Agricultural policies under Khrushchev Flashcards
What was Khrushchev’s main agricultural policy?
-The Virgin land campaigns.
What was the virgin land scheme?
-Encourage people to farm areas of Siberia and North Kazakhstan which were not under cultivation to produce more food.
What was the flaw in the virgin land scheme?
-Virgin lands for a reason
-poor weather and soil
-no infrastructure
-diverted precious resources from better agricultural lands.
What agricultural legacy did Stalin leave behind for Khrushchev?
-Most peasants worked on Kolhozy so didn’t get same benefits as state employees.
-State bought agricultural produce below cost of production.
-high taxes on surplus
-high prices for renting equipment.
Khrushchev believed himself to be an expert in agriculture, was this the case?
-No he knew very little in reality,
Positives of Khrushchev’s reforms?
-genuine interest in peasant reforms.
-relaxation of stalins policy did lead to an initial production increase.
Negatives of Khrushchev’s reforms?
-virgin land campaigns an idiot idea.
-lacked resources because funds were diverted toward heavy industry+millitia.
When did Khrushchev abolish machine tractor stations?
-1958
What did Khrushchev replace machine tractor stations with?
-nothing, collective farms would look after themselves.
What were the consequences of the abolition of machine tractor stations?
-engineers didn’t want to loose state employee status so left for towns.
-collective farms could not afford machinery.
What did Khrushchev do in terms of food production?
-meat production targets
-maize for livestock grown instead of food for people
-maize unsuitable in USSR.
Other than the virgin land campaigns what agricultural policies did Stalin implement?
-cut taxes from collective farms and goods produced from private pots
-Converted many Kolhozy to Sovkhozy so peasants had benefit of state employees.
-agritowns.
-electricity to rural areas.
In what year did bad weather cause terrible harvests?
1962&3
What did the terrible harvests of 1962 and 3 cause?
-riots
-such as one in a locomotive works where KGB killed 23 protesters.
What was the difference in grain produced before and during the very poor harvests?
-33 million tonnes.
