famines

Question 1

1891

Answer 1

• adverse weather resulted in half of Russian Provinces suffering from food shortages
• 350,000 deaths
• Vyshnergradksy had raised tax on consumer goods, everyday items more expensive
• Alexander III tried to counter criticisms by banning export of grain, setting up a Special Committee on Famine Relief.

Question 2

famines / food during WW1

Answer 2

• good harvest in the first three years
• bread queues of 8 hours became normal
• poor transport infrastructure = difficultly accessing food
• Russian people hoped that with the fall of the Tsar and the ending of the war there would be greater access to food - problems continued.

Question 3

food crisis of 1918

Answer 3

• peasants continued to hoard grain
• valuable agricultural land was lost (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk)
• Bolsheviks responded by introducing grain requisitioning
• kulkas were blamed for shortages and persecuted.

Question 4

situation by 1920

Answer 4

• by 1920, the Cheka and the Red Army had been instructed to seize all food supplies for redistribution
• more violent reaction occurred and by the end of 1921 the countryside was in a state of utter chaos.

Question 5

the famine of 1921

Answer 5

• Bolshevik policies towards post-war food crisis contributed
• droughts and severe winters in 1920-21 had dramatic effects
• Ukrainian food production fell by 20% during this time
• shutdown of Russian railway systems (emanated from Civil War) = difficulty to transport food over moderately long distances
• difficult for urban dwellers to travel to where there may have been food supplies
• 5 million deaths
• Lenin was reluctant to receive aid from American Relief Administration

Question 6

mid 1920s

Answer 6

• decent harvests in 1926 and 1927
• shortages appeared in 1928 due to severe weather
• kulaks blamed for hoarding
• grain requisitioning

Question 7

The Famine of 1932-34

Answer 7

• effects of first phase of collectivisation and poor harvests due to poor weather = worst famine in period
• many more suffered as a result of the repression of the Stalinist regime although a similar number of people died due to starvation in 1921
• death penalty imposed for stealing grain
• discussion of the grain crisis was banned - Stalin publicly denied that a food problem existed.

Question 8

situation by 1935

Answer 8

• by 1935, matters seemed to have improved
• food production increased slowly
• on the eve of WW2, it was unlikely that total food production had reached pre ww1 levels
• the diet of workers seemed to worsen under the communists - by the late 1930s the consumption of meat and fish had fallen by 80%

Question 9

WW2

Answer 9

• collectivisation policy relaxed
• removal of restrictions on private plots of land = rise in food production
• short lived, famine took place in 1947
• pattern of poor harvests and associated food shortages continued under Khrushchev
• despite Virgin Land Campaigns and improvements to state pricing mechanism for agricultural produce, food still had to be imported.