Food supply

Question 1

What are the four main reasons that the period was characterised by intermittent food shortages and full-blown famines?

Answer 1

1. A tendency towards monoculture (i.e. an overreliance on grain)
2. The restrictive practices of the mir - insistence on growing certain crops
3. Severe weather conditions in particular years
4. Government policies (grain requisitioning and collectivisation)

Question 2

Tsarist measures to prevent famines/ positively impact on food supply

Answer 2

• Alexander II
  
  • Zemstva to draw up emergency measures to deal with famines
• Alexander III
  
  • Zemstva coped quite well with 1891 famine
  • Banned exports of grain
  • Est. Special Committee on Famine Relief
  • Funding emergency help through two ‘extraordinary’ lotteries

Question 3

What happened in 1891, and what was the reaction?

Answer 3

1891 - adverse weather - food shortages (and typhus and cholera) - 350,000 deaths

• Finance minister had taxed consumer goods - peasants sold surpluses to cope with inflated prices, exacerbated shortages
• Alexander III’s measures too little too late - many joined revolutionary groups

Question 4

Describe food supply in World War One - who did it benefit least?

Answer 4

First three years there were good harvests

Grain diverted to troops

Worst for urban dwellers - 8 hour long bread queues

Peasants hoarded grain or fed to animals instead of slaughtering

Inadequate transport infrastructure - railway largely used by military - made accessing food difficult

Question 5

What are the four main flashpoints of food supply under the Communists?

One other when not great?

Answer 5

• 1918 Food crisis
• 1921 Famine
• 1932-4 Famine
• 1947 Famine
• Under Khrushchev - had to import grain

Question 6

What were the two short-term causes of the 1918 food crisis?

Answer 6

1. Peasant grain hoarding
2. 1/3 of agricultural land lost due to Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Ukraine gone)

Question 7

How did the Bolsheviks respond to the 1918 food crisis?

Peasant reaction?

Cheka and Red Army reaction?

Answer 7

Introduced grain requisitioning, persecution of kulaks who were blamed for the hoarding

Violent protest, refused to sign up to collectives (only 6% by Stalin).

By 1920 Cheka and Red Army instructed to seize all food, not just surplus - by 1921 countryside in chaos

Question 8

What were the four main causes of the 1921 famine/ food supply difficulty?

Grain production in the Ukraine fell by __%

Answer 8

1. Bolshevik policies
2. Droughts
3. Severe winters in 1920-21
4. Civil War shut down of railways
   
   1. Food transportation difficulties
   2. Virtually impossible for urban dwellers to travel to food supply

Grain production in the Ukraine fell by 20%

Question 9

The 1921 famine saw a death toll of over _ million.

Rumours of ____ ____ and ____

Answer 9

The 1921 famine saw a death toll of over 5 million.

Rumours of body snatching and cannibalism

Question 10

What was the reaction to the 1921 famine?

Answer 10

Backlash against Lenin - slow to respond, reluctant to accept aid from American Relief Administration

Question 11

When was there some stability restored to the countryside?

Good harvests in 19__ and 19__, although food shortages reappeared in 19__. Much of this was due to the ____, although peasants had also reduced the amount of land ____.

Who was scapegoated?

Result?

Answer 11

The Mid-1920s - under the NEP.

Good harvests in 1926 and 1927, although food shortages reappeared in 1928. Much of this was due to the weather, although peasants had also reduced the amount of land sown.

Kulaks scapegoated as grain hoarders.

Introduced Ural-Siberian method - villagers encouraged to reveal grain hoarders/ those showing bourgeois tendencies in exchange for rewards

Question 12

What caused the 1932-4 famine?

Most ____ famine of whole period.

Answer 12

• Effects of first collectivisation
• Poor harvests from terrible weather conditions

Most disastrous famine of whole period.

Question 13

There’s another pack on what happened in 1932-4 famine

Answer 13

There’s another pack on what happened in 1932-4 famine

Question 14

Stalin banned ____ of the 1932-4 grain crisis - necessary as Stalin publically ____ a food problem ____

Answer 14

Stalin banned discussion of the 1932-4 grain crisis - necessary as Stalin publically denied a food problem existed

Question 15

Grain production in 1913 - __ million tonnes

Grain production in 1928 - __._ million tonnes

Grain production in 1935 - __ million tonnes

What does this show?

Answer 15

Grain production in 1913 - 80 million tonnes

Grain production in 1928 - 73.3 million tonnes

Grain production in 1935 - 75 million tonnes

Shows that production was slowly improving, although not at pre-WWI standards

Question 16

Generally, the diet of workers seemed to ____ under the Communists - the consumption of meat and fish had ___ by __% by the late 1930s

(Not to do with peasants as much)

Answer 16

Generally, the diet of workers seemed to worsen under the Communists - the consumption of meat and fish had allen by 80% by the late 1930s

Question 17

How did the peasants fair during the Second World War?

Grain production in 1945 - __ million tonnes (contradicts what the textbook says?) what else bad happened?

However, by 1950 __ million tonnes of grain were being harvested - significant boost!

Answer 17

• Collectivisation relaxed
• Private plots allowed - production rose

Grain production in 1945 - 60 million tonnes - nother famine in 1947

However, by 1950 99 million tonnes of grain were being harvested - significant boost!

Question 18

Khrushchev’s successes in agriculture?

• Harvest of grain up to ___ million tonnes 1957-60, and ___ million tonnes 1961-64
• Virgin lands contributed to __% of USSR grain in 1956

Answer 18

• Harvest of grain up to 120 million tonnes 1957-60, and 132 million tonnes 1961-64
• Virgin lands contributed to 50% of USSR grain in 1956

Question 19

Khrushchev’s failures in agriculture?

In 1963, grain production fell from ___ million tonnes in 1962 to ___ million tonnes

Answer 19

• Pattern of poor harvests and associated food shortages continued
• Wind erroded top soil
• Lots of poor weather
• STill had to import from West

In 1963, grain production fell from 140 million tonnes in 1962 to 107 million tonnes

Question 20

Differences in terms of Tsars and Communists food supply

Answer 20

• Communist problems caused by government policy more often than Tsars
• Communists improved agriculture more

Question 21

Similarities between Tsar and Communist food supplies

Answer 21

• Affected by bad weather
• Intermitten shortages and famine

Question 22

During 1932-4:

• Cows ____ because the barns on collectives were too ____ to house them all
• Horse ____ continued - slowed the ____ of fields

Answer 22

During 1932-4:

• Cows froze because the barns on collectives were too small to house them all
• Horse shortage continued - slowed the ploughing of fields