Kolkhoz
The tabletop game — complete official rules

The Rules

Everything you need to run a Five-Year Plan with a real deck of cards: setup, the round flow, requisition, scoring — and every named variant.

New to the game? Start with the illustrated field manual for a gentler walkthrough, then come back here for the full letter of the law.

Read this first

Suits are fields

Each suit of a standard deck stands for one поле (polye — field). Every card is a worker; its rank is the work-hours it contributes.

Пшеница

Hearts — Wheat

Свёкла

Diamonds — Beets

Картофель

Clubs — Potatoes

Подсолнечник

Spades — Sunflowers

Approved combinations

Recommended setups

The rules below are modular: a core game plus named variants. These three combinations are known to be good. Pick one, or assemble your own regime.

36 cards

The village game

Колхозник

Kolkhoznik — the collective farmer

  • Номенклатура живёт по своим законам The trump court — Jack, Queen, King — plays by its own laws.
  • Орден — начальнику, работа — нам Brigade leaders take the reward; requisition remembers them.
  • Поменять шило на мыло From year two, swap a hand card for a cellar card before play.
Recommended
52 cards

The full plan

Колхоз

Kolkhoz — the standard game

  • стахановец Sweep every medal in a round and the inspectors requisition everyone else instead.
  • Поменять шило на мыло From year two, swap a hand card for a cellar card before play.
  • вредитель A joker in the deck: 14 hours of every suit, and poison to any job it joins.
36 cards

The hard way

Зонский режим

Zonskiy rezhim — the camp regime

  • Игра по-северному No rewards for farming. Nobody keeps track of who led.
  • Номенклатура живёт по своим законам The trump court plays by its own laws.
  • Разговоры вели даже с мышами Everyone answers to the inspectors — not just the leaders.
  • Поменять шило на мыло From year two, swap a hand card for a cellar card.
The rulebook

Колхоз — 52-card deck

The core game, phase by phase. Boxes marked Вариант are optional rules — add them where they appear.

1. Game Setup

Игровой Набор · Igrovoy Nabor

  • Remove the Ace, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of each suit from a standard 52-card deck. Set these aside in piles according to their поле (field), then shuffle each pile individually. These become the Карты Плановых Заданий (plan-assignment cards — the job rewards).
  • Shuffle the remaining 32 cards (6 through King of each suit) to form the Колода Рабочих (Koloda Rabochikh — the Workers Deck).
  • Choose a player to be the first Центральный Плановик (Tsentral'nyy Planovik — Central Planner, the dealer). This can be done randomly or by agreement. That player deals 5 cards face-down to each player.
  • Each player has a designated area for their hidden cards called their подвал (Podval — Cellar).
Вариант
вредитель

vreditel' — the Wrecker

Shuffle a joker into the Workers Deck. The joker counts as 14 of every suit, simultaneously. During Ищут врагов народа, if the вредитель has been assigned to a поле, that job fails regardless of the work-hours it may otherwise have — though the reward can still be claimed.

If you enjoy the вредитель, consider shuffling him back into the Workers Deck whenever he is отправлен на Север (sent to the North).

2. Round Flow — a Season

Ход Игры · Khod Igry

The game proceeds over a set number of rounds — one per year of the plan.

a. Planning Phase

Фаза Планирования · Faza Planirovaniya

  • The Центральный Плановик reveals one Карта Плановых Заданий face-up for each of the four поля. These values (Ace–5) are the Victory Points awarded for successfully farming that field this season.
  • The Центральный Плановик then declares Наша главная задача ("our main task" — the trump suit) for the current year.
  • The fifth year is a Год неурожая (year of failed harvest — famine): only four cards are dealt to each player, there is no trump, and only 3 tricks are played.
Вариант
Накопление

nakopleniye — accumulation

Unclaimed job rewards carry over. An unfarmed поле keeps its Карты Плановых Заданий from previous years and gains a new one each Planning Phase — so an unfarmed field can show more than one visible reward card.

Вариант
Поменять шило на мыло

Pomenyat' shilo na mylo — "exchange an awl for soap"

After the first year, each player may swap one card in their hand with one of the hidden cards in their подвал before play begins.

b. The Tricks

пора · pora

  • Starting with the Центральный Плановик, players play one card each.
  • Players must follow suit if able; otherwise they may play any card.
  • The highest-ranking card of the lead suit — or the highest trump, if trump was played — wins the пора.
  • The winner becomes the Бригадир (Brigadir — brigade leader) of the trick and collects the played cards and a medal.
  • The Бригадир then назначает добровольцев (assigns "volunteers"): the cards of the trick are assigned, in any combination, to the fields that have at least one worker represented in the trick. Assigned workers count toward that field's work-hours threshold.
  • The Бригадир leads the next trick. Four tricks are played in total — three in a Год неурожая.

