Khrushchev's Agricultural Reforms Flashcards
6 points
What problems did the agricultural sector have in the beginning of Khrushchev’s term?
- Fewer animals in the USSR than there had been before the revolution.
- Farmers’ income was far too low because of low State procurement prices.
- Productivity was far too low.
- The party had been deliberately misled by the use of ‘biological yields’.
- High taxes on farmers were a disincentive to progress.
- This was the first honest analysis of agriculture since the 1920s.
Khrushchev’s most significant agricultural reform, and where it took place
Virgin Land Scheme, Khazakstan
4 points
What was Khrushchev’s plan for the Virgin Land Scheme?
- To farm large areas of western Siberia and northern Kazakhstan (‘the fringes of the area of adequate rainfall’).
- Khruschev presented the Virgin land schemes as an ideologically pure solution to the USSR’s financial difficulties, as opposed to Malenkov’s plan to enlarge the Kolkhoz’s private plots.
- Hundreds of thousands young men and woman volunteered to settle on the steplands of Kazakhstan to farm the land.
- By 1956 35.9 million hectares of land were being cultivated there (equal to size of land farmed in Canada).
3 points
Evidence the Virgin Lands Scheme was a success
- Overall production did increase: cereals up from 82m tons in 1952 to 132m tons (1961-4); meat up from 5.2-9.1 and milk from36-63)
- In 1965 the scheme contributed over 50% of the total grain harvest for the USSR.
- Some good years for harvest, such as 1945, 1956
4 points
Evidence the Virgin Lands Scheme was a failure
- Wind erosion proved a problem, 13,000 square miles of land had their topsoil removed by 1960 alone.
- Harvest yeild steadily decreased following 1958 as a result of shortages of fertiliser to compensate for poor soil.
- Some bad years: 1955 was a drought. There was another poor harvest in 1963, which meant Khrushchev had to import grain from the west. Crop yield in 1963 was only 90% of yield achieved in 1958.
- Some parts of Kazakhstan so overploughed they turned into a dustbowl.
5 points
Other than the Virgin Lands Scheme, what other agricultural reforms did Khrushchev introduce?
- Kolkhozes were allowed to set their own production targets and had less interferance from local officials.
- Closed the MTS in order to make the Kolkhozes more independant.
- He amalgamted Kolkhozes into bigger collective farms, so that the number roughly halved between 1950 and 1960.
- He urged farmers to grow more maize, which had been successful in the Ukraine, to provide fodder for livestock.
- He decreased the size of private plots which could be allocated to peasants.
3 points
Evidence the amalgamation of Kolkhozes was a failure
- Caused social stress.
- Deportations of a kind occured as villages were bulldozed to establish large settlements connected to the farms.
- Despite the promise of schools, shops and recreational facilities attached to larger Kolkhozes, the quality and quantity of these often fell below expectations.
3 points
Evidence the closure of the MTS was a failure
- No barns on farms to store equipment, no expertise to maintain it.
- Mechanics from the former MTS tended to return to industry where living conditions were better.
- Farm machinery rusted in fields due to absense of spare parts and expertise.
4 points
Evidence the decrease of private plots was a failure
- Despite making up 3% of total cultivated area, 30% of crops were produced on private plots.
- There was still little incentive to work hard on collective farms.
- When private plot size was decreased, it led to food shortages.
- Resulted in Novocherkassk massacre.
4 points
Explain the events of the Novocherkassk massacre
- Food shortages (as a result of the restricting of private plots) led to protests in Novocherkassk.
- Despite attempts of Presidium to calm crowds, this resulted in troops firing on rioters who broke into the town Soviet HQ.
- 24 people dead.
- News blackout put in place meant it was a secret for 30 years.
Evidence the planting of Maize was a failure.
85 million acres were planted, but only 1/6 was harvested ripe - waste of manpower, land and time.
