Collective Farm, in the USSR, a cooperative organisation of peasants who have voluntarily joined together in order to manage in common large-scale socialist agricultural production based on socialised means of production and collective labour. The collective-farm system is an integral component of Soviet socialist society, the historically tested way for its gradual transition to communism, which takes into account the specific features of the peasantry and meets its interests. A collective farm, as a social form of socialist economy, completely fulfils the task of further developing the productive forces in the rural areas, ensures that production of the farm is managed by its members on the basis of collective-farm democracy, and makes it possible to harmonise the interests of collective farmers with those of society and all the people. Alongside state farms, collective farms are the basic producers of agricultural goods in the USSR. In accordance with the Constitution of the USSR, collective farms manage their economies on the land, which is the property of the whole people, and is allotted to the collective farm free of charge and for permanent use. Collective farms and other cooperative organisations and their associations own the means of production and other property necessary for fulfilling the purposes stipulated by the Rules. The activity of a collective farm is regulated by the Rules, which are approved by the general meeting of its members; it meets the 47 principles of cost accounting. The conscientious labour of collective farmers and the working class and of all the Soviet people during the years of Soviet power has turned the collective farms into large-scale mechanised agricultural enterprises; their indivisible (unshared) funds have multiplied, living standards of collective farmers have risen tremendously, and the differences in material, cultural and everyday conditions between urban and rural life are being overcome to a growing degree. The Model Rules of the collective farm, adopted by the Third All-Union Congress of the Collective Farmers in 1969 envisaged the further development and reinforcement of socialist democracy, and getting rural workers to be more interested and more involved in the management of social production. Collective farmers tackle many important problems involving land use, the replenishment of fixed assets and turnover funds, the concentration and specialisation of production, its planning, organisation of work and remuneration for it, the introduction of cost accounting, the development of agro-industrial integration (see Integration, Agro-Industrial, under Socialism), etc. Elected Soviets of collective farms take collective decisions on the most important questions of rural life.