Agriculture and the Virgin Lands scheme Flashcards
How was the agricultural situation under Stalin after War?
The scorched Earth policy left Western regions destroyed and only ⅓ of farms were left operational
In 1945, the harvest produced was ⅔ less than pre-war levels
⅔ of the agricultural labour force had gone and most animals were destroyed
1946 saw the worst draught experienced in the 20th century
Stalin’s Five-Year Plans aimed to fix this but they were unsuccessful and left peasants with little due to grain Quotas
What changes did Khrushchev make to improve agricultural?
Several changes were introduced to incentivise peasants to produce more
→ the state increased the price they paid for grain by 25% between 1953 and 1956
→ tax + quotas were reduced + quotas on private plots worth abolished
→ peasants who did not possess any animals were no longer required to deliver meat to the state
→ increase in use of Farm Machinery
Were Khrushchev’s changes successful?
The new pricing system proved a failure because state officials kept altering the prices, so farmers to find it difficult to plan ahead
private plots still provided half the peasant’s income and contributed to over 30% of the produce sold in the USSR despite the private plots only representing 3% of the total cultivated land.
What was the Virgin land scheme?
Khrushchev believed one way to increase production was to cultivate lands in Siberia
In 1953 the scheme proved successful and a huge campaign was launched to attract farmers to settle in these parts
by 1956 almost 40 million hectares of Virgin land have been ploughed for wheat
Was the Virgin land scheme successful?
The Virgin land scheme was not successful in the long term as climatic conditions have not been taken into account.
furthermore, the land had been worked so intensively without any rotation of wheat with other crops which lead to the soil becoming infertile
the USSR was embarrassingly forced to import grain from America
Was Khrushchev successful in improving agriculture?
Khrushchev was the first USSR leader to show interest in agriculture and he made a huge effort to integrate rural areas into the party structure
by increasing rural representation within the party at both local and senior level
however, despite all the efforts, the results were very mixed
Khrushchev had too many different initiatives that were carried insufficiently
