The author analyzes preconditions of the Soviet collectivization as a process of the Western style modernization along the lines of American agrarian-industrial enterprises that emerged in the1920s. Application of the most advanced machines (not just field engines but also combined harvesters invented at that times) lied at the bottom of these enterprises. The Soviet leaders perceived harvesters as a fundamental innovation that would prove advantages of collective farms and permit to send some 15 million redundant people from countryside to construction sites.