When a field passes its work-hours threshold, it is farmed:

Вариант
Орден — начальнику, работа — нам

"The medal to the boss, the work to us"

The Бригадир who completes the job immediately adds all Карты Плановых Заданий for that field to their подвал, face-up.

Вариант
Игра по-северному

"Playing the northern way"

There is no reward for finishing a job — and no need to remember who has been Бригадир.

Вариант
Номенклатура живёт по своим законам

"The nomenklatura lives by its own laws"

The face cards of the trump suit have special effects:

Пьяница — the Drunkard

Contributes 0 work hours. If his field is расследовано (investigated), the Jack is sent north instead of a player's card.

Информатор — the Informant

If her field goes unfarmed, all players must reveal their подвал — not just the Бригадир.

With Разговоры вели даже с мышами: players reveal every cellar card that matches the unfarmed field.

партиец — the Party Man

If his field is investigated, two matching cards per player are sent north instead of one.

With Разговоры вели даже с мышами: the second-highest card matching the unfarmed field is also sent north.

c. Pocket what comes to hand

Уносить, что под руку попадётся

  • After the final trick, each player adds the one card remaining in their hand to their подвал, keeping it hidden.

d. Requisition

Ищут врагов народа · "They are looking for enemies of the people"

Вариант
Орден — начальнику, работа — нам

Requisition for leaders

For each поле that did not reach its work-hours threshold, every player who was a Бригадир this round reveals the highest hidden card in their подвал matching the unfarmed field, and must отправить на Север (send to the North — exile) the highest-value card of that field from their cellar. If you are playing with Номенклатура живёт по своим законам, follow those resolution rules instead.

Вариант
стахановец

stakhanovets — the model worker

If a player won every medal in the round, all other players are requisitioned instead of them.

Вариант
Разговоры вели даже с мышами

"They held conversations even with the mice"

For each поле that did not reach its work-hours threshold, all players reveal the highest hidden card in their подвал matching the unfarmed field. The highest revealed card is then sent north. If you are playing with Номенклатура живёт по своим законам, follow those resolution rules instead.

  • If all four fields are unfarmed and no player is vulnerable to an inquisition, use Разговоры вели даже с мышами for the round. (This is quite rare unless you are playing a 36-card deck with Орден — начальнику, работа — нам.)
  • Leave all revealed cards face-up for the rest of the game.

e. End of Round

Конец Раунда · Konets Raunda

  • All remaining worker cards are reshuffled — those that are not in a подвал and have not been sent north.
  • The role of Центральный Плановик passes to the player on the left.
  • A new round begins with the Planning Phase.
Вариант
Орденов — полшкафа, а есть — нечего

"Half a cabinet of medals, and nothing to eat"

Players with medals add them to their подвал instead of returning them to the supply. At the end of the game each medal is worth one point.

3. End of Game & Scoring

Конец Игры и Итоговый Подсчет Очков · Konets Igry i Itogovyy Podschet Ochkov

After the completion of the Пятилетка (Pyatiletka — the Five-Year Plan), players calculate their final scores:

  • Sum the values of the cards remaining in your подвал — both hidden workers taken over the years and revealed rewards for finished jobs.
  • If playing with Орденов — полшкафа, а есть — нечего, each medal you hold is also worth 1 point.
  • The player with the highest total score wins.
Вариант · The short deck

Колхо́зик — 36-card deck

The same game on a Russian 36-card deck (6 through Ace). Leaner, meaner, and easier to find a deck for.

Start the game by setting out the 4 Aces to indicate the job piles, then pick one option from each block below.

The Tricks

пора — choose one

ВариантОрден — начальнику, работа — нам

When a поле is farmed, the Бригадир who closes it immediately adds all workers assigned to that field to their подвал as a single stack, with the lowest card face-up on top. In this variant, cards that are sent north are shuffled back into the deck at the start of the next year.

ВариантСеверный вариант

The northern way: there is no reward for farming a field, and no need to remember who has been Бригадир.

Requisition

Ищут врагов народа — choose one, matching your trick variant

Вариант AОрден — начальнику, работа — нам

For each field that did not reach its work-hours threshold, the players who were Бригадир during the round send north the highest card in their подвал matching the unfarmed field.

Bookkeeping: brigade leaders will have stacks of cards in their подвал — this is how you track who led during the round. After requisition, players return the face-down stacks to the deck, keeping only the top card of each stack (if that top card wasn't sent north).

Вариант BРазговоры вели даже с мышами

For each field that did not reach its work-hours threshold, all players reveal the highest hidden card in their подвал matching the unfarmed field. The highest revealed card is then sent north.

Note: Вариант A requires the Орден — начальнику trick variant, but Разговоры вели даже с мышами can be played with either.

Now report to the fields.

Prefer the State to shuffle for you? The iPhone app runs the full plan — offline, pass-and-play, no account.

Get the app Read the field manual