no authority to
speak with in the social sphere development. Construction of housing and CI was probably
the most powerful “tool” (even better than high salary) to attract new labour force.

At the same time, historical centres, being outside of collective farm territories and
investment policies, stagnated and declined by population; mainly because of the lack of co-
operation between collective farms in respect to CI. People, living in small towns, were
employed in surrounding collective farms.

Production activities of the collective farms were quite well coordinated by the
Agrotoostuskomitee (Agro-industrial Committee) at the rajoon and state level, which
included wide structure of support services. Planning procedures and construction activities
were carried out by the Maaehitusprojekt (Rural Construction Project) or KEK (Kolkhoz
Construction Office) structures. These structures were actually acting as design and
construction companies. They had to follow building standards and other guidelines, but
they did not plan service and production units on the larger (rajoon) scale. Or did it just pro
forma.

Stronger enterprises (collective farms) just swallowed weaker ones, concentrated
economic power and construction activities to the new centres. They had also greater
lobbying capacity to shift central infrastructure investments (e.g. roads) in the benefit of
their territory. Collective farms in Central and Northern Estonia were very rich at the middle
of the 1980s: they set up new industrial enterprises (e.g. electronic assembly and car spare
parts production), of course, the built new very attractive housing and CI for their workers,
and least but not least, they renovated large manor houses and cleaned up parks just for a
pleasure (!). This is why collective farm chairmen were also called “red barons”.

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